When I had my first son I was offered an herbal bath at the birth center after delivery. I remember it smelled good but didn’t think anymore of it. But after the horrendous amount of bleeding I had after C’s birth I did a bunch of research before delivering the second time. I discovered that rest and relaxation were going to be my best bet at reducing the recovery time!
I looked into different herbal baths and decided on my own recipe. I took post birth herbal baths for 2 reasons.
1) to help speed and aid in my maternity recovery.
2) to be able to set aside 30 min twice a week where I leave the kids with the hubby and climb into a relaxing bath and have complete alone time! I don’t mind if I do!!
So I eventually decided on 7 herbs and one mineral.
I’m not going to go into detail about the herbs as I said I picked ones I really liked. Most of them have antiseptic and healing properties. I actually found an herb store downtown and was able to swing by and pick them all up. I got an ounce of each. It was about $30.
- Lavender
- Comfrey
- Uva ursi
- Plantain
- Chamomile
- Yarrow
- Shepard’s purse
And Epsom salt
I put 2 quarts of water in a pan on the stove and turn the stove on high. Once the water is boiling I add a tablespoon of each herb. The Epsom salt will get put directly to the bath so just set that aside. I set my timer for 30 minutes and let the water boil. 
It smells so delightful while it’s boiling! Fills the whole house with goodness! Once the timer goes off I strain the herbs out of the water. While it does sound lovely to put the herbs in the bath with you I really urge you not to do that. Because once you go to drain the tub you’ll have a clean out all the herbs and it’s a mess! 
The rest is pretty simple as you add the water to your bath. I added 2 cups of Epsom salt. Mix it up a little, set a timer for 20 to 30 minutes, grab a cup of hot tea and get in! 
Then you have to relax! I like to turn on a podcast about minimalism and soak up the healing property from the herbs.
I did this two times a week for the first 2 weeks postpartum. I also made sure to stay in bed as much as possible for the first 12 days after his birth. I wear a fitbit and I know I stayed under 6000 steps a day. The baths and the rest resulted in 2 1/2 weeks less of initial bleeding. My period return to a monthly schedule from my first starting at six weeks. This was completely different than my first as I bled for nine days every 2 weeks from 6 weeks to 12 weeks.
I’ve actually continued to Bathe during my menstrual cycles since having Mr T. I do the exact same thing as I was doing postpartum with a tablespoon of each herb usually on the second the third day of my cycle. I don’t know if it’s just my body doing it naturally or the herbs but my period has reduced to 3 to 5 days instead of 6 to 9. It’s still super soothing to jump into a bath during that time of the month so I will keep at it.
I hope you found this helpful and if you decide to try postpartum or menstrual cycle herbal bath please let me know your results!
