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. 

1. Lavender 
2. Comfrey 
3. Uva ursi 
4. Plantain 
5. Chamomile 
6. Yarrow 
7. 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!