by Kimberly Gallagher
An herbal sitz bath is one of the most wonderful and healing things you can do for yourself to aid your healing after giving birth. It is important to have a good herbal sitz bath recipe.
A sitz bath is basically a small bath that you sit in to ease the swollen, stretched muscles and tissues around your vagina after giving birth.
Sitz baths will also help heal perineal tears. You can either use a small basin or plastic tub placed in the bathtub that you squat into, or you can buy an inexpensive, and much more comfortable basin that fits right onto your toilet seat.
There are different sitz bath herbal recipes available prepackaged. Our favorite one is Sari’s sitz bath, available at Dandelion Botanical Company in Seattle. This sitz bath recipe was created by Sari Gallegos, the midwife who supported us through the birth of our son, Rowan. You can buy one of these pre-packaged varieties at an herb shop, probably through your local midwife, or check out the sitz bath recipes on the right column.
You can also make your own sitz bath recipe:
The herbs in Sari’s sitz bath recipe mix are:
• 2 oz. of rosemary and uvaursi,
• 1 oz. each of Chamomile, chickweed, marshmallow root, plantain, lavender flowers, and calendula,
• and then 2 oz. of sea salt.
Click here to buy all these herbs and the salt at Mountain Rose Herbs.
In Childbearing Year, Susun Weed recommends using herbs like yarrow, rosemary, golden seal, oak bark, witch hazel, sea grate bark, and myrrh specifically for healing perineal tears.
She does caution that if you have stitches you should limit yourself to one sitz bath a day.
As I look at this list of herbs I see some that feel a bit astringent and powerful in their healing ability. These are herbs like yarrow, rosemary, and golden seal, and then there are the soothing, cooling herbs like chamomile, chickweed, marshmallow root, plantain, and calendula.
The soothing quality of the sitz bath is what I remember most – the relief and feeling of gentle herbal healing.
Prepare your sitz bath
To prepare your sitz bath...
• Pour boiling water over four ounces of your herbal sitz bath blend.
• Let it sit and steep for at least four hours.
• Strain it into a bowl, or directly into your basin and then sit with your vaginal area in the tea for about 15 minutes.
Not only are the herbs healing, but this little bit of time for you can be cherished as well.
• Repeat several times a day if you do not have stitches, and enjoy the powerful healing of a simple herbal sitz bath!
Remember, you can make your own sitz bath recipe, or click on the link to the right.
Utlimately, it will be way cheaper to buy the herbs for your sitz bath recipe in bulk at Mountain Rose Herbs.
