My midwife recommended this book and it proved to be my favorite book during pregnancy. It was easy to read and offered advice in many issues of pregnancy and childbirth from fertility issues to infant problems. I was new to herbal medicine and found Weed's guidance easy to follow. This book, along with some raspberry leaf tea, would make a great gift for your pregnant friends.
EXCERPTS
Introduction by Jeannine Parvati Baker
Women are carriers of life. We hold the fruit of our loving beneath our hearts. For too long we have lost touch with the fullness of this mystery due to modern, technological culture.
Wise Woman Herbal is another ally in reclaiming our lost gnosis as healers for ourselves and one another. It demonstrates beyond doubt that now is the time to be fully who e are throughout the childbearing year, guardians and nurturers of new life.
Susun S. Weed has created a magnificent testimony that the wise woman within is irrepressible. SHE will arise in all her glory if we but open our souls to our natural world. True to the essence of the herbs themselves, the material is presented mythically, botanically and lovingly. Susun not only introduces the novice to plant allies but further refines the already practicing herbalist's relationship with healing the fertility cycle.
It is challenging to choose one particular part as outstanding, as I found it all to be consistently excellent. Even after many years teaching herbal workshops to perinatal professional and natural parents, and mothering five children myself, I found much new and helpful material. It is kindred to my work, just like the book I would like to write.
In the many years since I wrote Hygieia: A woman's Herbal, I have re-envisioned my personal relationship with herbs to exclude their usage for abortions. I cannot endorse emmenagogic prescription in cases of pregnancy no matter how new the embryo. As a healer I strive to be harmless. With this clarification I heartily endorse Susun's wonderful book, for within its pages is distilled much worthwhile wisdom for mothers and mothers-to-be. This book is sweet word-medicine.
Wise Woman Herbal is a book I would give my best friend and her daughter contemplating pregnancy. I will certainly share it with my sister-midwives. It speaks to the deepest needs of women wishing their childbearing year (and years) to be the best that it can.
Blessed Be Gentle Mother!
With Love,
Jeannine Parvati Baker
