Dr. Heather Margaret Housecalls and Lifestyle Medicine

as appeared in the spring 2007 SDSCO newsletter

By Dr. Heather Margaret, MD

I have never had much use for the many herbs out there used for childbirth. Herbal reference books like Wise Woman Herbal for the Childbearing Year by Susuan Weed, and Naturally Healthy Pregnancy by Shonda Parker, provide thorough description of herbs for fertility, pregnancy, labor and delivery, complications, and post-partum issues. Intervening with herbs can be very helpful when they are appropriately selected and timed, but in a truly normal birth no medicating is needed, even with herbs.

``What if something goes wrong?!'' Those familiar with hospital births have seen over and over again that what appears normal can suddenly turn to an absolute catastrophe. Those selecting homebirth believe that many of the emergiencies experienced in the hospital setting are prevented by giving birth in a physiologic setting.