# Treating mild uterine infection with herbs...any luck?



## Contrariety (Jul 16, 2007)

I am 11 days postpartum and have what seems to be a very mild uterine infection. No fever, no foul lochia, just some really mild shakes and a tender uterus. My MW has me on an herbal regimen to boost my immunity and see if I can beat it that way... if not I'll start antibiotics in a day or two. I just started the herbs last night.

Anyone have experience with this? I'm not looking for medical advice, just personal experiences. Did herbal remedies work for you? How long did it take?


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## nashvillemidwife (Dec 2, 2007)

Since I can't give medical advice I'll just say this. "Childbed fever" had a very high mortality rate before the advent of antibiotics.


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## dachshundqueen (Dec 17, 2004)

I'll second the pp. Please go to someone who can properly treat this.

Liz


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## MsBlack (Apr 10, 2007)

I have personally used ginger tea to beat the kind of thing you describe. I believe that using dried ginger powder is best, but the fresh root may also be as effective. I boiled 1pint of water and added about 1/8tsp of ginger powder and let it sit for several minutes. If you are a fan of spicy-hot food, you might even add more ginger than that. Ginger seems to be one of those herbs that works best in amounts that the individual can tolerate--a little works well enough for those sensitive to spiciness, more works fine for those tolerant of spiciness. If you are going to use fresh root, you will need quite a bit more--say, a piece the size of your thumb, sliced thin or grated into the water (and if that's too much for your taste, add more water, just as w/dried ginger)

Ginger is a system tonic and blood cleanser. It heats up the metabolism a bit, and can aid in eliminating toxins, parasites and pathogens. It may bring on a bit more bleeding and cramping--which can be a good thing if you have retained a bit of membranes or placenta that is causing infection. Stop using it immediately if you start to bleed much more than you have been. I used it sucessfully--and know people who also have--for 2-3 days. If it is going to help, that will be enough. If it is not going to help, you'll know that within a day or 2 also. I drank about 3 cups a day during those days, experienced a bit more bleeding than I had been, but otherwise it brought almost immediate improvement in how I felt as far as achey/shakey. On the third day I finally passed a fairly hefty piece of membranes, and the whole thing was over with entirely. I did not drink any more ginger tea, as any remaining cleansing was able to be handled by my body without help, once that piece of membrane was out. Use your own judgement with that.

I agree that you should be cautious, and don't delay getting antibiotics if you take any sort of turn for the worse. Make sure to get plenty of rest, plenty of highly nourishing, warming foods (avoid cold foods and raw foods), plenty of fluids--and let others take care of the home and any other kids until you feel better.


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## dachshundqueen (Dec 17, 2004)

Are you feeling any better?

Liz


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## Contrariety (Jul 16, 2007)

Ta-dah! I am feeling a gazillion times better, but not because of the herbs! The herbs didn't make a spot of difference for my uterine pain (though they did significantly help my sore wrist... huh), and since I wasn't really feeling sick at all (the shakiness could be due to the fact that I have high normal BP or because I've yet to figure out how much I need to eat to nurse this new babe and keep getting low blood sugar), we looked into it a bit more and figured out that all the pain was because my uterus wasn't quite contracted enough.

I was prescribed a methergin series and not even two hours after the first dose, I was feeling brand new. Yay!







DD has a shallow latch, which hasn't affected my milk supply, but looking back, I haven't had near the after pains I had with DS, which is strange, since this was my second babe and they should have been worse. Problem solved!


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