this is the syringe and the tubing for the del-em. as you can see we had the heater on, because even though it was probably 80 degrees outside i live in the middle east and like to be warm and comfy when i am laying on my bag with my legs spread wide...

book review: natural liberty

i love love love this book. natural liberty: rediscovering self induced abortion methods. by the sage-femme collective.

1. it is available free online. you can read it online or download it as pdf. so accessible. 467 pp.
2. it is so well written and well organized. well researched. cross referenced.
3. includes so much folklore, mythology, and ritual use of the plants. accurate and clear black and white drawings of the plant.
4. discusses a myriad issues surrounding abortion. cultural, political, trans national, biological, health, and the various options for birth control and abortion that are available.
5. includes pretty detailed instructions for menstrual vacuum aspiration-mva.
6. srsly they have done such an excellent job with this book that i am srsly considering buying the actual paper book, b/c just having it on pdf means i cant carry it around with me as easily as i like and i like to take notes in a book with a pen.
7. and it is written by the sage-femme collective, who also produced the classic reproductive justice zine, herbal abortions, by uni tiamat.
8. it also has acupressure points for inducing abortion, and techniques for yoga, massage and hot baths to bring on that period.

natural liberty is also on the links page. and i reference this book so often. invaluable.

;)

book review: woman heal thyself

last month i on brought my period early after stimulating a few acupressure points. that feeling of having that sort of decision making relationship with my body was amazing. srsly. here is my review of the book that gave me the tools to do this. and more.



another book that i received the same time as riddle's book was, woman heal thyself.
this is a completely different and complex book. written by jeanne elizabeth blum, it explores traditional chinese medicine -tcm- through the lens of modern day cis women's bodies.
there is a good amount of tcm theory in the book. and i really appreciated that. although im not sure everyone would. it can get a bit arcane with all the different relationships between the different meridians and i have been referencing it for the past month almost daily and am still learning new relationships to consider.
she claims that she reveals 24 'secret' points of chinese acupressure. but, every 'secret' point i can find easily on various tcm sites online as well as in my other -very popular- acupressure book. they aren't 'secret' they are just not indicated for pregnancy. in other words tcm warns not to massage these points during portions of one's pregnancy if one doesnt want to miscarry. well, blum realized through experimenting that these points often do cause menses that is late to come as well as relieve pms, alleviate cramps and overly heavy menses flow, and as a form of birth control. following the acupressure schedule that she outlines helps the period to come regularly and with less pain and discomfort. she claims that after following this schedule for at least three months, and achieving a regular and more comfortable menses, the contraceptive method of acupressure can become effective. and basically you use acupressure to bring on your period...no matter what...
she also writes about menopause and alleviating common symptoms.
i am starting to work with her method. so far i will say that her points definitely helped the menstrual cramps die down last month. and my period was a day or two shorter. also less clots than usual. and lighter flow.
nice.
there is a lot more in her book.

cons:
frankly i find it very disorganized. i would love to take the info in her book and present it in a simpler, cleaner format. also, her pics for showing the acupressure points are horrible. when i read her book i have to take the essential extra step of going online to find a much more detailed illustration of the location of the acu point in order to stimulate it. really, really annoying. also, in order to read it, i have to slog through all the 'woman's essential nature' bull shit. and there is all this orientalism, 'secrets from the mysterious far east' woven throughout the book. ick.

pros:
it is a great resource for dealing with common problem's in the female reproductive cycle. she addresses a large list of complaints (inc. a chapter for prostates and penises). and she has an intuitive approach to healing that mixes with mine really well. i understand her story and her multi faceted approach. im a bit of an airhead so some of the disorganization doesnt throw me off. she focuses on the emotional and psychological reality that acupressure works with. how problems with the gall bladder meridian relate to issues around decision-making. strengthening the spleen meridian will not only strengthen the body's immune functioning, but also lower unnecessary or ciruclar worrying, focusing on the past and regrets, and allow us to be 'sweeter' to others.
also there are powerful tools for regulating our fertility. i love the idea of taking a few minutes a few times each day during the menses to massage points so that we can be more in balance and in time with our flows.

its not the easiest book to read. it is more like a disorganized reference book, than straight non ficition.

book review: contraception and abortion from the ancient world...

so this winter i read a couple of books on self induced abortions. all of them excellent and really different from each other. the first book, i mentioned in a previous post, john riddle's contraception and abortion from the ancient world to the renaissance. this is a history book laced with lots of botanical and medical information and studies. basically, he is proving that through out human history, around the globe, humans have known of various ways to induce abortion and delay pregnancy (contraception). historians before him have concluded that people in the ancient and medieval and renaissance, really up to a hundred years ago, knew very little about how conception occurred and thus could not have known how to prevent it or end pregnancy.
on the contrary, riddle argues that a lot of the ingredients that are listed in various ancient herbals, medicinals, medical canons, folkloric poems, etc. as abortifacients or contraceptives were plants and substances that did have the effect of creating conditions that led to a self induced abortion. or decreases the chances of conceiving.
for instance, ancient greek medical text, on the diseases of women, recommends mint, rue, juniper, celery seed, queen anne's lace and other herbs that have been shown in laboratory tests to cause miscarriage in small mammals. ( reading about all these tests of rabbits and mice and cows being impregnated and then fed extracts of plants to force abortions made me nauseated. brought up for me what we do to females of all species in our culture. also, none of these tests were necessary to achieve an understanding of the abortifacient qualities of plants. it is cruel and sad and horrific.)
this knowledge of herbs was women folk knowledge. passed down from mother to daughter. traditional knowledge. from wise woman to virgin.
and the male writers throughout antiquity made casual mention of women's knowledge of contraceptives and abortifacients. as a matter of course. the male doctors and physicians who wrote the great classical medical texts that were then added to and reformulated by islamic physicians such as avicenna, mentioned abortifacients. some more freely than others. and the argument around whether or not abortion was moral was not for most of human history and argument about whether or not the fetus was 'human', had 'rights', had a 'soul'. but rather focused on the right of the father to have as many living children as possible.

'..a woman who procured an abortion for herself should be sent into temporary exile by the governor; for it would appear shameful that she could with impunity deprive her husband of children' ... nowhere (in roman law) is there a clear statement that the embryo/fetus was being protected, only the rights of the living...

the working knowlege of fertility plants was llikely held by women and transmitted orally. men, who wrote on the subject, were dependent on women as well as on their written sources.

and once i think about it. of course, women have always known how to make decisions about their own fertility. our survival as a people as a species had depended so much on women's culture regulating the population numbers. a lot of the plants in classical mythology and rituals that are associated with fertility are actually abortifacients or contraceptives: pomegranate, pennyroyal, chaste tree (sometimes just the common name of the plant tells you a lot!), artemisia, myrrha, etc.
he also writes a bit about women physicians including hildegard de bingen's work, physica.

not relying primarily on texts, she described usages that she learned from her friends and neighbors. although she lived in a cloister, she was worldly enough to know of seven plants that she said were emmenagogues and abortifacients.

anyways i will probably reference this book a lot. he weaves a lot of disciplines together to make a convincing argument about the power of plants and women's culture.

check out some of the quotes and notes from his book

avicenna

image via aaminah hernandez

originally from 4000 years of choice


quote from john riddle's conception and abortion from the ancient world to the renaissance

ibn sina (avicenna, 980-1037) wrote the canon of medicine, which was a comprehensive text that had more influence in the west than the original arabic in the islamic world. ibn sina showed no inhibitions in discussing birth control measures. indeed, he began the discussion of contraceptives iwth a justification as to why it was necessary for a physician to intervene...

in the 'simples' section of the canon, he truly catalogued almost completely the contraceptives and abortifacients known to medicine and found in the sources.

herbal contraceptive: queen anne's lace pt. 2

source link

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Other Names: Queen-Anne’s lace, Bees’ Nest, Bird’s Nest, Carrot, Carotte, Carrot, Wild Carrot, Yarkuki, Zanahoria Wild Carrot, Birds Nest Weed, Devils Plague, Garden Carrot, Bee’s nest plant, Bird’s nest root

Habitat
Biennial herb originally a native of Southern Europe, it has become naturalized throughout the United States and Canada.

Cultivation
Wild Carrot is easy to grow, it prefers a sunny position and a well-drained neutral to alkaline soil. Considered an obnoxious weed by some, it can spread very quickly. In its second year, from a taproot (the carrot) stems grows to a height of two to four feet or more, they are erect and branched, both stems and leaves are covered with short coarse hairs. The leaves are very finely divided-tri-pinnate, alternate, and embrace the stem with a sheathing base. The two to four inch “flower” is actually a compound of terminal umbels, made up of many small white flowers. The central flower of the Umbelliferae is often purple. A ring of finely-divided and leaf-like bracts grows at the point where the umbel meets the stem. Blooming from June to August, but often continues to bloom flowers much longer. Its root is small and spindle shaped, whitish, slender and hard, (tender when young), but soon gets tough, with a strong aromatic smell. Harvest entire plant in July or when flowers bloom, and dry for later herb use. Collect edible roots and shoots in spring when tender. Gather seed in fall.

Properties
Wild Carrot is edible and medicinal, root is edible cooked or raw, flower clusters can be french-fried for a carrot-flavored, quite attractive dish. The aromatic seed is used as a flavoring in stews and soups.

herbal contraceptive: queen anne's lace

wow. i really wish i had known that queen anne’s lace was an herbal contraceptive. when i lived in appalachia i used to pick the flowers in the spring and summer and put them in water next to the window sill for decoration. they reminded me of oversized dandelions.

i also really love this herbalist’s methodology. dedicating years to understand this one plant.

so queen anne’s lace, aka wild carrot, aka daucus carota(Dc):

It appears that taking wild carrot is the ultimate “withdrawal” method, because withdrawing it (stopping the dosage) is every bit as crucial as taking it in the first place. The women who use Dc this way are the only ones reporting a 100% success rate. Yes, I said 100%!I can now say with confidence that the most consistently successful method of using Daucus carota for natural, conscious contraception is the safest, easiest method of all. It is to use wild carrot one to three times after sexual intercourse, taking the first dosage within 8-12 hours and then repeating that dosage twice more every 8-12 hours.

and here she talks about the theory of why queen annes lace works as a contraceptive with the aforementioned method:

Phyllis Light is adamant that it is progesterone’s effect that is at work and that this is why it is key to give Dc and then take it away. She said “one way that doctors help complete a miscarriage is to give a woman progesterone for three days, and then withdraw it.” There are also some birth control pills that rely on progesterone for their effect. I noticed, too, that in at least two of the scientific studies, pregnancies were maintained by giving doses of progesterone to the rats that were being given extracts of Dc.3 Lise Wolff said that all the women she knows who are using Dc tincture report a copious increase in vaginal secretions within five minutes of taking the tincture, “almost like fertile mucous.” Interesting!Peter Holmes writes that estrogen stimulants tend to inhibit progesterone, but lists Artemesia vulgaris (Mugwort/Cronewort) as both an estrogen and progesterone stimulant. I think that Dc may fit into both categories, too. James Duke’s web site lists Dc seeds as containing the anti-estrogenic chemical, quercetin. I believe that taking Dc and then removing it causes the internal environment of the woman to become inappropriate for conception, perhaps by causing her estrogen/ progesterone balance to change temporarily. This could be from Dc’s tonic effects on the pituitary and thyroid glands. The plant has a history of promoting both healthy contraception and healthy conception. Of course it makes perfect sense that this is true, it is reflective of the essence of plant medicines – which is to naturally nourish and tone whole systems, rather than being aimed at artificially producing one specific, controlled and controlling effect as drug therapies try to do.

and susun weed reminds us that a healthy digestive system may make the queen annes lace more effective:

Herbalist and author Susun Weed stated that if it is hormonal action that makes Dc effective, then healthy digestive flora is necessary to turn the hormonal precursors of this (or any other plant) into actual hormones. This is a caution to be heeded by a woman taking antibiotics, for example. (The same warning is true for a woman mixing hormonal birth control pills with antibiotics.) One way to nourish the digestive flora is to eat organic whole milk yogurt.