2 Postpartum Questions

truelife · 09-26-2006, 11:36 PM

1. Anyone know of a remedy to help with spotting/bleeding every two weeks? I am taking Dong Quai, have upped my intake of Potassium/Magnesium, but am still having spotting/bleeding every two weeks. I am 4 months PP.

2. I have a friend who is also 4 months postpartum and is experiencing the massive hairloss. Her OB told her that it will never grow back and only gets worse with each pregnancy

Anyone know of anything that will help with this?

douladot · 10-01-2006, 07:36 AM

Not sure about the hairloss --- But for any kind of "female related issues" I swear by vitex. I take one capsule every day. Sometimes it takes 1-3 months to see results, but once you have been on it regularly it regulates your menstrual cycles greatly! I will digress for a sec....my 15 y/o daughter was having very irregular menstrual cycles with heavy flow (getting a period every two weeks) and I took her to the doctor and guess what they wanted to do....of course, BC pills. I politely took the prescription and said to myself, hell no....you ain't screwing up my daughter's hormones....so I started her on a great multivitamin that had vitex in it and within two months she was regulated!!

jesscardona · 10-02-2006, 12:43 AM

I don't know about the spotting.. but I do have well not hair loss, but my gosh, every time I take a shower, all the hair that comes out and that's in my hands, is ridicolous!
when I brush my hair.. the only time I didn't see one hair not even one!! fall out of my head was when I was preg.! and it was the prenatals I was taking, which were great.. they were with RX.. right after I gave birth, it started up again..

loveslabor · 10-02-2006, 01:19 AM

For the spotting....would you be willing to do acupuncture? I hear it works wonders with hormone stuff like that.....although I have no personal experience with it.

truelife · 10-02-2006, 02:09 PM

Thank you everyone for your responses! I will have to look into the Vitex. I realize I'm only 4 months pp but there is no way that this should be happening so often.

lavenderbliss · 11-17-2006, 09:39 AM

Dong quai is a very powerful herb. I know it does have blood thinning properties. I can't remember specifically what the warnings are with that herb, but I remember when I was researching herbs to use for regulating menstrual cycles and infertility that I veered away from that one as when I did have cycles they were already heavy enough.
Another thing is I've seen several warnings about not using the herb while breastfeeding though it doesn't list why specifically. I'm not sure why you are using dong quai postpartum, but there are a lot of other gentler herbs that might be a better choice for you.

happy heartsong · 03-02-2007, 10:07 AM

1. I would stop the Dong quai. It stimulates circulation in the uterus. Why did you start it in the first place?
Most times prolonged pp bleeding is from the mom doing too much too quickly after the birth.
Nourish yourself with herbs like nettles, oats and red clover. Red raspberry is great for toning and Lady's Mantle. I take all of these as infusions- tea steeped for 2 hours. It is really strong and you can add lemon or other flavors or honey.
Demetria's labor balm (available at Midwifery Mercantile) is good for toning. You rub it on your lower belly.

2. Many women lose a lot of hair pp. Again, nourishing oneself will help. Vitex may be a good idea but I would work with an herbalist who can look at the overall picture of her health and come up with an herb or formula specific to her.

mari · 03-02-2007, 10:45 AM

happy heartsong,

Have you been checked out by your midwife or obgyn? I would start there!

Mari

HamiltonBirthRevolution · 03-02-2007, 11:20 AM

The hairloss thing is due to the fact that you do not shed hair when you are pregnant. You may lose hair to breakage, but your body doesn't shed it as it does when you aren't pregnant. Then, when you are no longer pregnant, your body starts shedding, but this time, it has all these extra hairs to shed, so it seems like you are shedding like a dog in spring.

Don't worry. It's perfectly normal.

You will end up with generally the same amount of hair you started with. Unless, of course, you have a lot of testosterone (like my mother did) which causes female hair loss/balding. But that's fairly rare.