Since someone just asked me what I thought about a mother eating her placenta, I thought I'd open the discussion here for you all to enter in as well.

Many moms are finding that eating bits of their placenta reduces postpartum hemorr-haging and also postpartum depression. But what does the Bible have to say about doing this? In the list of curses for disobedience in Deuteronomy chapter 28, we read the following:

"Moreover all these curses shall come upon you and pursue and overtake you, until you are destroyed, because you did not obey the voice of the LORD your God, to keep His commandments and His statutes which He commanded you. And they shall be upon you for a sign and a wonder, and on your descendants forever. Because you did not serve the LORD your God with joy and gladness of heart, for the abundance of everything, therefore ... The tender and delicate woman among you, who would not venture to set the sole of her foot on the ground because of her delicateness and sensitivity, will refuse to the husband of her bosom, and to her son and her daughter, her placenta which comes out from between her feet and her children whom she bears; for she will eat them secretly for lack of everything in the siege and desperate straits in which your enemy shall distress you at all your gates." (Deuteronomy 28:45-57, NKJV)

So while scripture does not specifically forbid eating one's placenta, it is mentioned in the context of being cursed rather than blessed. It is also put on an equal plane with eating one's own children (which we know is not an act that El Shaddai condones). 

Perhaps there are some equally good natural (and biblically blessed) means of lessening postpartum depression and hemorrhaging through herbs or other supplements. What are a few of your favorite methods?

I can't believe we haven't posted about this helpful herb before now! For those of you who struggle with intense monthly cramps, this is a tea you're going to want to tryyesterday! It is available for only a couple of bucks from Athena's Garden. I personally noticed a huge reduction in cramp pain the several times that I needed it, from this tea (especially in combination with ThermaCare Heat Wraps). Let us know how much of a difference it makes for you! 

Did you know that there is a very accurate way to predict when your period will start? You can know for sure, about two weeks in advance. How? Well, it's all thanks to a fixed number of days in your cycle called your luteal phase. But, you might say, "My cycle is never the same length--it's different every month, and I never know when 'Aunt Flow' is coming for a visit!" If you think that, think again, because I'm going to let you in on a little secret that shouldn't be a secret, but should be taught to every 13-year-old girl. 

Here is another insightful post from the Above Rubies Facebook page. As the AR founder, Nancy Campbell, says, "Many women don't understand the function of the pill, and all women have the responsibility to understand this information."

"When birth control came out in the 70's, the estrogen levels were so high ovulation never happened. The women never released an egg. They found out about 10 to 15 years later, after women started dying that the estrogen level was too high. They stopped adding so much estrogen, but that also left a higher risk of releasing an egg or a higher risk of pregnancy. To counter the risk of ovulation or pregnancy they started adding progestin. Progestin does not prevent ovulation, so what does it do?

"Birth Control with Estrogen and Progestin work together like this:

This post is shared from the Above Rubies Facebook page—a magazine that goes out free-of-charge to over 160,000 women worldwide, encouraging them that children are a blessing, based on Psalm 127. You can subscribe to the magazine here:www.aboverubies.org

"Did you know that most modern women menstruate about 400 times during their childbearing years? Did you know that this is ABNORMAL? God intended the ovaries to have resting times through pregnancy and lactation. Did you know this is one of the reasons why there is such an epidemic of ovarian and endometrial cancer?

"Did you know that a hundred years ago women only ovulated about 100 times in their entire lifetime? Did you know that this is NORMAL for the female body? Did you know that every time a woman gets pregnant and bears a child, her lifetime risk of ovarian cancer drops 10 percent?

"Did you know that women in their childbearing years are meant to be predominantly 'suckling mothers' rather than 'menstruating mothers'? This is far kinder to their female body and how God intended it to function.
Love from Nancy"

And so we see the truth of Psalm 127 confirmed, that "the fruit of the womb is a reward" not a burden!

I have been studying natural childbirth a good bit recently, and am seeing how some pain reduction techniques for childbirth and labor could help with monthly cramps as well. The key is relaxing into the pain rather than tensing up and resisting it. 

How could relaxing reduce pain? Well, the uterus is built of two opposing types of muscles:  longitudinal muscles, which are mostly on the top of the uterus; and circular muscles, which form the lower half of the uterus. During labor, or monthly cramping, for that matter, longitudinal muscles contract to clear things out, but if a woman tenses up, the circular muscles lower down "close the outlet, maintaining the uterus in its unemptied state. ... Then the muscles that empty the uterus and the muscles that hold it closed are working
against each other" (Childbirth Without Fear,  Grantly Dick-Read, M.D., p. 67) and pain results. Just as it can become painful when the bladder needs to be emptied but the timing isn't convenient, so there is unnecessary pain when half of the muscles of the womb are trying to clear out the uterus but the other half are tense and constricted. 

One aspect of Pleasant Pads that never fails to be pleasant is that you don't ever have to endure the embarrassment of shopping for disposable pads again! Let's face it, that was something about womanhood that never got fun—it was always an unpleasant task to check out of the store with pads. We all thought, "I hope my carefully-selected female checker doesn't change to a guy right when it is my turn to check out!" 

Yes, Pleasant Pads are so much less anxiety-ridden. Oh, the bliss of quietly pulling pads out of their cubby when the time comes, without any strangers looking on! That's what I'd call pleasant.

The sun works wonders to eliminate stains and to whiten fabric. In the old days, one of the steps in producing linen cloth was to spread it out in the fields to whiten in the sun.
To give it a try on old stained pads, hang them on a clothes line (or clothes drying rack) in direct sunlight outside, and come back a few hours later to see the natural bleach take effect!  If it's not convenient to sun dry pads during your cycle, you can always sun them later to help lessen the stains. Even when the pads are dry, the sun works at diminishing the stains (although some say that the whitening effect of the sun works much better when the fabric is wet). We can't recommend this highly enough! Just try it once and you will be amazed at the results.

Did you know about the benefits of sleeping with the same light as the phase of the moon?  Scientific studies have shown that it can help regulate irregular periods and more!  This article is very informative: The Full Moon's Pull on Fertility: How Lunaception can Affect a Woman's Menstrual Cycle.

Here's the key: "When constant artificial light plagues a woman's bedroom, her melatonin production becomes limited. This can lead to irregular cycles and unpredictable phases of fertility or infertility. In some cases, this lack of hormones will also shorten the luteal phase, making conception more difficult. When women embrace a more natural pattern of light [sleeping in the dark until it's a full moon], thedir bodies will fall into a comfortable rhythm."

If you try it, let us know what you notice in a comment below!