CHAPTER ELEVEN

Nature’s Medicine: Homeopathy

A primer on natural, plant-based remedies for everything pregnancy related

Homeopathy, holistic health, and learning how to heal your body naturally are topics that have gained momentum in the last several years. You might be familiar with homeopathy from seeing those little pink and blue vials at your local health food store, or by hearing about the most common homeopathic remedy—arnica—and all of its healing attributes. Those vials contain medicines derived from various plants, animals, and other elements found in nature, such as the honey bees (Apis), marigold flowers (calendula), or calcium carbonate (calcarea carbonica). Sometimes the term homeopathy is applied to anything holistic, and although it does share some crossover similarities with other holistic modalities, it is its own science of medicine and stands apart from herbology, acupuncture, and Chinese medicine.

Homeopathy, a system of medicine that has been used successfully for more than two hundred years, is gentle, safe, and natural. The remedies do not poison, will not interact with other medications, and are nonaddictive. They are FDA approved and safe for all ages, including newborns, pregnant women, the immunocompromised, and the elderly.

Going more in-depth, homeopathy heals by restoring what has been damaged, recalibrating the body to its original optimal function, and improving overall health and vitality. Unlike conventional medications that use chemicals to control unwanted symptoms, homeopathy acts as the catalyst to trigger the body’s innate healing ability by bringing back balance and an optimum state of health and strengthening the body to be more resistant to the problem or problems in the future.

The homeopathic approach to healing involves the patient’s physical, mental, and emotional symptoms, as well as details about the patient as an individual. Such details for a pregnant woman might be her cravings, what makes a symptom better or worse, how she is affected by weather, and what she is normally like, day in and day out.

In each of the trimester chapters, we went through various treatment options for many of the unpleasant physical conditions that can arise during pregnancy, including homeopathic approaches. In reviewing each one, determine which one most closely resembles your symptom picture, and then keep in mind that although the remedies we recommend may well work for many women with the same symptom, homeopathy is not a one-size-fits-all approach. It is person-specific, not disease-specific. Choosing a remedy any other way would be simply mediocre.

Homeopathy is based on the principle that “like cures like” and that the body cannot house two of the same disease. To better understand this principle, let’s first get a stronger understanding of the foundations of homeopathy. Its founder, Samuel Hahnemann, was a traditional medical doctor who retired and became a medical text translator because he was tired of the ineffective direction medicine was heading in—bloodletting and leeches to pull the disease out of a sick patient was no longer how he wanted to practice. Plus he was fluent in seven languages. As he translated more and more texts explaining that cinchona bark (from which quinine is naturally extracted and still used to treat malaria today) was the plant to treat malaria, he researched the numerous reasons this plant was effective, and none of the reasons made medical sense to him. So he decided to experiment with cinchona bark and he took it upon himself to ingest it daily for a few days. During this time he experienced the symptoms of malaria, including fever and spasms and intermittent fever. Hahnemann concluded that quinine worked to treat malaria because it produced the same symptoms in a healthy person—therefore he theorized that if a substance in nature produced certain symptoms in a healthy person, then this substance would also be the treatment for these symptoms in a sick person. He continued these trials, called provings, for as many substances as he could in his lifetime. He ran trials and used these remedies to heal many ailments, from colds and flus to mental disorders, each one proving successful in treating the ill.

A more common example used today is ipecac (ipecacuanha). It is a wonderful remedy for stomach bugs and morning sickness, but it is most commonly kept in the first-aid cabinet to induce vomiting by irritating the lining of the stomach after ingesting poison. For the person suffering from similar symptoms due to morning sickness, for example, (constant, all-day nausea not relieved by vomiting), ipecac is actually the cure.

So, the substance that causes unwanted symptoms in a healthy person is the same substance that relieves those symptoms in a sick person. We think that’s pretty amazing. We also think you’ll be shouting from the rooftops about how homeopathy helped you in pregnancy once you discover its potential and power.

FINDING THE RIGHT REMEDY AND DOSAGE

Before you read through the homeopathy sections for each trimester you need to know what to look for when choosing a remedy. First, consider your symptoms, paying close attention to the strange or unusual ones, or the ones that are strongly experienced. You’ll want to understand them in great detail. Also notice if your mood has changed, and if there are environmental factors making your symptoms better or worse, such as you are better outside, or better from a hot shower, or worse after you eat. Next, select the remedy that most closely matches your symptoms. You do not have to experience every symptom listed, and every symptom you are experiencing may not be listed. What you are looking for is the most similar set of symptoms, not an exact match, although sometimes exact matches of symptoms occur. The potency or strength of the remedies suggested are 6x, 30x, 6C, 12C, and 30C.^*

Take one dose and wait for a response. If your symptoms improve, great! You do not need to take another dose until they return or the symptoms level off and improvement ceases. Just repeat the dose as needed when the symptoms come back. However, if your symptoms are not relieved after one dose, continue taking the remedy according to the severity of the symptoms for a few hours, up to one or two days. For example, intense morning sickness may require a dose every fifteen to twenty minutes for one to two hours, whereas mild morning sickness might only need a dose every two to four hours or even once a day. Be conscious about the severity of your symptoms and consult a homeopath if you have any questions. Always contact your health care provider to rule out emergency situations if you’re unsure or the symptoms persist. Such serious problems could include hyperemesis gravidarum (HG) or cholestasis. (Refer to here and here for a refresher about these conditions.)

Overall, don’t continue to take a remedy that isn’t helping after three or four doses or eight to twelve hours, and avoid taking more than six doses if there is no relief or if improvement stops. Move on to the next remedy that you considered when matching your symptoms or consult a homeopath. At this point, you might consider constitutional treatment where the practitioner seeks to understand everything about your background and history on both a physical sensation and an emotional experience level in order to treat chronic, long-standing conditions from the root cause, bringing homeostasis to the entire person. For safety’s sake, we recommend you avoid self-prescribing for chronic or long-standing complaints and instead seek out a professional homeopath.

Realizing the powerful effects of this natural form of medicine, we are sure that homeopathy will provide natural, safe, and effective care for yourself and your growing family for years to come. We’ve included some easy-to-follow homeopathy guides with simple remedies in Appendix H so that you can reap the benefits of their easy use and quick action. If a condition persists or you have a condition that’s better off in the hands of a professional, find a homeopath near you or one who works remotely. There is no one system of medicine that is the be-all and end-all, but by utilizing this truly holistic medicine of homeopathy you can bridge Western medicine and alternative healing.

A primary intention we have in sharing this book with you, our amazing reader, is to open you to new possibilities for healing and wellness so that you can live life as the happiest, healthiest version of yourself. Not all of our strategies, practices, or ideas may resonate with you, but many will. Create and customize what rings true as helpful for you. Maybe someday the rest will, or maybe it will trigger you to share the information with friends to ease their own struggles and support their healing paths. There are many different paths up the same mountain. We encourage you to lower the volume of noise of other people telling you what is best for you and your baby or what experience they had, and to tune into what rings true as being the most supportive path for you and your future child. It may be different from the path of your mother, sister, friend, or colleague, but it’s your path and you have the right to choose your own way.