I was really getting tired of morning sickness so I finally decided to give a remedy a go. This remedy was posted in the Traditional Foods forum of a message board I post on therefore it’s not an “official” remedy given by a doctor or midwife. It’s to take one dandelion root cap before bed. If the morning sickness is severe, take one before bed and one in the morning upon rising. I did that for yesterday and took one last night for today – just the one dose before bed. And today I have felt a lot better. I’m nearing the end of the first trimester so it could be coincidence, or it could have actually helped – I have been feeling pretty nauseous lately so I’m inclined to think the dandelion root helped, rather than my nausea ending abruptly. Afternoon and evening tends to be my sickest time and it’s mid-afternoon now, so we’ll see how the rest of the day goes and how the next few days go.
In case you’re wondering Susan Weed, author of the Wise Woman Herbal for the Childbearing Year, reports dandelion root to be safe pre-conception, throughout pregnancy, and in the postpartum period. Weed doesn’t list dandelion root as a morning sickness remedy in the book, but she does mention that it has quite a bit of iron in it and it can help your baby develop a strong liver – and it also aids your liver function. This is the theory behind why it helps with morning sickness – your liver needs help processing the hormones and everything else flowing through your body right now.
It does seem to be working for me right now, and I’ll report more over the next few days. I just needed some relief from persistent nausea and constant gagging! I’ll see how things go from here.
4 Comments
I would like to issue a warning about the use of dandelion during pregnancy. Dandelion is one of the herbs that has diuretic properties. The use of diuretics during pregnancy is hazardous. So I suggest the use of homeopathic remedies for morning sickness, or the use of additional vitamin-B6, as suggested by Adelle Davis, in Let’s Have Healthy Children (available in your local public library).
http://www.homeopathy-soh.org/about-homeopathy/what-is-homeopathy/pregnancy-and-childbirth.aspx
http://www.amazon.com/Lets-Healthy-Children-Adelle-Davis/dp/0451154622
I’ve recently discovered that it seems that a large number of pregnant women are using herbs that have diuretic properties. I have also heard through a midwife caring for some of these mothers (who is now getting them off of all of these herbs), and through accounts on a message board of pregnant moms who use a lot of herbs, that the use of these herbs is causing a lot of the same problems that prescription diuretics cause–rising BPs, edema, pre-eclampsia, premature labor, and IUGR. I am very concerned about this apparently widespread, and quite hidden, and usually unspoken, source of low blood volume and all the complications associated with that abnormality. So I have added a new page on herbal diuretics to my website, and a brief warning on the issue on many other pages of the website. I thought that you and your readers might be interested. I’m also hoping that the word can be spread somehow to childbirth educators, mothers, midwives, and doulas, because I believe that this practice is causing a lot of unnecessary complications and pain, and because I believe that this may be a huge cause of the apparent “failure” of the Brewer Diet that some people are being vehemently vocal about.
http://home.mindspring.com/~djsnjones/id86.html
Warm regards,
Joy
Thank you for that comment Joy. I didn’t even realize dandelion has diuretic properties. I’m also very wary of diuretics during pregnancy and I’ll look into this further. I know that dandelion is a liver tonic but hadn’t heard it can be diuretic. I’ll see what else I can find out!
Just FYI, I got the info about dandelion having diuretic properties from Prescription for Nutritional Healing, by Phyllis Balch. I also heard from a midwife that she knows of a situation where a child with a heart defect was able to use dandelion as a diuretic instead of Lasix for a whole year, while he was waiting for his surgery to take place. Thanks for looking into this further.
Thank you for the kind words, Kristin.
I am aware of the inconsistency of opinions about the safety of these herbs in pregnancy. The only way that I can provide a possible explanation for that inconsistency is to think that perhaps there is a difference of definition of “hazardous in pregnancy” going on here.
Perhaps one group of people are defining “hazardous” as something that would cause birth defects, or contractions, or abruption, or some other complication in a direct way. In that sense, these herbs could be defined as non-hazardous.
My definition of “hazardous” is different than that definition. My definition is based on the diuretic properties of these herbs. In my world, anything with diuretic properties is automatically hazardous. The reason for this is that any substance which lowers the blood volume by forcing the kidneys to excrete more fluid is actively counteracting what that pregnant body is trying to do to INCREASE the blood volume. And a lower-than-normal blood volume in pregnancy does cause PIH, pathological edema, IUGR, pre-eclampsia, eclampsia, abruption of the placenta, premature contractions, and low birth weight babies.
I am hopeful that as more people understand this difference in definition of the word “hazardous”, the discrepancy of opinion about the use of herbs with diuretic properties will dissolve.
I welcome any questions that anyone might have.
Joy
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[...] Random Thoughts Both these tidbits are referring to pregnancy. After Joy commented on my earlier morning sickness post about the possibility of Dandelion being a diuretic I did some research on it. I referenced three [...]