The Best Tea for…Having a Baby
by Heather M. Surls
I am 36 weeks pregnant and afraid of being induced. Some women plan inductions, but I’ve realized I’m the ‘crunchy’ type (perhaps I should have recognized this long ago, what with the homemade yogurt and vinegar-water to clean the bathroom), and I want to have a natural birth. That’s right: no Pitocin to speed things, no epidural to dull the pain.
(When my friend was having her baby, she texted a friend while getting her epidural: “I love my anesthesiologist.” If I’d been the recipient, I may have been irked.)
So, I have investigated natural methods of labor induction, or at least ways to hurry the process once it starts. The most pleasant of these is drinking red raspberry leaf tea. (The most awful of these is drinking castor oil—not to be confused with Castrol oil, as a woman on one forum did.)
I found a bag of said tea at a ‘natural’ baby store — one that sells cloth diapers and eco-friendly diaper detergent and amber bead necklaces that purportedly soothe teething babies. The small brown bag said “Pregnancy 3 Tonic Tea” from Healing Earth Botanicals. The first ingredient: certified organic red raspberry. The directions recommended one teaspoon per cup of water, and three or four cups a day for the next month to promote uterine health and “ripen the cervix.” I bought two bags.
At home, while the water was boiling, I peered into the bag. A fluffy assortment of herbs looked back at me, giving off a scent that vaguely reminded me of feeding our neighbor’s horse while they were on vacation. I checked the ingredient label again. ‘Alfalfa’ is number four on the list. No wonder it smells like horse food.
Ingredient number three is equally alarming: nettles. As in stinging nettles?
The water finished boiling. I couldn’t find my tea ball, but ten minutes of steeping, per the directions, would make all those herbs sink to the bottom of my mug, right? I scooped a teaspoon into the cup, covered it with water, and waited.
Meanwhile, I was thinking, If I’m going to drink this three times a day for the next twenty-eight days, it had better taste good.
After ten minutes, not all of the leaves had sunk. After four years of marriage, we still do not own a sieve, so I braved the plant fragments floating on top of the water and sifting throughout. I lifted the cup to my lips, doing my best to strain and drink at the same time.
I was pleasantly surprised. A mélange of mild herbal flavors hit my tongue – rosehips, lemon verbena, and peppermint recognizable. (Borage, squaw vine, and pau d’arco are also in there but are not recognizable, since I’ve never tasted them.)
Hmm. I think I will be able to do this. Time will tell if it actually makes my baby come out faster.
P.S. After ingesting several soggy leaves in cup number two, I found my tea ball in a tin labeled “Chinese Flower Green Tea,” buried under a pile of chrysanthemum tea bags.
Tea Info:
Pregnancy 3 Tonic Tea
Can Be Purchased: Healing Earth Botanicals
Cost: $9/2-ounce bag
RedFence Rating: 8 (out of 10)
