Using an herb only on the basis of getting rid of unpleasant diseases without seeing the symptoms in the bigger picture (the family ecology) is an allopathic practice and an intervention. Herbs can be used this way--to fix something wrong--and/or herbs can promote the crisis of suffering leading to healing which I consider of greater benefit.

Where I live in Utah, childbearing women have legs like the Rand-McNally Road Atlas. A fairly high elevation coupled with a diet heavy in meat and sugar cause varicosities in the legs and vulva. Add to this picture grand multiparity-it is common for women to have a dozen children, most close in age.

Using astringent herbs to relieve the symptoms without honoring the way this condition presently serves is a disservice. What good does it do to shrink veins if the way the mother handles the pressure within isn't corrected itself? Stress is what each of us makes of life--using herbs without seeing how each life handles stress implies the need for more herbs to be used when the disease shows itself again. And again it will--disease is the soul's way of calling to attention unbalanced living.

What I am emphasizing is the intention. How is the herb given and taken? Herbs as topical band-aid, or herbs as healing agents, and/or herbs to relieve and heal at the same time?
-Jeannine Parvati Baker, "Midwifery and Herbs," Midwifery Today Issue 26

Reprinted from Midwifery Today E-News (Vol 1 Issue 44, Oct 29, 1999)
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