When I moved to North Carolina nearly two years ago, I had an awakening. This was not a feeling I could simply ignore; the awakening came from the spirits of these mountains. Some people have strong connections to the earth beneath our toes, particularly to the spirit that rests here in Appalachia. Living at the beach, with a coastal vegetation, there was not an astonishing amount of biodiversity like we see here in Appalachia. These mountains provide a welcoming landscape for nearly one hundred and thirty medicinal plants to flourish. With the arrival and receding of glaciers on North America’s coast, biodiversity could reach its full potential. Glacial forces caused plants and animals to seek refuge from the elements in Appalachia’s high
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Appalachia’s ancestral herbal medicines, or “folk medicine” can be thought of as practices which use spiritual, herbal, and physical methods to treat or prevent illness. Folk medicine is simply nonwestern medicine. Late 19th century and early 20th century midwives looked to the rich landscape to blend healing potions for both the mother and baby. Appalachian women learned from the Cherokee the usefulness of blue cohosh. Midwives used the potent root to quicken and ease the labor pains. This plant was helpful for pregnancy and general women’s health due to its potency of potassium, magnesium, calcium, ad iron. The Frontier nurses were recorded using a blend of catnip, ginger, and pepper tea to relax the mother as she powered through her home birth. Folk medicine, however, did not just employ herbal medicines, but also folklore that has been passed down through generations. The most common belief, which both granny midwives and FNS women practice, involved placing an ax, blade up, under the laboring mother’s bed if she was experiencing hemorrhage. Two ingredients that are common in pregnancy tea blends are raspberry leaf and stinging nettle. Before going into labor women could consume a raspberry leaf tea to help strengthen the uterine walls and decrease active labor time. Whereas stinging nettle has one of the “highest potencies of digestible iron in plant form” says world renowned herbalist, Rosemary Gladstar. Nettle is extremely beneficial for pregnant women due to its richness in vitamins K, A and C along with its abundance of potassium, all of which can replace what is lost throughout the pregnancy, or to reduce blood loss during labor . Certainly, there are a plethora of medicinal plants for the midwives of Appalachia to choose from and incorporate into their healing, soothing
Appalachia’s ancestral herbal medicines, or “folk medicine” can be thought of as practices which use spiritual, herbal, and physical methods to treat or prevent illness. Folk medicine is simply nonwestern medicine. Late 19th century and early 20th century midwives looked to the rich landscape to blend healing potions for both the mother and baby. Appalachian women learned from the Cherokee the usefulness of blue cohosh. Midwives used the potent root to quicken and ease the labor pains. This plant was helpful for pregnancy and general women’s health due to its potency of potassium, magnesium, calcium, ad iron. The Frontier nurses were recorded using a blend of catnip, ginger, and pepper tea to relax the mother as she powered through her home birth. Folk medicine, however, did not just employ herbal medicines, but also folklore that has been passed down through generations. The most common belief, which both granny midwives and FNS women practice, involved placing an ax, blade up, under the laboring mother’s bed if she was experiencing hemorrhage. Two ingredients that are common in pregnancy tea blends are raspberry leaf and stinging nettle. Before going into labor women could consume a raspberry leaf tea to help strengthen the uterine walls and decrease active labor time. Whereas stinging nettle has one of the “highest potencies of digestible iron in plant form” says world renowned herbalist, Rosemary Gladstar. Nettle is extremely beneficial for pregnant women due to its richness in vitamins K, A and C along with its abundance of potassium, all of which can replace what is lost throughout the pregnancy, or to reduce blood loss during labor . Certainly, there are a plethora of medicinal plants for the midwives of Appalachia to choose from and incorporate into their healing, soothing