[Herbalist] Re: Raspberry Leaf Bad?

Janece Suarez janece at suarez-turner.com
Thu Apr 18 13:39:35 PDT 2002


I am about to answer Caro's disturbing questions so please feel free to
delete if you have had miscarriages or do not feel like the subject is
one you can easily read about!!



Caro, you know, I had the same thought!

 I don't actually consider raspberry leaf bad, per se, but I DO believe
that because so many people say, oh it's great, use it, that the ones
who *are* going to have trouble because of it, don't bother to check
with a doctor/midwife/nursepractioner/herbalist first or have their use
of it monitored.

 I thought I had mentioned in my previous post (maybe not, cramps kill
brain cells!), that the pregnancy I had used raspberry leaf with WAS a
fragile pregnancy. I apologize if I left that out. My son, had he lived,
would have been severely retarded and had liver issues all of his
life...which may not have been more than a few years long. In a society
that did not have the modern medicine that we do today to help some of
these early/ill babies I suspect that a miscarriage or early labor of an
ill or damaged child would actually be a blessing in the long run. Hard
to admit, but I suspect it's a sad truth of that time period. I'm sorry
that I lost that baby, BUT I am not sorry that he was spared a hard, yet
short, life of pain and not comprehending the scary world around him or
why his life was so hurtful.

 I just wanted to mention that I had a bad experience so that people who
had never used it would go and speak to someone more knowledgeable about
herbal use during pregnancy before using it. But of course, yes, that
also goes for every other herb there is! How awful would they feel if
later they discovered (like I did) that it can cause problems in fragile
pregnancies or ill fetuses and blame themselves for losing that child??
It took me a long time for me to forgive myself for not including a
herbalist or other herb specialist in my obstetrics care. Better safe
than sorry, was what I meant. <S>

 Forgive me if I offended any raspberry leaf advocates. I just wanted to
remind people to err on the side of caution.

Sioned


Oz: Oh, no. Practice. See, our band's kinda moving towards this new
sound where... we suck, so... practice.

> Hmmm.  This is a thought, and not a very nice one, but I
> wonder if it has merit anyway.  Do you suppose that this was
> deliberately done in centuries past, to weed out the sickly
> fetuses before they could put more pressure on the mother?
> Especially with those women who would have trouble carrying
> anyway, as a way of pre-selecting for stronger babies that
> would survive after birth?  (And therefore bringing them into
> cycle faster, so they can have a possible healthy baby
> faster?)  I think, in other ages and places, people might
> look at it as good common sense.
>
> Not that I'm advocating any of this!  I'm just trying to look
> at what seems to be a direct contradiction, and coming up
> with a possible explanation of the Middle Age mentality.




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