Homeopathy Class

I've been taking non-stop classes for the past month. There's so much to learn!

Today's class was paid for as a gift from T in exchange for me helping her with a prenatal visit. The class was called Homeopathy for Infants and Toddlers and was taught by a local classical homeopath.

My first exposure to homeopathy was when I started my apprenticeship all those years ago now. I used to watch the midwife give arnica to women after birth to help with swelling and muscle soreness. At Casa, the midwives used homeopathy all the time, and that is where I really learned about choosing specific remedies and dosages for particular cases. We would give homeopathic remedies to help turn breech babies, to make contractions stronger, to help women who were really afraid during labor, to help stop vomiting, to help increase dilation, to help a swollen cervix, and to take care of mothers (and midwives) who experienced grief or trauma. It was truly fascinating to watch how just one or two doses of homeopathics could change things for a laboring woman almost immediately.

Other forms of healing I've been exposed to as a midwife include using essential oils, herbs, acupuncture, craniosacral therapy, and general energy healing. I know lots of people think these are totally bogus therapies. I honestly can't give a good explanation for how and why they work, but after seeing results myself time and time again, I absolutely believe in them. I'm fascinated by homeopathy especially, because as a beginner, it feels like it's the safest one for me to sort of experiment with on my own.

Over the past few years, I've been building up my own homeopathic remedy kit to use at home or at births. I'm pretty familiar with using it during pregnancy, labor, and postpartum now but I didn't know a whole lot about how to use it on babies and children, which is why today's class was so great. We talked a lot about homeopathic remedies in general - how to buy them, store them, choose a remedy, etc. - and then we talked about specific remedies that work for things like teething, fevers, colic, and thrush.

The basic concept behind homeopathy is that anything that can potentially harm can also potentially heal. For example, snake venom can be super dangerous but if you take that same venom and dilute and dilute and dilute it down to an undetectable level, it becomes a homeopathic remedy you can give to someone with a snake bite to help heal them. Like I said, I'm not great at describing how it works, I just know it does. In some ways it's similar to flu shots. The basic idea is that a flu shot contains just a small amount of the flu but once your body is exposed to it, your immune system builds up a response so that if you encountered the same flu in a stronger amount, your immune system would know how to react to be better able to heal itself. You can make homeopathic remedies from just about anything.

I've been practicing on myself for a few years now. Louis just gave me permission to try some remedies on him (whoa from Mr. medical science himself!) and I will definitely use homeopathy on the baby before turning to medicine. The best part about homeopathy is that if a remedy is going to work, it will do so right away and if it's not the right remedy for the situation, it won't hurt anything. If anyone wants to know more, I'm happy to share what I've learned so far.

It was great to be in a room full of other pregnant or nursing women who want to learn more about homeopathy, like I do. There are people like me! I got to meet a couple well-respected health practitioners from the area and I loved watching them nurse their own babies. Some women are able to mother with such a grace and elegance. There's almost something regal about watching a very confident professional keep that same sort of confidence as a mom with her baby. We met in an acupuncture clinic and I was awed yet again by how beautiful some of the acupuncture and chiropractor offices can be. Oh, someday!