I’ve written before on the highly effective use of fertility herbs in women. I myself used herbs to encourage fertility with my first pregnancy as my husband and I did not attempt to start a family until I was well into my 30’s.
Once we discovered the wonders of Traditional Diet, however, I no longer needed any herbal assistance with later pregnancies. Herbs are also highly effective at dampening fertility in order to naturally and safely prevent pregnancy. When would such use of natural birth control be beneficial?
For one, herbal birth control would be helpful to use between pregnancies in order to space children 3-4 years apart. This allows Mom to adequately replenish her nutritional stores so that later children are just as healthy, smart and capable as the first. Spacing children a minimum of 3 years apart (birthday to birthday) was rigorously practiced in ancestral cultures. It preserves Mom’s health and prevents exhaustion and nutritional deficiency for her too.
Natural methods of birth control are always preferable to chemically based agents such as spermicides, contraceptive patches, and IUDs which emit synthetic hormones, or the contraceptive pill which decimates the balance of gut flora and can lead to autoimmune disease in the mother and any children born later.
Even IUDs that emit only copper instead of hormones to prevent pregnancy should be avoided as copper toxicity is a very real and dangerous side effect of using these devices.  According to Theresa Vernon, LAc author of the article Metals and the Mind:
If adrenal function becomes impaired, the copper builds up in the liver, brain, joints, and lungs. When this happens, you see very specific problems, including mental problems, liver problems, and detoxification problems. Phase II liver impairment is often made worse by copper toxicity, if not actually caused by it.
You also see a lot of copper toxicity with asthma and breathing problems, including emphysema. Copper also tends to build up in the joints, leading to arthritis. Chronic skin problems are also an indication of copper toxicity.
Low adrenal function is an epidemic in our modern society. Â If you doubt this, just walk into any convenience store and notice the enormous display of energy shots and drinks that are available for sale. Not to mention that a Starbucks or other coffee shop is virtually on every corner of most major cities. Americans have serious adrenal health problems. As a result, many are addicted to caffeine and sugar as a way to make it through the day. This makes any excess copper in the system a huge health problem!
Artificial contraception may be tempting in the short term. However, it is clearly not a great idea if preserving your long term hormone and gut health is important to you.
Herbs for Natural Birth Control
The use of anti-fertility herbs along with a simple barrier method such as the female or male condom that is not treated with chemicals (such as natural lambskin) works very effectively for preventing pregnancy. Â This option is especially attractive for health-conscious women who are not particularly turned on by the thought of charting their cycles, taking their basal metabolic temperature every morning, checking the stretchiness of their vaginal secretions and practicing selective abstinence a la Natural Family Planning which for some ladies over analyzes and saps the spontaneity out of what should be a very natural, uncomplicated and enjoyable event.
So if herbal birth control appeals to you, here are the different types and how they work as outlined in the very helpful book Wise Woman Herbal for the Childbearing Year. Â Please note that if sourcing your own herbs is new to you, a well-respected herbalist or acupuncturist in your area can put together a bag of herbs to assist you with natural birth control for an extremely reasonable cost. Â These professionally sourced herbs mixed in the proper proportions can then be used to prepare a cold or a hot herbal infusion that you drink periodically to keep fertility in check and under your control.
Sterility Promoting Herbs
Stoneseed Root. Â Women of the Dakota Indian tribes used this extremely powerful herb as a root infusion steeped in cold water for several hours. Â They then drank a cup every day for 6 months. The Dakota women also practiced breathing in the smoke of the plant as it burned to induce permanent sterility.
The Shoshone tribes concentrated in Idaho, Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, and Montana also used this root for permanent sterility purposes.
Jack in the Pulpit Root. Â This root is less powerful than stoneseed root and is prepared by mixing one tsp of the dried powdered root in a half cup of cold water. Â The liquid is then strained and was consumed by women of the Hopi Tribe. Â Â Conception was prevented for one week by doing this.
Thistles. Â The Quinault Indians used thistles to induce temporary sterility by placing the entire plant in boiling water. Â The very bitter, strong tasting liquid was then consumed.
Herbs that Prevent Pregnancy
Wild Carrot Seed (Queen Anne’s Lace). Â This oily and strong tasting but not unpleasant herb is particularly useful if an “oops” occurs and unprotected relations take place during the fertile time. One teaspoon of carrot seeds is taken immediately and continued each day for another 7 days.
The women of Rajasthan, India use carrot seed for this exact purpose. While wild carrot seed is not commercially available, cultivated carrot seeds can be substituted but be sure to check that they haven’t been treated with chemicals or other toxic substances.
Research in mice has proven the effectiveness of carrot seed to prevent implantation.
Smartweed Leaves. Â A common weed that grows all over the world, smartweed contains rutin, quercetin, and gallic acid. All of these substances interfere with the initiation of pregnancy.
An infusion of one ounce of dried leaves (or 4 ounces of fresh leaves) in a quart of boiling water is consumed liberally until menstruation begins.
Like carrot seed, smartweed may also be used after relations occur on fertile days or to bring on menstruation if the period is late.
Rutin.  This phenolic compound can be purchased in tablet form. A minimum of 500 mg should be taken daily for several days before and following ovulation. Another option is to consume rutin after sexual relations and continue each day until menstruation begins.
Herbs Which Initiate Menstruation
Ginger root. Â Ginger is perhaps the fastest acting menstruation initiating herb you can use. Put 1 tsp of powdered organic ginger root into a cup and pour boiling water over it. Drink when the water cools to a temperature which is still hot but comfortable. Drink up to 4 cups per day for no more than 5 days.
Vitamin C. While plain ascorbic acid is not the natural form of Vitamin C, it can be used therapeutically on occasion to bring on menstruation if necessary. Take 500 mg every hour for 12 hours each day for up to 6 days maximum. The use of ascorbic acid in this high dosage may also produce loose bowels as a side effect.
Thank you for highlighting options. I have always known that herbs can do these actions but didn’t know which ones.
Thank you so much for this post. I have always refused to use any kind of hormonal contraceptives and I have been charting successfully so far, but I worried that the copper IUD was my only guarantee. Good thing I listened to my instincts and didn’t get one! I believe charting is the best option and we should be raising more awareness to this (thanks to the two of you who mentioned the Lady Comp – I’ll be looking into that) because until recently I had no idea this was possible, and I sure didn’t learn about it in high school health class.
I am against abortion but I am not morally opposed to preventing implantation and I think there’s a difference. That said, it would bother me if I personally had to do it, so I will stick to charting and stoneseed/thistle and accept the small risk. BUT over the existence of hormonal pills and plan b and whatever which do so much more damage, I’d promote the herbs any time. Still, I would like to see a post here that shows that charting is not so hard to do and is the most reliable and natural method.
Something I think a lot of women don’t realize, is that many of these herb ARE hormonal contraceptives of their own – the actually change the hormones just like you would if you took the actual hormones. So in essence, if you don’t want to use hormonal contraceptives, don’t use herbal hormonal contraceptives either, because they are BOTH hormonal – meaning, they alter or disrupt healthy hormonal functions. If you think, oh, I’m just taking an herb…. well yes….. but what does that herb do? Many natural hormones are made with ‘herbs’ – such as progesterone is made from wild yams, etc. I want to be as healthy as I can be, so I will refuse to take hormone disruptores, both as a pure hormone, or as an herbal hormone. You may already know this, but I wanted to let others know who may not be thinking that taking herbs is disruptive to your hormones.
Hmmm. All very interesting thoughts and opinions . We live in a nutrition depleted world and our babies and children are going to take the brunt of the lack of nutrition. We all know when we are personally done having children. We opted for my husband having a vasectomy, still not a perfect way ,but he said I had gone through enough and he would take responsibility from here on out . Thank you Sarah for being willing to give information that is so controversial . Without info we cannot learn. Many of us have friends and loved ones who have suffered horribly because of the pill and IUD’s . Lets keep the information coming
Thank you Sue! I appreciate your supportive comment. I respect everyone’s views who have commented and I am disappointed with the condemning and nasty attitude that some have shown supposedly in the name of life and love? Makes no sense whatsoever if they are actually attempting to influence someone’s opinion to their viewpoint.
Telling someone they are overreacting is not particularly respectful but condescending and nasty. I found all the comments to be enormously respectful until that one, as others have pointed out.
Abby, preventing implantation means that the sperm has already entered the egg and an embryo has formed. This means there is now a baby. There are some herbs (and now maybe Vitamin C) that can cause the embryo (baby) to not implant into the mother’s uterine lining, thus killing the embryo. Very sad. Many people are also not educated on how birth conrol is an abortifacient. Birth control pills work in 2 ways…1) the pharmaceutical companies hope that this first method works first. It is that the pill prevents the egg from leaving the woman’s ovaries. But as we all know, sometimes an egg will still leave the ovary despite being on the pill. If the sperm enters the egg and an embry is formed, then the pill does the following with step 2. 2) The pill works to thin the woman’s uterine lining so that the embryo cannot attach to the uterine lining. Very sad that many women on the pill will never realize they were pregnant but the baby was sloughed off due to the effect of the thin uterine lining. Please read your pill box or pamphlet and see for yourself the 2 ways the pill works. Very sad most of our OB/GYNs are not telling their patients this. Knowledge is power. Your body wants to work naturally. Being fertile and monitoring your body through Natural Family Planning is a good thing. Many studies also prove NFP will help your marriage which is always a bonus!! 🙂 It will open up communication lines and have your husband understand your body. Very cool!
Religious / political beliefs aside, I don’t think any woman is “pro-abortion”…it’s an awful physical and emotional experience. I’ve never had one, but I’ve been the friend who’s accompanied plenty of “nice” girls from “good families” who found themselves unexpectedly pregnant and opted for an abortion. Plenty of women get abortions every year. Whether we like or not, women are the ones expected to take sole responsibility for “family planning”. And, certainly, when it comes to contraception, the onus falls on women….which usually means being willing to subject our bodies to patches, caps, pills, spermicides, etc…all containing synthetic hormones with potentially dangerous side effects (from anxiety and depression, to INFERTILITY–yep, that’s right!!)…or metal toxicity as in the case of copper. Since family planning often falls to the women ANYWAY, why not explore traditional natural means of family planning. Bravo to Sarah for offering FAMILY PLANNING alternatives that do NOT put a woman at risk for cancer, stroke or heart disease. THANK YOU Sarah!!!
How do you know these natural substances do NOT put women at risk? Infact, some do by causing increased bleeding and miscarriage. They may cause cancer, we don’t know. OR stroke, or heart disease. We DON’T KNOW!!! Just because a substance is natural doesn’t make it SAFE.
As an active follower of your blog, this post shocked me. It is so different than your usual posts which show how to build up our body’s natural strength and avoid unhealthy practices that can damage it. The fact that you pencil out how to interfere with a fertilized egg to prevent implantation is so disturbing and even dangerous and seems so backwards to your usual posts. Not happy about this.
This is important and interesting information, and thank you for posting this article.
I have studied herbs and do think, however, that a caution is wise in any article like this; herbs ARE potent and must be taken seriously and often this means going to an herbal practitioner for advice. Just please be careful/cautious in your use of herbs.
Also, I am past the age of fertility, and over the years I tried various birth control methods. I have three beautiful children, almost fully grown. I am just going to offer that each individual has very individual needs, our bodies are different, our relationship situations are different, our economics are different. I have had different situations at different times in my life. I can attest that birth control pills “worked” but I paid a price (they affected my moods and anxiety levels as well as other things). I felt so much better and “myself” when I went off them, finally. The FAM worked the best of all for me, but the sad irony of that method is that at your most fertile time of the month (when you abstain) is the time when you most want to do “it.” So it is not perfect, either. I tried condoms and to be quite honest — I hate them. Here’s why: the power of human touch is muted when your body parts are encased in rubber. Seriously. Lovemaking is more spiritually intense (the connection between the two of you), without condoms, in my experience. I even tried an IUD after my 3rd child and got pregnant while on it, “sensed” my pregnancy … and then of course the pregnancy ended (IUD did its job) and I experienced the grief, loss, guilt. So my *personal* experience with an IUD was horrifying and not at all what I expected.
I am both relieved to be at the end of my fertility, and grateful that I still have all of my organs intact and working (no tubal ligations, etc.). I think our whole (not surgically butchered) bodies are the best way to go — if at all possible.
My main point, I guess, is that all of us are on our own fertility journey that evolves individually over the years. My awareness of my body, my spirit, my health has and continues to evolve. It is nice when we can allow each other the freedom to evolve, without berating people for being at a different place in their path than we are (or on a different path entirely).
I have been very thankful for the information on this blog and all I have learned about traditional diets. However, this article is really disappointing and your comments are even more so. Of course it is your right to provide all the options available for fertility management and as readers we should think critically before blindly accepting the advice of others. Personally, I believe life begins when an egg is fertilized, therefore anything that prevents implantation would be an abortifacient. Since you believe life begins when a fertilized egg is implanted, you would not see these herbal methods as problematic or an attack on life. You are not the authority on life and do not get to define when life begins. So please do not belittle others in your comments when they have serious concerns with some of the herbs you have recommended above, for ethical and for health reasons. Your tone has been very unprofessional and honestly a turn off from reading your blog.
Wow, can’t believe the debate going on here. THANK YOU for posting this! I’ve been thinking about taking out my copper iud because it seriously messes with my cycles but didn’t know what other options I could have. NOT everyone wants to be blessed with a baby like the other commenters here appear to be.. Sure it’s natural, but I also think about the state of affairs in our country, the economy and things like that before considering bringing another child into this world. I am happy with my one child and want to invest as much of my time into his development! So thank you, thank you 🙂
I’m curious. I know that herbs can actually alter hormones, which I imagine is how they work to “prevent pregnancy.” But is this SAFE? I am one of the many women desperately struggling with jacked up hormones and gut flora thanks in part to 6 years of the Pill. It is SO HARD to recover hormonal balance… at least, that’s my experience. I would be afraid that once I finally had a child, these anti-fertility herbs would throw off my hormonal balance all over again…
So, are these safe for hormone balance or what? Thanks!