This Ancient Practice May Help with Your UTIs & Yeast Infections
If you’ve ever been trapped on the hamster wheel that is never-ending UTIs or yeast infections, we feel you. It can be a demoralizing experience that sees you move from one condition to the other and back again. You’re dished out reductionist advice like, “You just need to empty your bladder after sex,” or told, “It’s because you’re not wearing cotton underwear.”
Doctors can sometimes provide no true lasting relief, or worse, overprescribe antibiotics that you’re really not that keen to take. Some women even find they spend more of the year with a UTI or yeast infection than without one. Essentially, these conditions are not at all fun, and although incredibly common, they don’t need to be.
How Ancient Practices Can Help with Modern Women’s Health Issues
Modern medicine has made some huge developments in women’s health. However, with the rise of allopathic medicine, many ancient health practices that are equally as powerful have been silenced or forgotten. One of these practices is pelvic or vaginal steaming. Its traditional names also include yoni steaming, bajo, and chak yoi. It has been used and trusted by healers, herbalists, and medicine women in the treatment of UTIs and yeast infections and has spanned multiple centuries, cultures, and continents including Africa, India, Asia, and Northern Europe. Its proliferation in and of itself speaks to its effectiveness — generally practices that don’t provide results don’t travel across the globe or stand the test of time.Read on to learn more about the specifics of pelvic steaming for both of these conditions.
Pelvic Steaming Help to Treat UTIs & Yeast Infections
Conventional medicine tells us that these two conditions need separate treatments. However, in the world of traditional healing, they actually both stem from the same cause: excessive mucus on the walls of the uterus. An excess of mucus can sometimes lead to a vaginal bacterial infection. In modern medicine, over-the-counter or doctor-prescribed antibiotics are given out but unfortunately this can remove all forms of vaginal bacteria, the good and the bad.
Pelvic steaming cleanses the vagina (obviously through the steam itself) but also through specifically chosen medicinal herbs. By choosing strong herbs that have antibacterial and antifungal properties, the steam carries these botanical oils along the vaginal wall, and into the pelvic floor’s soft tissue and your uterus. This allows the body to naturally cleanse the entire reproductive area — without removing the vagina’s essential flora.
In terms of a treatment plan, steam at the first sign of infection. Cleanse your vagina with a five or ten day steaming practice and your symptoms will clear.
How to Create a Pelvic Steam Practice at Home
For your steam, you’ll need a pot to house your herbs, a stool or cushions to help you gently kneel above the steam, and carefully selected botanical herbs. If you need guidance, our Womb Protector™ pelvic steaming herb blend has a number of organic and ethically sourced herbs to specifically treat yeast and UTIs including: dandelion for detox, cat's claw for infection, calendula for inflammation, and pau d’arco for antifungal treatment.
- To prepare, add a sachet of Womb Protector™ or your custom blend to a pot of water and bring to a rolling boil.
- Remove pot from heat, cover with lid, and place under your Pelvic Steaming Stool or near your cushions.
- Undress from the waist down, remove the pot's lid, and gently sit on the stool or prop yourself up with cushions.
- Use a blanket made from natural fibers and create a cozy tent around your lower body and the stool to keep the steam from escaping.
- If you have an active infection, please only steam 10 minutes at a time.
Be mindful of the temperature and adjust yourself accordingly. If it’s too hot, open the blanket to release steam.
