Shared by: Elizabeth from NY
Did you have a pregnancy test? Yes
How was the pregnancy ended? vitamin C, dong quai, black cohosh, visualization and prayer Were you successful in using the herbs? Yes
Would you try herbs again, or recommend them to a friend in the same situation? Absolutely
Is there anything that clued you in that the herbs might be working before bleeding started? breasts got smaller and much less sore, the dizzy, weird feeling and need to eat all the time disappeared, and both of these things returned when I took a break from the herbs after getting a nasty migraine, then disappeared again quickly when I resumed taking them. Also, the day before I bled I had the confused, unsettled feeling that I usually have the day before my period starts.
Is this your first pregnancy? No: 4 kids, one miscarriage at 5 weeks, one RU-486 abortion
How many weeks pregnant were you when the herbs were started? 1
Were you using birth control? Yes, but not correctly, so I guess really the answer is no.
If you were not using birth control, please share why not. My partner and I had had a difficult few weeks and I wanted badly to feel close to him and let him feel close to me. I convinced myself that the fertility signs I had observed meant what I wanted them to mean, that we were safe. What a wake-up call! I didn't realize so clearly until now that I rely on physical intimacy in unhealthy ways. I will take this lesson with me and listen to what my thermometer says from now on.
Did you experience any symptoms or signs of pregnancy? Enlarged and sore breasts, well beyond the usual monthly PMS symptoms, dizziness, vertigo when driving, hunger for large amounts of protein, more cervical fluid than usual, vivid dreams
Please include a summary of dosage information.
Side effects. How did the herbs affect you? I began to get nasty sudden migraines on Wednesday late afternoon and again in the evening, about 40 minutes after taking everything. I was worried about the intensity of the second headache (I thought I might pass out for a minute) so I decided to slow down. I wasn't worried about stopping the herbs for a while because by then the pregnancy symptoms had disappeared, so I figured that things were going in the right direction. A friend who also reads this site said that maybe too much vitamin C at once was the problem, so on Thursday afternoon after the pregnancy symptoms returned rather dramatically, I started taking everything again, this time with less vitamin C but more frequently. I didn't have any more headaches.
Any positive effects? I think dong quai made me very easily aroused!
How did the herbs make you feel physically? Dong quai is nice, as stated above, but I think it gave me a little digestive upset also-- not awful though. Vitamin C-- too much at once seemed to be a problem. When I began taking the herbs again, I left out the black cohosh the first couple of times, thinking that it had given me the headaches, but the dong quai and vitamin C by themselves didn't decrease the pregnancy symptoms nearly as much as all 3 together had done when I first began taking them on Monday. When I added the black cohosh back, it seemed to make everything work better and I didn't get any more headaches.
How did being pregnant make you feel physically? Tired, moody, dizzy, hungry, but once the herbs kicked in I felt great-- not pregnant but also without the usual PMS I have in the second half of my cycle.
If the herbs caused miscarriage -- how did you feel just before bleeding began? And when bleeding started - How was the bleeding, cramping, etc?
Could you reflect on the process of a herbal abortion and write a paragraph about it. I would like to add something of this nature to my website, but would like other experiences to draw upon besides my own. Thanks.
I am so incredibly grateful for the information on this site. What an empowering thing you are doing for women! I will be sure my daughters know about all of this information when they are older. It just makes sense that we should all have the tools to be truly in charge of our own fertility. Even having the option for a medical or surgical abortion, as important as that is, is still an invasive and intensely non-private event. I called a doctor in my area who does very early aspiration abortions, and they wouldn't let me make an appointment because I hadn't had a positive test. I was absolutely sure that I was pregnant, having unmistakable symptoms all over the place, and did not want to wait until my period was a two or three weeks late to get things back to normal. I understand their policy, but what a vastly better thing to trust my body and take care of the situation in a way that makes sense for my body's rhythms and the realities of my life. I feel strongly that I cooperated with my body, with the spirit of the child, and with the Creator who both loved and instructed me through this experience. Thanks to you, Sister Zeus, and to all the ladies who shared their inspiring stories on this site.
Submitted: Dec 31, 2005
Age: 33
Weight: 120
Height: 5'7"
What was the result. Negative
If no pregnancy test was taken - do you think you were pregnant? How strongly do you feel this way? I know I was, because beginning on the 21st day (Christmas!) I had all of the usual pregnancy symptoms: enlarged and sore breasts, slight but noticeable vertigo when driving, dizzy and lightheaded if I didn't eat protein every couple of hours, a full feeling in my uterus, vivid dreams
For how many days were the herbs used (total)? 4
What kind/method of birth control/contraception were you using? natural family planning
Do you know how/why it failed? I ignored the rules!
Vitamin C, 500mg capsules 4 every 4 hours, then switched to 2 capsules every 2 hours;
dong quai 565 mg capsules, 2 every 4 hours;
black cohosh tincture 1 dropper every 4 hours. I didn't take anything during the night. I started this on Monday, and did it every day this week except for Wednesday night-Thursday afternoon, and began bleeding on Saturday morning.
Where there any negative effects? Just the headaches.
Do you have any health problems or issues? I get migraines easily.
If yes, do you think it had any affect on the way the herbs affected you? yes, the vitamin C issue I think
I woke up on Saturday morning with that "my period has started" crampy feeling, definitely present but not worse than usual, and I stayed in bed for a while, feeling a need to visualize that things were ending, that I was releasing the child and it was releasing being with me for now, that my body was working beautifully and things were as they should be. I really didn't want to get up and discover that I wasn't actually bleeding, but the cramps felt real, so I wanted to give the whole thing a blessing, I guess. I had already decided that if I wasn't bleeding by the afternoon, I would start taking pennyroyal and blue cohosh to cause contractions. But when I got up, it turned out that I was already bleeding, like a regular period, not spotting. The cramping is not worse, but a little more constant, and I have some back pain that I don't usually have. None of it is very bad. The blood is very red, and there's a little more of it than I usually have the first day, plus some fibrous little dark red things that aren't usually there. Usually the first day of my period is brownish and not crampy. Today is the day I would have expected my period if I hadn't gotten pregnant.
