pharmacology

Last night I bought this book, along with another herbal guide, as my first real entrance into the study of herbs. "Wise Woman" is well organized, practical, and extremely easy to read for the uninitiated. I praise Ms. Weed for this invaluable resource and expect to refer to this book frequently in my upcoming pregnancy.

I came to my midwifery career (see my memoir, BABY CATCHER, Scribner 2002) via the traditional route of nursing school, working in hospital delivery rooms and alternative birth centers, then going to midwifery school, graduating as a CNM. Nowhere along the way was I taught anything about herbs. When I found myself doing home births in Berkeley, CA, many of my clients assumed I was an herbalist. Although I never once claimed to have a knowledge base in that field, I learned enough from Wise Woman Herbal to talk intelligently on the subject. Many women who choose home birth shun not just hospitals but also traditional Western medications. Wise Woman Herbal was always the resource to which I turned when I needed to know if a particular herb a woman wanted to use was safe and/or efficacious in pregnancy. And eventually I carried and recommended certain ones with confidence, especially blue and black cohosh, ginger, and oil of evening primrose.
From me and from all midwives when they were new: Thank you, Susan Weed.

While Susan Weed covers a great many topics and remedies in this book, she doesn't cover any of them with enough detail. She leaves out warnings, indications and rational for many of her reprinted remedies. This book is only150 pages, but should be 3 times that considering the number of topics that she covers. For example she says that "excess vitamin C" is a Teratogen. Well, how much vitamin C, when and why? Things listed as teratogens are listed as cures later in the book (ex. caster oil). Overall, this book left me confused and frustrated with more questions than answers. This is the kind of book that gives herbal self-medicating a bad name.