My last pregnancy was long and painful. Often the only relief from the pain was found submerged in the depths of our wonderful jetted bathtub where I spent literally hours a day surrendering and healing. My son, Noah, was born in the water, in fact. Perhaps it is no coincidence that he has always been a water baby.
One of our first major bonding moments was just a day after giving birth when, on my midwife’s orders, we found our way into that same jetted tub to relax and heal while sharing an herbal bath soak. This is where Noah had his first bath, right on my newly-empty belly. Although he cried briefly when he was undressed, as soon as his body hit the water, he was Home again. He gazed at me thankfully, full of peaceful awareness. Maybe I instinctively realized, then, that there is really such thing as bathtub medicine.
By the time my son was 18 months old, he definitely associated water with healing. When he had a fever, he pleaded for 2 AM relief in the bathtub. At first I really resisted these late night forays into the water but I, too, learned to settle in and find comfort. Along the way, I picked up some knowledge about the therapeutic effects of essential oils such as peppermint (fever), eucalyptus (congestion), lavender (everything else) and added those to our bath time ritual.
The older he gets, the more therapeutic he finds the water to be. Whether he has a simple cold, the stomach flu, a sprained ankle or scratched knee, he heads to the water every time. And, remarkably, he rarely emerges without significantly increased wellness! What a blessing this has been because, as it turns out, Noah is definitely NOT a medicine baby. From infancy, he has resisted medicine with everything in his power. I used to be consumed with fear that he would become sick enough to require antibiotics because there was simply no human way possible with which to administer them. He knew the “cheek pocket” trick and no matter how many adults held him down, we could never administer more than a half dose of any medication. Thank goodness for water therapy. Antibiotics were never necessary and we weathered years of bathtub medicine until Noah was finally old enough and logical enough to tolerate the occasional pain reliever. Of course, he still uses bathtub medicine as his primary source of pain relief. We still sometimes make midnight trips to the tub and have long since refilled our essential oils, several times over.
Sometimes the best medicine comes in the most unique containers.