Who would have thought...

An article published in Midwifery Today in 2003 made my eyes get very big. My attention was drawn to it on their website Midwiferytoday.com where you can see the full article.

Garlic. Garlic tastes real good. Smells awesome, and can rid you of an oncoming yeast infection or even a fully blown one. Wow. I wish someone had told me this in my first pregnancy. I wouldn't have had to go up and down to the doctor and pharmacy for those recurrent yeast infections, wondering if the cream they gave me really wouldn't do anything to my jelly bean (a.k.a. fetus)





Here's the directions on how, when and where to put the garlic from Midwifery today

If a woman can pay attention to the first tickling of the yeast infection, she can use the following treatment. Take a clove of fresh garlic and peel off the natural white paper shell that covers it, leaving the clove intact. At bedtime, put the clove into the vagina. In the morning, remove the garlic clove and throw it in the toilet. The garlic often causes the vagina to have a watery discharge. One night's treatment may be enough to kill the infection, or it might have to be repeated the next night. Continue one or two days until all itchiness is gone. The reason that the treatment is done at bedtime is that there is a connection between the mouth and the vagina. The moment the garlic is placed in the vagina, the taste of the garlic travels up to the mouth. Most people will find this strong flavor annoying during the day, so the treatment is recommended for nighttime.

If the infection has advanced to the point that a woman has large quantities of white discharge and red sore labia, it can still be treated by garlic but with a higher dose. Use a dry tissue to remove some of the discharge, then take a clove of garlic and cut it in half. Put it in the vagina at bedtime and repeat this for a few nights. If there is no improvement, she might consider a conventional over-the-counter treatment because it is a shame to suffer for many days. Remember that a woman should never douche during a vaginal infection. Yeast loves water and any water will make it grow faster.

Any cut in the clove makes the activity of the garlic stronger. Thus, the more of the inside of the clove that is exposed, the higher the dose. Each woman should learn the dose that works best for her, from the lowest dose, an uncut clove, to a clove with one or more small fingernail slits, to a clove cut in half.

If a high dose of garlic, a cut-open garlic clove, is inserted in a healthy vagina, it will often "burn" the healthy skin. When the woman is suffering from an advanced yeast infection, the skin is already red and "burned" and the garlic cures the infection by killing the yeast. Then the skin repairs itself. By the way, veterinarians have been using garlic to heal infections in livestock for many years. If drug companies could patent garlic and make money off of it, they would be advertising it everywhere!

Did you know that garlic can also help with GBS? Follow the below instructions for a yeast infection as well as Group B Strep (in same article on MT)

Garlic protocol:

• Break a clove off of a bulb of garlic and peel off the paper-like cover. Cut in half. Sew a string thru it for easy retrieval.
• Put a fresh half in your vagina in the evening before you go to sleep. Most women taste garlic in their mouths as soon as it is in their vagina, so it is less pleasant to treat while awake.
• In the morning, the garlic may come out when you poop. If not, many women find it is easiest to take it out on the toilet. Circle the vagina with a finger, till you find it. It cannot enter the uterus through the cervix. It cannot get lost, but it can get pushed into the pocket between the cervix and the vaginal wall.
• Most people will taste the garlic as long as it is in there. So if you still taste it, it is probably still in there. Most women have trouble getting it out the first time.
• For easy retrieval, sew a string through the middle of the clove before you put it in. You don't want to get irritated. Be gentle. Don't scratch yourself with long nails.

Hey, if it doesn't work, at least you went and tried the natural way first...