It’s interesting how I often got, as Kate Clinton (feminist comedian) puts it, "menstrual amnesia." I'd start feeling off, more tired, cry easily, cranky, poor digestion and then achy in my lower abdomen. Suddenly I’d realize or my husband would remind me -- it's time for my moon blood! Once the bloods started flowing freely my cramping was better.
When I took space and time in my life for my increased premenstrual and menstrual sensitivity and did only what felt good for me, I felt nourished. When I tried to ignore it and go on as though I was no different at this time, I ended up feeling out of touch and unfulfilled.
When I learned the teachings of Ayurveda about menstrual self care it coincided with my own experience. Resting allows the body to really let go well and use its energy for cleansing and rejuvenating. Eating warm, cooked foods eases digestion. Balancing the body throughout the month brings an easier time during the menstrual cycle, as well as healthy fertility.
I began wearing a moon blood gown for at least my first day of bleeding. It was brownish red with bleach dyed spirals on it. It flowed loosely around my body with voluminous sleeves that made it easier to let go of doing too much activity. I rested as much as my life could allow. At prenatals my apprentices would take up the slack for me those days (and visa versa when it was their time of month.) They’d bring me my tea and lunch and clean up for me, as well as doing the linear things like blood pressure, measuring the belly, weighing for the pregnant women. Somehow the birth energy coordinated well with my menstrual state—they seemed similar in terms of the expanded consciousness, openness of mind, and instinctual connection, so births didn’t seem to disturb my menstrual rest as much as the more linear world. My family knew it was my moon time and would give me more space and fewer demands as well.
When I learned about Maya Abdominal Massage and healing their teachings coincided with those nurturing practices, as do most of the native medicines of the world. Maya Massage uses massage techniques to reposition a tipped uterus, which eases menstrual cramping.
I had a Maya Massage first from Miss Beatrice Waight, a Maya midwife and healer who visited Boulder. After just one massage from her my next menses was painless. The brown blood which preceded and followed the red went away. She told me that the brown blood was old blood due to poor drainage during previous periods. After beginning to do the self massage techniques taught by Rosita Arvigo, another Maya massage teacher, I never had brown blood again!
Over the years of menses I used tampons of varying types, disposable pads of differing brands, sea sponges, a diaphragm, recycled diapers & finally, nicely sewn cloth pads to catch my blood. A few times I bled directly onto the Earth and this felt particularly satisfying. When I used the cloth type of pads I often soaked them and fed the moon water to my houseplants. This blood demanded more respect and utility than being treated it like garbage.
Using tampons seems counter to the body’s wisdom, not only because of toxic shock syndrome, or Ayurvedic teachings about disturbing the downward energy. They can irritate the cervix, causing more cramping, in my experience and other women I've talked with. And that sensation of blood coming out is a primordial experience of womanhood – it may be a key to the mysterious processes of fertility and birth which we do not yet understand.
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