What’s in a Postpartum Doula’s Bag? Let’s Start with Arnica

If you’ve given birth before, you already know this secret nobody warns you about loudly enough: the pain doesn’t end when the baby arrives.

For many women, the intensity of afterpains catches them completely off guard. You braced yourself for labour. You didn’t brace yourself for this - the cramping that can rival contractions, showing up while you’re trying to nurse a newborn for the first time.

If that was you, I want you to hear this clearly: you are not overreacting, and nothing has gone wrong. Your body is doing exactly what it’s supposed to do.

Why Afterpains Happen and Why They are a Good Sign

During pregnancy, your uterus grows to roughly the size of a watermelon to make room for your baby, the placenta, and the amniotic fluid around them. After birth, it has two jobs: contract down to expel the remaining blood and tissue, and shrink itself back to something closer to the size of pear - all within about six weeks.

Those contractions are the afterpains. They’re often stronger with each subsequent baby, because your uterus has done this work before and, in a sense, knows how to do it efficiently. Breastfeeding tends to intensify them too, since nursing releases oxytocin, the same hormone that drives contractions.

None of this is a malfunction. It’s your body completing the birth.

What’s Usually Offered - and What Else Belongs in the Toolkit

The standard recommendation for afterpain discomfort is an anti-inflammatory like ibuprofen, sometimes paired with acetaminophen. These are safe and helpful when needed.

But there’s a gentler layer that often gets left out of the conversation entirely, and it’s one of the first things I reach for in my postpartum doula bag: homeopathic remedy arnica montana.

Arnica Montana: Old Remedy, Real Research

Arnica has been used in European folk medicine for centuries as a first-response remedy for bruising, swelling, and soft tissue trauma - which, if you think about it, describes a huge amount of what a body goes through during birth, whether vaginal or cesarean.

Here’s what’s genuinely interesting: it isn’t only traditional. There’s actual clinical research behind it.

• A small randomized, placebo-controlled trial out of Jerusalem gave postpartum women homeopathic arnica montana alongside bellis perennis (another traditional remedy for soft tissue trauma) and tracked their blood counts over the following days. The women who received the remedies had noticeable steadier hemoglobin levels than the placebo group - an early but real signal that in may support the body’s recovery after blood loss.

• a 2021 meta-analysis pooling 18 placebo - controlled surgical trials - covering everything from hysterectomy to hand surgery to facial procedures - found that homeopathic arnica produced a modest but measurable reduction in bruising, swelling, and pain, roughly on par with standard anti - inflammatory medication. Interestingly, the effect was strongest when arnica was used after the trauma had already occurred, which is exactly how postpartum use tends to work.

What I can say is that in fifteen years of doing this work, it’s a remedy I trust, and one that many of my clients have found soothing - for the afterpains, and for the bruising and swelling of the perineum after a vaginal birth.

Homeopathic arnica pellets are safe, inexpensive (health stores carry them) have no side effects and are taken orally - they are tiny dissolvable pellets placed under the tongue. You can take them as often as every 15 minutes following the birth - spacing out to 3 times a day in the following days, and taken as needed in the weeks to come. This is the form used in the studies above, and it’s the one I recommend for the internal work: afterpains, general soft-tissue trauma, and the deep bruising you can’t see or reach.

What’s Actually in My Bag

Arnica montana pellets are one of the first things I pack for every postpartum visit - right alongside the peri bottle, the padsicles, and the endless supply of snacks nobody warns you you’ll need. It’s a small thing. But so much of postpartum care is small things, offered at exactly the right moment, that add up to a woman feeling cared for and held.

This is only the beginning of what’s in the bag - I’ll be sharing more of it here over time.

This post is for educational purposes and reflects traditional and complementary approaches to postpartum recovery. It isn’t medical advice. Please check with your midwife or OB before adding any new remedy to your postpartum care.

Curious what else is in the bag, or want support of your own after birth?

Book a Discovery Call - I’d love to hear where you are and how I can help.