

7. Using Herbs for Pregnancy Release with Qiddist Ashe
When it comes to preventing pregnancy and releasing undesired pregnancies, we have more options than we've been led to believe. Options that have been erased by the patriarchy but that our matriarchal ancestors knew well. In this conversation, we offer these other options of how you can have agency over your own body regardless of what the government decides, or what your doctor tells you is the only way. We're talking about radical body literacy, and employing herbal allies to aid in the prevention and release of pregnancy.
Qiddist Ashe is a medicine woman and female health educator who holds space for transformation as we cultivate the inner and outer resources we need to live fully in our power. She is the founder and creatrix of The Womb Room, an online community for female health & spiritual sovereignty. Informed by her maternal lineage of Ethiopian midwives and her own work in authentic midwifery, functional health, herbalism, somatics, and spiritual sovereignty, Qiddist merges the science and the spirit of female health, orienting to all the ways we can reclaim agency and responsibility for our bodies and our lives.
We discuss:
- What sovereignty means in regards to our wombs and bodies
- The difference between true reproductive freedom/choice, and the artificial freedom we've been supposedly "given" by authorities
- The differences between how hormonal contraceptives, emergency contraceptives, and plant allies work in the body to prevent pregnancy
- The difference between implantation and conception: you don't get pregnant immediately once sperm fertilizes an egg
- You got sperm in your vagina..you don't want to be pregnant..what do you do? An example protocol with herbal allies
- The importance of cultivating a relationship with herbs rather than "taking" them like a pill, and how to do this
- Initial steps you can take to cultivate reproductive sovereignty
Resources Mentioned:
- Lindsay's episode about Fertility Awareness Method
- Robin Rose Bennette: Queen Anne's Lace (also known as Wild Carrot)
- Molly Dutton Kenney
- Herb Farm
- Wild Carrot (Queen Anne's Lace) tincture
Work with Qiddist:
- The Womb Room Membership
- Sovereign Womban Year-Long Container application
- Sovereign Cycles 10 Week Program for Practitioners
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