Queen Anne's Lace and Conscious Contraception

Last weekend, I was at the Women's Herbal Conference, which is held every August just outside Peterborough, NH. It's a wonderful gathering of nearly 500 women, girls and children & is held every August. There are always lots of wonderful workshops & activities. One of the workshops I attended was entitled "Wild Carrot: A Plant for Natural Conscious Contraception (and perhaps conception)" led by herbalists, Robin Rose Bennett and Mischa Schuler. Robin has been studying, working with & using Wild Carrot, also known as Queen Anne's Lace, for more than two decades. One of the traditional uses for this herb (Daucus carota) is as a natural family planning aid. For hundreds of years, women in the Appalacian Mountains have chewed the seeds to prevent pregnancy. In fact, the earliest known recording of this use for Queen Anne's Lace is nearly 2500 years ago - Hippocrates wrote about it!

Anyway, Robin and Mischa have managed to secure a bit of funding for some research into how, and how well, this herb works for birth control. They're looking for volunteer participants, as well as volunteer tincture-makers. If you're interested in perhaps participating in the research, you can find more information on either of their web sites. Robin's is www.wisewomanhealingways.com and Mischa's is www.wildcarrotherbs.com.