Whole Woman’s Health: Herbal Tea for Holistic Healing

Patients often ask us how best to soothe the cramps that may come either during or after their procedure, or as a result of a heavy period. Whole Woman’s Health has been dedicated to assisting women with their reproductive health in a holistic, natural way since it opened in 2003. Since then, we’ve incorporated many practices that do just that every step of the way, from our recovery rooms, to the care she receives on our EmpowerLine, and additionally by providing materials and tips that she can take home with her. Our TranquiliTEA is just another one of those things.

Whole Woman’s Health tea is made of Sassafras, Hibiscus Flower and Honeybush Leaf for a reason! As you may know, our goal is to care for women – mind, body and heart – and we especially created our tea to do just that. Here’s a bit more information on what our tea is made of:

Sassafras – A common root that was originally used to make root beer, sassafras is known as an emmenagogue, which means that it can provoke and ease menstruation. Drinking sassafras tea can also help to relieve cramps.

Hibiscus Flower – African Folk Medicine commonly used Hibiscus flower to relax the uterus, which is exactly what you need to be doing if you’re experiencing cramps. Regular consumption can also help lower blood pressure!

Honeybush Leaf – Honeybush tea is often consumed to relieve stress, but it has another positive side effect of regulating periods and reducing the risk of breast and uterine cancer. 

In order for the long-lasting effects of tea to take place, you probably need to drink at least a few cups a day. However, with our new tea tins, patients will have at least 3-4 cups of looseleaf tea on hand to ease them through their cramps and relieve a bit of stress in the days following their appointments. Let us know if you have any questions, or would like to order a sample and we’d be happy to send some out!

- Whole Woman’s Health

Whole Woman’s Health: 3 Tips for Tracking Your Cycle

Remember your first sex ed class when the video your teacher popped in exclaimed that “a woman’s body is a mysterious, magical thing.”? Well, it’s true. A woman’s body is a mysterious, magical, confusing, frustrating, un/reliable, surprising, beautiful, mind-of-its-own thing. What’s more, every woman’s body has it’s own way of doing what it’s supposed to do. Beyond using hormonal birth control, your cycle can be very tricky to track. But here’s why it’s important to know what your body is doing if you don’t want to get pregnant and can’t afford birth control: knowing your cycle, when you ovulate and when to expect your period, along with barrier methods (condoms, diaphram + spermicide, etc.) gives you a better chance at avoiding an unwanted pregnancy. Here are 3 tips for tracking your cycle:

1.) Keep a calendar! Make a note every time your period begins and ends. A normal cycle is 28 days, but yours may be 34 or 18. If your cycle is regular, knowing your number not only helps you determine when to expect your next period, but when you may be more susceptible to getting pregnant. Ovulation (when your ovary releases an egg) normally occurs 14 days before your next expected period. There’s a 3-5 day window around the time of ovulation when sex is a no-no. Figuring out when your ovulation window is might be a good way to determine when you need to take a ‘leave of absence’ from intercourse. There are ovulation calculators online that can help you get a better idea of when that window might be.

2.) There’s an app for that! Period Tracker and My Days are excellent apps to download to your phone that not only help you keep track of when your period begins/ends, but special algorithms within them take note of your unique cycle and give you a heads up when you may be ovulating. You can also keep note of moods, symptoms and when you’ve had sex so that you can know what to expect, and when.

3.) Cervical mucus. Say it with us: Cer-vi-cal-mu-cus. It’s completely normal and healthy. Cervical mucus is a fluid excreted by the cervix that can especially help you indicate when you might be ovulating. As your ovulation date approaches, the consistency and amount of cervical mucus in your vagina changes. If you’re experiencing cervical mucus that kind of reminds you of egg whites, that’s no coincidence. This means your ovary is releasing an egg and your vagina is prepping itself for fertilization. To have a better chance at avoiding unwanted pregnancy, if you’re experiencing this thick, clear cervical mucus, you may want to take a rain check for another night. (Cervical mucus consistency is also a good thing to keep track of in your calendar or period tracker app.)

Please keep in mind that none of these are fail-safe for preventing pregnancy. Sperm can live inside of your vagina for up to 2 days, so even if you’re not ovulating on the particular day that you have intercourse, you do still have a chance at getting pregnant if you’ve been sexually active. The best way to protect yourself from unwanted pregnancy is to find a reliable method of birth control that works for you. However, keeping track of and learning to love your menstrual cycle can give you a better insight to how your body works, when something may be changing (i.e. a missed period), and when to not wear that white skirt with no back-up tampons in your purse while you’re on a first date.

Our bodies are mysterious, magical things – but with the right tools, apps, notes and birth control method, we can at least try to navigate the crazy waves of our menstrual cycles and find ourselves right where we want to be, when we want to be there.

Whole Woman’s Health: A Pro-Choice Woman of Faith

This post is written by a very brave woman and dedicated to all of the other brave women and men who hold their ground publicly, in the face of adversity, to protect and support our right to choose. Sometimes they do it ideologically, by literally standing at a clinic for what they believe in. Sometimes they do it physically, by putting their bodies in between patients and protestors. And sometimes they do it spiritually, by denouncing hate and judgment in the name of religion and replacing it with love and acceptance. With her permission, the following is a post that Cindy Nolan, founder of Faith Action on Behalf of Women and Children, wrote on our Facebook wall about her experience as a Catholic in support of patients, providers and choice. Thank you, Cindy:

“I may get ex-communicated sooner rather than later. My first action, as most of you know, with my Faith Action for Women Now (FAWN) group, was to conduct a prayer/meditation vigil in support of patients, staff and Choice at a Women’s Health Clinic that performs abortions at the same time that a Catholic Church was conducting an anti-abortion prayer vigil. As I expected, I was the only person on my side of the driveway. It takes a lot of time to prepare oneself for actions of protest which are nonviolent and loving.

So there I was, with my rosary and my big sign that read “Catholics for Choice” and my smaller signs for FAWN that said things like “We Support You.” The Catholics were visibly shocked. They’d never seen anyone do such a thing before. So we all prayed. occasionally, one would drift over and say something to me. My planned response for all such intrusions was, “I’m praying right now, but if you’ll give me your phone number, I’d be happy to call you and we can talk.” A couple of people did, but most didn’t like it that I wouldn’t answer their questions or engage with them. If they asked my name, I gave them my first name only, and if they asked what was my parish, I told them St. Austin, without clarifying whether they supported me or not (they had no idea).

A couple of times I had a slip. An older woman, who I’m sure was a nun, came over and asked me if I had had an abortion. I love nuns, so I answered yes, two. She said, “That’s why you’re doing this, because of your pain.” I answered, “There’s no pain, only peace and loving concern for these women.”

Eventually, the priest came over with his loudspeaker and asked me what parish I was from. I knew then that it would start the wheels turning towards my ex-communication. With the bishop we have, nothing less will satisfy him, and there will be trouble for St. Austin’s as well. It all hit home, and for several minutes I felt scared and a real agony about losing my beloved Church and my friends there. But I made myself refocus on the women and staff, for they were my purpose. I had to refocus repeatedly during my time there, because I would drift or my ego would take over and I would begin congratulating myself. But most of the time I was keenly focused on my love reaching the clinic and its patients.

The Priest then asked everyone to pray the last decade of the rosary for me, as I was in a state of mortal sin. He said there were no pro-choice Catholics and that I was against the Magesterium, so I wasn’t really a Catholic. I kept praying. During the three hours I was there, praying alone in the sun with no shade, I prayed two rosaries, a chaplet of divine mercy, and spent much time on the Hindu chant “Om Namah Shivaya.”

Then the Church finished up and left, except for three people. These were the ones with anger and hatred in their hearts, and I told one of them so as they took turns passing by me and accosting me verbally. It was two white men and a white woman. Only one was nasty to me, a redneck-looking fellow who said things like, “I hope you burn in hell,” and “Which side of the driveway do you think Jesus is standing on?” and “You’re about the creepiest thing I’ve seen today.” I prayed on. He was the only one who never softened. I had nice moments with each of the other two. The woman admitted that I “seemed like a nice person,” and the other man and I walked to my car together and he told me how he became involved in the ministry.

Just proof that love works better than anything. I left feeling a great sense of peace and joy, grateful that I had taken up my yoke, and hoping first the first time in years that I continue living so I can fulfill my ministry. It’s a good mission, and I invite you to join me in it. Women have suffered while we remain silent long enough.”

Whole Woman’s Health: Remembering Dr. George Tiller

3 years ago today, a friend of ours, Dr. George Tiller, was murdered in his church. Below is a very moving excerpt from one of his speeches that illustrates the type of person that Tiller was. George Tiller was not a murderer, as Scott Roeder – his murderer – and many other anti-choicers claim. Dr. George Tiller was instead a life saver. A brave person who went out of his way to help the patients who needed him, a philanthropist, a man with a sense of humor, and a warm smile. Because of the violence, judgment and verbal abuse towards clinicians, physicians and patients that is oftentimes not taken seriously by the law, we’re missing a physician, and a friend.

“I personally see a society that respects the integrity of its citizens to struggle with complex health issues and make decisions that are appropriate for them and their personal lives. I see a society that respects the religious differences of its citizens. I see a society that rejects hate, rejects judgmental condemnation, and rejects prejudice and racism. I see a government that honors the privacy of its citizens without unwarranted surveillance. I see a society where war is not an option—thank you—and the negotiation with mutual respect is the hallmark, rather than mutual self-destruction. I see a society where the welfare of all—I see a society where the welfare of all is equally important as the riches of the few. I see a world that discusses solutions without demanding its own answers.

We have given war, pestilence, hate, greed, judgment, ego, self-sufficiency a good try. And it failed. We need a new paradigm that consists of kindness, courtesy, justice, love and respect in all our relationships.

Work hard. Be a leader. Your way of life depends on it. And just look at the rest of the world. That’s the way the anti-abortion segment of our population wants the U.S.A. to be. And how do we do that? We do it the way we have always done things: we fail our way forward. We consider defeat a temporary inconvenience. And we never, ever, ever take no for an answer. Never take no for an answer. Work hard. Be a leader. The rest of your life depends on it, and the life of your sisters and brothers throughout the world depend on it. Thank you.” – Dr. George Tiller, 1941 – 2009

Whole Woman’s Health: Why March For Women?

Tomorrow, April 28th, Whole Woman’s Health will be joining many, many other women at the capitol of Texas, for many, many reasons. Each of us may have our own personal stories, or ways we’ve been affected, but the over-arching message will be clear: our reproductive rights are not toys for politicians to play with. They are our lives and our futures. Our sexuality and our freedom. Our families and our independence. The purpose of tomorrow’s protest is to show politicians that we are watching – we vote – and we are angry.

This post is going to be used as, hopefully, the catalyst to get you to come to the capitol and join us tomorrow. So here’s a recap of what they’ve tried to/succeeded in doing to our reproductive rights in the past few months:

1. They’ve told you that if you choose to have an abortion, you’re required to view your ultrasound. Because you don’t know what a fetus looks like, and they want to show you. Because they think you’re not taking this decision seriously enough. And since abortion is “such an easy decision to make,” they might as well make it a bit more difficult to really make sure you know what you’re doing.

2. They’ve turned a safe, legal, outpatient procedure into a mandatory 2 to 3 day procedure for no reason. They’ve told you that you need more time to think about your decision. Even if you already know and are 100% sure. They don’t trust that you’ve thought it through long enough to really know what you want, so why don’t you just wait 24 hours, take a mandatory 2-3 day vacation from work, and think about it for a little while longer?

3. We lost access to MAP for low-income women who could in no way afford the procedure otherwise. If it weren’t for some of our amazing staff, and abortion funds like the Lilith Fund and TEA, ‘choice’ would be non-existent for low-income women.

4. Required Reporting in Texas. They’re currently trying to pass measures to gather more information on you, if you choose to have an abortion.

5. In Oklahoma, they’ve tried to define a fertilized egg as a “person.” So next time you suffer through a miscarriage, or accidentally drink while you’re unknowingly pregnant, or take emergency contraception, you’ll essentially have a male politicians hand on your shoulder while it’s happening.

6. In Georgia, they’ve tried to ban abortion after 20 weeks. Even if the fetus will not make it to term. Republican Terry England compared this potential situation to watching his farm animals give birth to stillborns. “Life gives us many experiences…” he said. Nice comparison there, England, but women are a bit different than cattle.

7. In Virginia, they were poised to introduce a transvaginal ultrasound bill, not only requiring an ultrasound, but an invasive, medically unnecessary transvaginal ultrasound for every woman who chose abortion.

…

I could go on, but do you want me to? This is in no way an exhaustive list, I’m just exhausted of writing it and ready to be at the capitol already. When anti-choice politicians are allowed to play Doctor, the outcome is always bad. Their disguise of ‘informing women’ for their own ‘safety’ is false, and condescending at best.

We’re better and more intelligent than to have to put up with this anymore.

We don’t need protection, we need the freedom to make our own decisions.

We’ve been angry about it for too long.

And we’ll be at the capitol at 4pm tomorrow.

Whole Woman’s Health: Bill Zedler Wants to Know More About You

Back in June of 2011, some Republican rep from Arlington, TX named Bill Zedler proposed a law that said that we (abortion providers) would have to report to the State the following things, if you were our patient:

- your age

- your ethnicity

- your marital status

- where you live

- your highest level of education

- the age of the man who impregnated you

- what method of birth control you were on when you got pregnant

- why you’re having an abortion

- the number of children you have

- how many abortions or miscarriages you’ve had

- who referred you to an abortion clinic

- how you’re paying for it

- if you read the required “printed information” about the abortion

- if you saw your sonogram

- if you listened to the fetal heart tone

- if the Doctor explained to you everything that the state asked him to explain to you.

- Any complications that might have occurred during the abortion procedure, along with the Physician name/facility/type of procedure/etc.

…Feeling violated yet? There’s more, but we’ll spare you.

Mr. Bill’s bill didn’t pass… and he wasn’t satisfied with that. So he took these requirements straight to the Executive Director of the Texas Health and Human Services Commission to have the state adopt some of the failed amendment’s rules, and implement them as agency rules instead. So in other words, he most likely used his personal contacts (Bill used to work in the business/healthcare industry) to side-step the democratic process, and essentially pass the bill anyway.

Why is it a problem if the State has all of this information on you, if you have an abortion? The proposed required reporting wouldn’t necessarily be a problem, if TX didn’t have a record of using statistics on women who choose abortion, against women who choose abortion.

Let’s be real. They’re most likely not using these statistics to supplement an argument for birth control or sex education. They’re not using this to protect women. They’re using this to frame future arguments against abortion being an accessible procedure for women, and potentially shut down abortion clinics that don’t meet their requirements. Which means – in the same way they’re on the verge of shutting down clinics in Kansas and Mississippi – they’ll be able to tell us how large our hallways have to be – how large our janitors closet has to be – how many doors and windows and square feet we have to have – what temperature our A/C has to be set to – in order for our clinic to stay open. This is the first step towards being backed into a corner that we can’t get out of. This is also the first step towards people like Bill Zedler having information that they can and will hold against you.

So what can we do to stop it? This is one of those times where we can finally take the offensive instead of the defensive route, and prevent anti-choice legislation before it has the chance to happen. This isn’t about health to the people who have proposed these changes, this is about regulation. Stop it in it’s tracks, and let them know that we aren’t OK with them keeping all of this information on our personal and private decisions.

1. Sign the petition. The goal is set at 1,000 signatures: http://www.change.org/petitions/texas-department-of-state-health-services-stop-new-reporting-requirements-for-abortions-in-tx

2. Send DSHS your comments directly: P.O. Box 149347 Austin, Texas 78714-9347

3. Let Bill Zedler know that his bill flopped for a reason on Facebook.

P.S. And if this still doesn’t make you uncomfortable and you don’t see the point of arguing, then how about this news combined with the fact that the state of Texas isn’t exactly #1 at keeping the public’s private data under wraps?

Whole Woman’s Health: “An Open Letter to 21 Million Women”

Our friend Charlotte Taft has shed some light on a poem that was written by an abortion provider in 1988. In 2012, activism, politics and legislative decisions may feel overwhelming. They may make you feel hopeless to change what you know is wrong. But they are not. The lines between who promises to represent you as a woman but will fail to do so when elected, and those who actually will, are very clear. Work with us to change what those who have failed to represent women have inflicted on our State, and our Country. Keep reading, keep listening, keep trusting women – all with an active voice.

“An Open Letter to 21 Million Women” by B.J. Isaacson-Jones ( 1988 )

…

Where are you?

For over 16 years we have provided you with choices

Painful choices

I remember—

I sometimes cried with you.

Choices, nevertheless, when you were desperate.

Remember how we protected your privacy

and treated you with dignity and respect when you were famous,

had been brought to us in shackles with an armed guard,

or were terrified that you would run into

one of your students?

I remember each of you.

Our clinic was firebombed. Do you recall?

Exhausted and terrified we had been up all night.

We rerouted you to another clinic because you wanted an abortion that day.

Where are you?

Priding ourselves on providing abortions for those who cannot pay,

we have spent millions of dollars that we never really had caring for you.

We wanted to give a choice.

I also gave you cab fare and money for dinner from my own pocket.

Have you forgotten?

I remember you cried

and asked me how you could carry this pregnancy to term

when you were abusing the children you had, were having an affair,

tested positive for AIDS, could not handle another, were raped by your mother’s boyfriend,

pregnant by your father and shocked and torn apart when your very much wanted and loved fetus was found to be severely deformed.

Your mother picketed our clinic regularly.

We brought you in after dark. Have you mustered the courage to tell her that you are pro-choice?

You are. Aren’t you?

I recall shielding your shaking body, guiding you and you husband through the picket lines.

They screamed adoption, not abortion!

You wondered how you could explain your choice to your young children.

You broke our hearts.

You had just celebrated your twelfth birthday when you came to us.

You clutched your teddy bear, sucked your thumb and cried out for your mom

who asked you why you had gotten yourself pregnant. You replied that you just wanted to be grown.

You’re twenty today. Where are you?

I pretend I don’t know you in the market, at social gatherings and on the street.

I told you I would. After your procedure you told me that you would fight for reproductive choices (parenthood, adoption, and abortion) for your mother, daughters, and grandchildren.

You will . . . won’t you?

I have no regrets. I care about each and every one of you and treasure all that you’ve taught me.

But I’m angry.

I can’t do this alone.

I’m not asking you to speak about your abortion, but

You need to speak out and you need to speak out now. Where are you?

- B.J. Isaacson-Jones

Whole Woman’s Health: A Woman’s Right to Know (That Her Rights Don’t Matter to Her State.)

Sooo… remember in 2003 when the Woman’s Right to Know act was passed? The act that was supposed to make “mothers appreciate the development and characteristics of their unborn children” and “arm mothers with the truth about abortion”?

…the one that required all abortion clinics to buy and disperse publications written and printed by who-knows-who within the state that describe the development of the fetus, provide full-color in-utero pictures of it, as well as a 21 page directory full of adoption clinics & crisis pregnancy centers?

…the same one that required our Doctors to go down a list and speak directly to each and every woman about things that they believe are scientifically false? (Abortion = Increased risk of breast cancer, for instance.)

…In addition to mentioning to every single woman that she may be eligible for government financial assistance if she carries the pregnancy to term?

…Right. The one that also required women to wait 24 hours after being told about her options, but at least had the decency to allow her to listen to these “facts” via phone while at work, instead of losing 2 days of pay to physically be there in person to hear them?

Yeah, remember that? The one that we were still abiding by, when they passed the other invasive, medically unnecessary bill in the same name of informed consent?

So when it’s all said and done, the way that Texas has interjected themselves into a woman’s appointment sounds a little like this… “This is what a pregnancy looks like up close. (Are you sure you want an abortion?) And here’s a list of everything that could possibly go wrong. (Are you really sure?) Remember, you can get some parenting classes here, here and here. (How about now?) Now hold tight… (Was that uncomfortable? Sorry.) OK, This is what *your* pregnancy looks like. (Sure you’re sure?) And this is what it sounds like. (Isn’t that cute?) Well, what do you think?… Wait. Hold that thought – Come back tomorrow and tell us.”

Allllll of this new ultrasound jargon is not about informed consent, because we already had an informed consent bill on the books that obviously “wasn’t working well enough” for them. But you know why it wasn’t working?

Because abortion isn’t the problem. It’s the long list of other things that lead to women feeling like they need one. (Some of those can be fixed, and some of them simply can’t!) It’s the lack of access and the price of reliable forms of birth control that don’t make women want to pull their hair out and forget about sex altogether. It’s a lot of stuff. But it’s not abortion. And THOSE are the things that our politicians need to be working on, instead of just “cutting to the chase” and restricting access to a safe, legal procedure.

If the Woman’s Right to Know act in 2003 was anti-choice politicians way of asking women “Are you sure?” then the ultrasound bill is just the same people using politics to ask “Are you sure you’re sure you’re sure?” We just can’t wait to see what it looks like when they find out this isn’t working either and draft up a bill that asks “Are you sure you’re sure you’re sure you’re sure?” and more importantly, are we sure we want to allow them far enough into our appointment to ask it?

Whole Woman’s Health: What You Need to Know about Plan B (and our discount during SXSW.)

Anybody who has ever been in Austin, TX during the SXSW festival knows that it can get a little nuts. Ok – a lot of nuts. People either pile into the city, or they flee away in a hurry before it begins. That said, Whole Woman’s Health wants to make sure that people will be doing whatever-it-is-that-they-may-be-doing-(you-really-don’t-have-to-tell-us-about-it)… safely.

We will be offering a discount on Plan B this year throughout the entire festival. If you spot one of these flyers, pick it up and redeem it at our clinic in Austin – and feel free to pick up some free condoms, while you’re at it.

Here are the top 5 things you should know about Plan B (the morning after pill) before you take it:

1.) The morning after pill is effective up to 72 hours after unsafe sex…

2.) However, it’s most effective within the first 24 hours, so it’s best not to wait.

3.) No matter how many people say it (and they do), Plan B is not the abortion pill. It works by preventing ovulation, if you have not yet ovulated. And if you *have*, and there *is* an egg floating around the inner-space of your lady parts, it works by making changes to your cervical mucus and uterine lining, making it harder for sperm to reach that unfertilized egg. If all of that doesn’t work, then as a last resort, it simply makes it harder for a fertilized egg to attach to the uterus. If an egg has already been fertilized and has found its new home in your uterus, Plan B will unfortunately not be the one to write the eviction notice. (So at this point, you will probably need to devise a Plan C. We can cross that bridge together, if it happens.)

4.) Plan B cannot be administered to those 17 or younger without a parent or guardian.

5.) Plan B is available at most major pharmacies, but be wary of which one you choose! Some pharmacists as well as pharmacy techs have historically denied women access to Plan B. Why? We don’t know. A lot of them say it’s because of their moral obligation to not dispense the stuff. Which either means a.) they think Plan B = The Abortion Pill (again, no it doesn’t.) or b.) they just think you’d make a really great mother. In any case, heading to a pro-choice women’s health clinic is the best bet for a no-hassle, no-judgment purchase of Plan B.

Have any questions? Just ask! Otherwise, we’ll see you during SXSW!

Whole Woman’s Health: Seeking 1 Pro-Choice Marketing Intern!

Whole Woman’s Health is seeking an intern for our marketing department, located at our Headquarters in Austin! We are a holistic women’s health clinic with a strong emphasis on women’s reproductive rights – abortion care, included. Our office is a very feminist-friendly, laid back environment, however, applicants should expect to learn a lot about the trials and tribulations of the abortion world and everything that comes with it, including protestors, public policy and your own personal strength! Applicants must be pro-choice and on board with Whole Woman’s Health mission and goals.

The Marketing Director is seeking a once-a-week intern to assist primarily with data entry and market research, with possible other projects assigned, based on experience. Position is unpaid, but offers a very flexible schedule and valuable healthcare marketing/reproductive rights experience. Must be available one day per week, for a minimum of 3-4 hours. Applicants seeking school credit OK, but applicants with some free time and a general interest in fighting for reproductive rights are OK, too!

To apply, please email your resume and cover letter to: ac@wholewomanshealth.com