Beacon Press: Fertile Roots
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Fertile Roots

Cultivating Women's Reproductive Health with the Science of Herbs

Author: Emily C. Donaldson

An anthropologist looks at how women can educate themselves, take greater control of their health, and push back against a system that’s dismissing their needs and the full breadth of humanity’s medical expertise

What if we could improve women’s reproductive health by simply shifting our perspective?

Anthropologist Emily Donaldson shows us how in Fertile Roots, offering a window onto the scientific, cross-cultural studies of medicinal plants that are already supporting women’s health around the world. Donaldson gives readers the tools and information they need to better navigate every aspect of women’s reproductive health.

As access to reproductive care continues to shrink in the US, women are stumbling across herbal medicines on their own, with little guidance on how or what to take. Too often, they forge ahead without consulting an expert or health care practitioner, leading in some cases to dire consequences.

Fertile Roots brings herbal, Indigenous, and traditional medicines and perspectives into direct conversation with clinical research on medicinal plants, illustrating all the expertise that mainstream Western medicine has long dismissed—to the detriment of women.

Donaldson shares insights from ethnobotanical research, herbalism, midwifery, and traditional medicine. Through untold stories from around the world, she reveals how women are using herbal medicines for contraception, fertility enhancement, premenstrual syndrome (PMS), morning sickness, postpartum health, miscarriage, abortion, and more.

Scientific research on the efficacy of herbal medicines may be sparse, but the evidence is clear. By working together to respect traditional healers and embrace herbs as a complement to Western medicine, patients, medical practitioners, midwives, and herbalists can improve health care and save lives.
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Fertile Roots

ISBN: 978-080702492-8
 Publication Date: 2/23/2027
 Size:5.5 x 8.5 Inches (US)
Price:  $28.95
Format: Cloth
Not Yet Published
Will Ship On: February 2027
(Backorder policy)
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