Mother Roasting The Use of Traditional Chinese Medicine in Post Partum Care - Raven Lang
This booklet is about using the concepts and treatment of Traditional Chinese Medicine for the mother in her fourth trimester—the first three months after delivery. Heat is used on the areas of the mother called the Ming Men/LIfe Gate and/or the Dan Tien/Sea of Qi— in order to consolidate and nourish her qi and blood, close down the gates of birth, and facilitate lactation.
The concept of Mother Roasting comes from several different pre-industrial cultures where some form of heat or fire is used in the immediate post partum to nourish the mother and aid her in maintaining strength after delivery. Instructions are given.
Raven Lang was one of the first homebirth midwives in California. In 1970 she founded the Santa Cruz Birth Center, the first birth center in North America. Two years and fifty births later she wrote Birth Book. In 1972 Raven immigrated to British Columbia, where she helped organize and run the first birth center in B.C. Six years later, she returned to California and founded the Institute of Feminine Arts, the first non-medical school for midwifery in North America.
In 1982 she began her training in TCM and incorporated TCM into her midwifery. For the next three years she apprenticed with Dr. Miriam Lee, a nurse midwife from China and one of the first licensed acupuncturists in California. During her time with Dr. Lee, Raven learned the patterns of Master Tung’s Magic Points. From 1982 to 2012
Raven practiced in Santa Cruz, California, specializing in women’s medicine and pediatrics. Since 2012, Raven has left her practice and is in semi-retirement.
In 2013 she attended a yearlong course in studying the classics, with Dr. Elisabeth Rochat de la Vallee. Presently Raven teaches classes, offers externships, and sits as a board member for Institute of Feminine Arts and Sciences, a newly opened school of midwifery in Santa Rosa, California.
She is a dynamic teacher and teaches subjects as diverse as the politics and history of women’s health, parenting, the science and art of obstetrics, and pediatrics.