Natural Remedies for Miscarriage Recovery: How to Heal Your Heart & Body
If you’re looking for natural remedies for miscarriage recovery, let me first say that I’m so sorry. You’re likely reading this because you or someone you deeply love has experienced one of the most heart-wrenching losses a woman can experience: a miscarriage.
And you’re wondering what to do now. I’ve been there, too.
I’m not just sharing these things as an herbalist and aromatherapist with extensive training in women’s health. I’ve also had three miscarriages: an uncomplicated, early loss that resolved at home; a missed miscarriage at 9/10 weeks that left me waiting for 7 weeks before using medication to complete it; and loss at almost 10 weeks which required a lot of physical recovery time.
All of them were devastating. But by using healing herbs, nourishing foods, and other natural remedies for miscarriage recovery, I healed over time. And you can, too.
Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. Purchasing through affiliate links comes at no extra cost to you while I can earn a small commission.
The Most Important Things to Do for Natural Miscarriage Recovery
When you’re grieving, just getting through the basics of life can feel like a lot to manage. Though I’m sharing all sorts of healing herbs, foods, and other natural remedies for miscarriage recovery, you may look at these options and just feel overwhelmed. That’s okay.
If you can do nothing else while you heal from a miscarriage, focus on these three things.
Acknowledge the Process
Miscarriage is hard work for your body, heart, and mind. It’s not just a difficult period that you bounce back from when the bleeding stops. In fact, my midwife once told me “A miscarriage is a birth. It just has a different outcome.”
How hard your body has to work to go through the miscarriage process can depend on a number of things, like how far along you were. If you had a very early miscarriage might have felt like a painful, difficult period.
If you were further along in your pregnancy or your body never recognized your baby passed, you might have needed medical assistance. Perhaps you needed medical help because of complications.
None of these situations gives you a happy ending. However your miscarriage resolved, you went through an emotionally devastating and physically demanding process that will take time to recover from. It’s important to acknowledge that and be gentle with yourself.
Give Yourself Time
You need time to heal on all levels. There is no rush.
Your body needs time to recover. You might feel extra tired and fatigued for a while. Your lower abdominal and pelvic muscles may feel sore or achy. It’s important to take it easy for a couple of weeks after a miscarriage and gradually work your way back into your old routine.
Your heart needs time, too. Though some people may not understand, it’s okay to not suddenly “get over” a miscarriage once the bleeding stops. Anytime you lose a loved one, it takes time for the raw grief to pass. That goes for unborn babies, too. Your heart will heal, but that doesn’t happen overnight.
If you need to be reminded of this, please read To The Heartbroken Woman Walking Through Miscarriage.
If You Can Only Do One Thing, It’s This
Many herbs, foods, and supplements can help you naturally heal after a miscarriage, but they won’t do much good without one crucial aspect of recovery.
Rest.
You’ll need to sleep, sit, and lie down more often. You may not have the strength to carry around older children, if you have any, for a few weeks.
Try to get help with meals, cleaning, and errands as you recover. If someone offers, don’t feel guilty for accepting the help. You need it.
Sometimes people don’t think to offer a meal or cleaning help, though. It might feel uncomfortable, but it’s okay to ask for help. If that feels too awkward, try asking a trusted friend or family member to do it for you. At the very least, give yourself permission to order out and lower your cleaning standards to the bare minimum.
You’re not being lazy by taking it easy. You’re being wise. Miscarriage takes a lot out of you, and the best way to get built back up is through rest.
Natural Remedies for Miscarriage Recovery
Your body needs time and space to physically heal after a miscarriage.
The cramping and contractions can take days. The blood loss can be significant. You may feel nauseous, have headaches, or struggle to sleep until the whole process is over. Miscarriage hurts the heart, and it is also hard on the body.
You’ll need to monitor your miscarriage closely. Many complete at home with no complications, but not all do. If you have a fever, severe blood loss, become faint, or have any other concerning symptoms, please seek medical attention immediately. You are worth it.
Sometimes it’s hard to figure out how to piece all of the natural remedies for miscarriage recovery together on your own. If you want one-on-one guidance for your situation, you can learn about my Thriving Health Consultations here.
Feel better, faster.
Your health is worth it.
With a Thriving Health Consultation, you’ll get one-on-one guidance in choosing the right herbs, essential oils, and supplements for you.
Herbs for Miscarriage Recovery
Herbs can be an excellent natural home remedy after miscarriage. The best herbs for you will depend on your specific health history and current needs, but the following lists give you some ideas to start with. You can combine the herbs based on your recovery needs or just focus on one.
My favorite way to use herbs for miscarriage recovery is through herbal infusions. These are strong herbal teas that give your body both herbal benefits and needed hydration. However, I’ve included a note with any herbs that are best used as a tincture.
You can find these herbs, as well as high-quality tea blends and herbal extracts, from my friends at Mountain Rose Herbs. If you need help understanding which herbs for miscarriage recovery are right for you, I can help.
Nutrient-Rich Herbs
- Red raspberry leaf (Rubus idaeus) tones and strengthens the uterus, so it can help your womb reach its pre-pregnancy state after a miscarriage. It’s also full of minerals. My homemade herbal pregnancy tea blend features raspberry leaf and is helpful for miscarriage recovery, too.
- Alfalfa (Medicago sativa) was once known as the King of Herbs because of its nutritional benefits. It helps rebuild strength for anyone who feels weak.
- Nettles (Urtica dioica) is so full of minerals that it almost tastes salty, making it a great herb for rebuilding. You can even add it to recipes in place of dried parsley. I love it in chicken soup!
Relaxing Nervine & Adaptogenic Herbs
- Lemon balm (Melissa officinalis) helps calm anxiety and promotes relaxation. It was once known as the “gladdening herb” because of its emotional support. It’s an important herb in my Anti-Anxia-Tea herbal tea blend.
- Chamomile (Matricaria recutita) calms nerves, soothes digestion, and promotes better sleep, so it’s an excellent herb to use when you’re grieving. It pairs well with lemon balm in tea.
- Rose petals (Rosa ssp.) don’t taste very good on their own as a tea, but a few petals sprinkled into a tea blend really uplifts the heart. After one of my miscarriages, I found so much comfort in gathering rose petals from my garden. I’ve come to love the medicinal uses of rose.
- Motherwort (Leonurus cardiaca) is rightly named since it’s a mother’s wort, or healing herb. As a bitter nervine it helps calm anxiety and emotional liability while also promoting hormonal balance. It’s best taken as a tincture because of its bitterness.
- Ashwagandha (Withania somnifera) is a calming, nourishing adaptogen that helps your body respond to stress. It won’t provide you with immediate relief, but can help your body rebuild and rebalance itself over time. It has a strong, earthy flavor, so you may like it best as a tincture.
- Tulsi (Ocimum tenuiflorum) is a delicious adaptogenic herb that makes a wonderful tea. I love it mixed with rose petals when I want to feel comforted.
Other Helpful Herbs
- Vitex, or chaste berry (Vitex angust-castus), is often used to help balance a woman’s hormones. It may be a good herb for you if your hormones don’t seem to regulate after your miscarriage. Vitex is best taken as a tincture for at least 3 months.
- Crampbark (Viburnum opulus) and black haw (Viburnum prunifolium) are similar antispasmodic herbs that work well for mild to moderate pelvic camping and discomfort. It’s most effective and convenient to take it as a tincture.
- Maca (Lepidium meyenii) is a nourishing herb that balances hormones, rebuilds strength, and often promotes fertility. It also tastes very good, so you can add it to all sorts of food recipes and drinks, like hot cocoa. I highly recommend maca from The Maca Team.
Supplements Your Body May Need After Miscarriage
Even when you’re eating really well, you’ll likely benefit from a few key supplements that help fill in common nutritional gaps while you heal.
- Prenatal vitamins aren’t just for when you’re pregnant. They provide important nutrients that promote overall wellness and can encourage your recovery. I personally take Baby & Me 2 from MegaFood, but you can take whatever prenatal you were taking before your miscarriage.
- Magnesium is a crucial mineral that’s responsible for hundreds of bodily functions. When you’re low on magnesium, you can suffer from headaches, insomnia, constipation, muscle cramps, and more. Most people have some level of deficiency, and on top of that, high-stress situations can drain the body of magnesium. My family and I all take UltraMag from Pure Encapsulations.
- Iron can become low after a miscarriage due to blood loss. Almost all prenatal vitamins have some iron in them, but if you have anemia concerns, you might regain your strength faster with a dedicated iron supplement. I recommend Floradix Iron & Herbs or Perfect Supplement’s Desiccated Liver Capsules since they are both whole food, highly absorbable iron supplements.
If you need a source for quality supplements, you can visit my Fullscript dispensary. You’ll get 20% off retail pricing on the premium supplements healthcare practitioners trust most, like Floradix, MegaFood, Pure Encapsulations, and more. (U.S. and Canada customers only.)
Food for natural miscarriage recovery is covered below, so you know what to eat after a miscarriage.
How to Use Essential Oils After a Miscarriage
Many people use essential oils for stress relief, so you might find them helpful as you grieve. By reducing your stress levels, they can help you sleep better, reduce depression, ease muscle tension, and more.
- An Epsom salt bath with essential oils in a quiet bathroom can be a very calming experience. The Epsom salt will boost your magnesium levels and the aromatherapy will ease your heart.
- An easy, natural air freshener spray can be uplifting or calming, depending on your preferences.
- This relaxing pillow spray is made with essential oils and can promote better sleep so you can heal faster and feel better.
While some people claim essential oils balance your hormone levels, herbs are much more effective. Essential oils may be able to indirectly support hormone levels through stress support, but you’ll get better and faster results with dietary and herbal approaches.
After one of my miscarriages, I kept a couple of my favorite essential oil roll-on blends in my purse. The comforting scents helped me feel grounded when I had to go out but wasn’t feeling like myself yet.
Creating your own roll-on blends is very simple, but you have to safely dilute your essential oils or you can hurt your skin. My printable resource The Essential Oils Quick Reference Guide helps you know how to do that.
Get at-a-glance help with
The Essential Oils Quick Reference Guide
It’s never been easier to safely use essential oils!
What to Eat After Miscarriage
After going through a miscarriage, your body needs to rebuild and refuel with nourishing foods. This may not be easy when you’re exhausted, grieving, and sore, but it can be done.
For the most part, the same whole foods that help you build a healthy baby, recover from a regular birth, or get well after a sickness will also help you naturally recover after a miscarriage.
- Rebuild with protein at every meal and snack. Cheese, nut butter, and eggs are quick and easy to prepare. Meats, seafood, and poultry are obviously good protein choices. If you like liver and have a good source, this can be an excellent time to eat some for a boost of iron.
- Whole fruits and veggies require little to no prep time but are nutritionally sound. Cooked leafy greens, like kale, broccoli, and collards are especially good choices, as well as dark orange vegetables like sweet potatoes.
- Bone broth is a great place to turn when you need to rebuild. If you don’t have any in the freezer, anyone who can boil water can easily make some for you with a good soup bone, some veggie scraps, and a little time.
- Include some fat with each meal to help your body gain strength and absorb all the nutrients from your food. Butter, olive oil, and coconut oil are examples of nourishing fats.
- Watch out for empty carbs and stick with whole grain options like brown rice, whole wheat sourdough bread, and oats (you can even turn these into yummy dandelion petal cookies!)
Do your best to focus on nutrient-dense, simple, and unprocessed foods. Meals don’t have to be fancy or complicated to be healing.
Healing Your Heart After a Miscarriage
Just like you can’t force your body to heal faster after a miscarriage, you can’t rush the mending of your heart, either.
There’s no correct way to grieve or amount of time to grieve. You may only be slightly saddened and disappointed, or you may feel like your entire world just collapsed around you. You might also feel something in the middle.
Whatever your exact feelings, processing through them is vital for complete miscarriage recovery. When we don’t process our emotions, our physical health can suffer, too.
Ways to Remember Your Baby
Many women, couples, and families find it extremely healing to memorialize their baby somehow after a miscarriage. It can help bring you a sense of closure while also helping you hold on to your lost baby’s memory.
- You can name your baby, even if you didn’t know the gender.
- Some families hold a small funeral or memorial service for the baby. This can be done at a cemetery, complete with a grave marker, or held in a more private location.
- Trees, shrubs, and perennial plants often make meaningful symbols of your baby’s life. You can choose one that blooms on the baby’s due date or has some other special meaning to you.
- Writing a letter to your baby can be a powerful way to find healing and closure so you can move forward. Dads and siblings can do this, too.
- A growing number of ministries, organizations, and small businesses offer small blankets, beautiful prints, and other precious tokens to remember your baby. If you’re not sure where to find something you like, try Etsy.
After our miscarriages, my husband and I did a few of these things. We named our babies (Baby Hopeful passed in January 2011, Baby Selah in June 2022, and Baby Shalom in February 2023), wrote letters to them, and planted meaningful plants in their honor. I also had a remembrance bracelet made after our second loss as a way to hold both of their memories close on special days, like Mother’s Day and due dates.
Extra Emotional Support After Miscarriage
As you give yourself time and space to grieve your loss, you’ll probably want to seek out extra emotional support. This doesn’t mean you’re weak. It means you’re human, and humans are built for community.
Husbands can be hit hard by pregnancy loss, too, as well as any other children you may have. These extra supports can help everyone who is hurting from your baby’s passing.
- Journaling offers you an opportunity to openly process your raw thoughts and feelings without worrying about how they sound to others.
- Spending time in nature when the weather permits can be quite healing. Nature therapy is associated with all sorts of positive health effects. The photos in this article feature my own garden plants that brought me much peace after our second miscarriage.
- Talking with fellow moms who have had a miscarriage can help you recognize that your feelings and grief are very normal. Their experience can also give you hope for the future. There might be a support group in your area, but if not, there are plenty of online forums and groups to try.
- There is no shame in reaching out to a trusted midwife or OB/GYN, counselor, pastor, or other professional for more in-depth help. Sometimes you just need to talk with someone who is a little removed from your situation and can help you find a way forward.
- Try to keep the lines of communication with your husband open so that you can process your grief together. You may not grieve in the same ways, but you can still support one another as your hearts heal.
- If you have older children, ask them how they feel about the loss. They may not know how to bring up their feelings on their own.
Natural Miscarriage Recovery FAQs
What should I drink after a miscarriage to clean my womb?
Typically, your body will take care of cleaning out your uterus after a miscarriage without drinking or taking anything in particular. Just like our bodies usually know how to give birth, they usually know how to complete a miscarriage.
Sometimes things are more complicated, though. If you’re concerned there may be bits of placenta or other pregnancy tissues left in your womb, it’s important to see a medical provider since that can be a serious situation.
But if you’re not experiencing symptoms of an incomplete miscarriage (fever, pelvic pain, bad-smelling discharge, continued heavy bleeding, etc.), you can simply focus on nourishing foods, herbal teas, and rest as you recover.
Can I drink coffee after a miscarriage?
Yes, you can drink coffee after a miscarriage. Just be mindful of how much caffeine you take in so you don’t become dehydrated or disrupt your sleep patterns. One cup in the morning, if you’re accustomed to it, is perfectly acceptable.
And I get it. I love my morning coffee and look seriously forward to it when I go to bed at night!
However, if you’re feeling really run-down and depleted after a miscarriage, stick with decaf coffee or a yummy coffee substitute. Though you might crave that caffeine perk, your body needs rest and not a forced jolt of energy.
Do I need to detox after a miscarriage?
No, it’s highly unlikely you need to detox after a miscarriage. In fact, typical detoxes tend to be harsh on the body and can actually be harmful when your body needs to rebuild.
Instead, focus on the natural remedies for miscarriage recovery shared in this article. These things will be far more healing than any miscarriage detox plan.
I had a D & C after my miscarriage. Are there home remedies for D & C recovery?
After a D & C for a miscarriage, it’s important to follow your doctor’s post-surgical guidance. Along with eating well and resting, you can also drink red raspberry leaf tea to tone and support your uterus. Raspberry leaf tastes similar to black tea and nothing like raspberries (bummer!), so you can add other flavorful herbs, lemon, or a little honey if you don’t enjoy that taste
Should I drink a certain tea for miscarriage recovery?
Of all the natural remedies for miscarriage recovery, a nourishing herbal tea is probably my favorite. There’s no precise formula you need to follow, but you can start with a simple blend of
- 3 parts red raspberry leaf
- 1 part each alfalfa, nettle leaf, lemon balm, and chamomile.
The parts in this formula can be anything from tablespoons to cups. I like to use a 1/8 or 1/4 cup measuring cup for tea blending.
You can use 1 tablespoon of this blend per cup of freshly boiled water and steep it for at least 30 minutes. After straining, you can drink it warm or cold and with honey or lemon if you’d like. This blend gives you nutrients, tones the uterus, and provides some gentle nervous system support.
Are there herbs that can stop a miscarriage?
If a miscarriage is only threatened, meaning there’s mild cramping and/or bleeding but the baby still has a heartbeat, you may be able to prevent a loss. Your midwife or OB/GYN can advise you on the best steps to take during a threatened miscarriage. Herbs may be able to help, as well, but it’s important to work with a qualified herbalist in this situation.
If a miscarriage is confirmed, there are sadly no herbs or other natural remedies that can help.
Are there any herbs that prevent miscarriage?
That’s a tricky question since miscarriage can happen for a number of reasons and most of them won’t respond to herbal remedies.
However, if you’ve had repeated miscarriages and have been diagnosed with or suspect you have low progesterone levels, vitex (Vitex agnus-castus) may help normalize your hormones and increase the chances of carrying a baby to term.
Your midwife or OB/GYN can help you know if you have low progesterone. You can also chart your menstrual cycle and look for signs of low progesterone, like a short luteal phase. Taking Charge of Your Fertility by Toni Weschler is an excellent book that explains menstrual cycle charting.
Unless you have extensive experience with herbs, you’ll probably need to talk with an herbalist to see if vitex is right for you. An herbalist can also help you come up with a comprehensive plan for normalizing your hormone levels and increasing your chances of having a healthy, full-term pregnancy.
Even with multiple natural remedies for miscarriage recovery by your side, things may feel bumpy for a while. Grief is a winding road with many ups and downs and there’s no right way to travel it.
But you’ll get to the other side. With rest, time, and gentleness, your heart will heal. And with nourishing foods, healing herbs, and other natural remedies, your body will heal, too.
You’ll never forget the baby you lost, but you’ll find a way forward with that baby’s memory forever in your heart.
