Can pregnant women soak their feet in mugwort leaves?

Pregnant women can use mugwort to soak their feet, which can have a calming and sleep-inducing effect. Especially for some pregnant women whose sleep quality is not very good, they should adopt this method to regulate their sleep, so that they can feel better and their bodies will not be in sub-health. Moreover, mugwort itself has a certain effect of stabilizing the fetus, which will allow the fetus to develop more healthily.

Mugwort is bitter, pungent and warm in nature, and enters the spleen, liver and kidneys. "Compendium of Materia Medica" records: Mugwort leaves are used as medicine, which are warm in nature, bitter in taste, non-toxic, purely yang in nature, and can pass through the twelve meridians. It has the effects of restoring yang, regulating qi and blood, expelling dampness and cold, stopping bleeding and stabilizing the fetus, and is also commonly used in acupuncture. Therefore, it is also called "medicinal herb". Most of the "herbal baths" that are popular in Taiwan use mugwort. Regarding the properties of mugwort, "Compendium of Materia Medica" records: "mugwort can cure all diseases by moxibustion." "Compendium of Materia Medica Congxin" says: "mugwort is bitter and pungent, warm when raw and hot when cooked, and has a pure yang nature. It can restore the yang that is dying, connect the twelve meridians, flow through the three yin meridians, regulate qi and blood, expel cold and dampness, and warm the uterus... Using it to moxibustion fire can penetrate all meridians and cure all diseases."

It shows that using mugwort as a moxibustion material has the effects of dredging blood vessels, removing yin and cold, reducing swelling and dispersing nodules, and restoring yang and rescuing from adverse conditions. Modern pharmacology has discovered that mugwort contains a lot of volatile oil, including 1.8-cineole (accounting for more than 50%), and others include α-thujone, sesquiterpene alcohols and their esters. Air-dried leaves contain 10.13% minerals, 2.59% fat, and 10.1% protein.

Mugwort has the effects of regulating menstruation and stopping bleeding, stabilizing pregnancy and stopping metrorrhagia, and dispelling cold and dampness. It can treat irregular menstruation, menstrual pain, abdominal pain, miscarriage, uterine bleeding, and can cure rheumatoid arthritis, headache, and menstrual wind. Because it can cut ice into round shapes and cure all kinds of diseases, it is the most commonly used medicine by doctors. Modern experimental research has proved that mugwort has antibacterial and antiviral effects.

It has antiasthmatic, antitussive and expectorant effects; hemostatic and anticoagulant effects; sedative and anti-allergic effects; liver protecting and choleretic effects, etc. Mugwort can be used to make recipes such as "mugwort tea", "mugwort soup", and "mugwort porridge" to enhance the body's resistance to disease. Mugwort has a special fragrance, which has the effect of repelling mosquitoes. Therefore, the ancients often hung mugwort in front of their doors, one to ward off evil spirits, and the other to drive away mosquitoes.

The whole plant is used as medicine, which has the effects of warming the meridians, removing dampness, dispelling cold, stopping bleeding, anti-inflammatory, relieving asthma, relieving cough, stabilizing pregnancy and anti-allergic. Medical books of all dynasties record it as an "essential medicine for stopping bleeding" and it is also one of the commonly used medicines in gynecology. It is especially good for treating gynecological diseases of deficiency and cold, and chronic bronchitis and asthma in the elderly. Boiled water for bathing can prevent and treat maternal and infant infections during the postpartum period, or it can be made into medicinal pillows and medicated vests to prevent and treat chronic bronchitis or asthma in the elderly and stomach pain due to deficiency and cold. Mugwort leaves are dried and crushed to get "moptysis wool", which can be made into moxa sticks for moxibustion, and can also be used as the raw material for "ink paste". In addition, the whole plant can be used as an insecticide or fumigation smoke for room disinfection and insecticide. The young shoots and seedlings are used as vegetables. [1]