Peaceful Periods with Chantal Blake
Chantal Blake
I meet so many people with menstrual cycle difficulties in the work that I do as an acupuncturist, herbalist and pelvic (vaginal) steam practitioner. People want to be heard. A lot of people feel they have unanswered questions and limited options as to how to care for themselves. It can be frustrating for those that have menstrual cycle conditions and it should not be this way. This is why I am so passionate about using what Chinese Medicine offers to work more gently and intuitively on menstrual health in a way that feels safer and softer.
My colleague in the vaginal steaming community, Chantal Blake, has expressed a similar experiences when working with her community. She says,
“The women I work with kept saying, ‘I wish I knew this sooner.’ and ‘Nobody told me.’”
This motivated her to write her recently published book, Peaceful Periods: Holistic Womb Care for Teens. Having the privilege to review Chantal’s book, I saw how it was not just a love letter to the young people experiencing their periods early on, but a way to shift stories and create preventative practices to heal future generations.
Chantal began her womb steaming business as her children grew older and she began to feel a need to ‘mother’ outside of her home and family. She began by selling herbal blends for steaming and vaginal steaming stools. She eventually began to give private consultations and recalls seeing “how the common roots of period ignorance and shame manifest as menstrual and reproductive health challenges over time.” Chantal wanted to create a resource that acts as an “early intervention and vision for what collective menstrual health can be with the right information, support, and tools.” She says,
“I genuinely want everyone to know that the menstrual cycle is an ally to our health and success, not an enemy.”
Chantal tells me that she found womb steaming after she experienced recurrent pregnancy losses following the birth of her first child. She explains, “I began a hormone healing journey, which began with learning to value and understand the power of the menstrual cycle. At some point, a memory of my first trip to the gynecologist surfaced where she told me that my uterus was tilted with no further information or instruction. I later learned that uterine positioning can impact my reproductive health and pursued consultation with an Arvigo massage practitioner. Prior to my abdominal massage, I was offered a vaginal steam and was encouraged to continue steaming as a way to help regulate my irregular menstrual cycles. Establishing my personal practice at home helped me feel more in-tune and aware of my cycle. As I learned more about how the practice could help women recover after birth and relieve period pain, I felt called to bring this offering to my community.”
Chantal primarily works with Muslim women and women of color. Many of her clients are mothers or aspire to be mothers. She has also created a private womb wellness community for Muslim women and women of color called the Honored Womb Circle. She holds gatherings that include prayer, open sharing, grounding or reflection practices, as a way to create a more intimate place for people to connect with each other and “share in the medicine of story”.
Chantal’s great grandfather who immigrated from China to Jamaica
There are so many misconceptions, misunderstandings and false information out on social media and the internet on vaginal steaming, which is a practice you can trace back to every continent. I asked Chantal what she wants people to know about it [vaginal steaming].
She says, “More than anything, I just want people to believe women.
If someone says womb steaming supported them in their healing journey, I don’t see why they should be belittled, ridiculed or gaslit for adding their testimonial to the growing number of documented anecdotal accounts that abound internationally. I’ve heard medical doctors caution against steaming, but I don’t see many taking the time to understand the practice from a historic, cultural, and/or therapeutic perspective. This is why I have so much appreciation for medical doctors who publicly express support for vaginal steaming.”
“I also think that insulting the universal practice of vaginal steaming, insults the collective intelligence of cultures and individuals who have upheld the practice for centuries.”
If people around the world who have no connection to one another through common ideology, language, religion, or philosophy have adopted and maintained a practice in their heritage, it is evident to me that the majority of them have found benefit in it. To dismiss the entire practice as harmful or useless because it hasn’t been rigorously researched and proven to the satisfaction of Western medical standards is incredibly arrogant, in my opinion. I agree that we need to caution against the incorrect use of steaming (i.e. steaming without proper consideration given to herb selection, steam temperature, or steam duration), but that doesn’t mean that vaginal steaming is inherently dangerous. Reproductive health did not begin with, nor does it end with, modern gynecology.”
As someone who practices what is considered an ‘alternative’ medicine in the United States (of America), Chinese Medicine, I can relate to this. People have to understand that when they dismiss a cultural practice because they simply are not well educated on it, they are also dismissing the existence of the people of that culture. In Medicine, we aim to ‘do no harm’ and we also know that cultural erasure is harmful.
Chantal’s Peaceful Periods book, she says, “ is a prayer for and by the collective. So many brilliant minds contributed and lovingly challenged the content, like Dr. Laurena White, Keli Garza and Kris Gonzáles". She calls the book her “fourth-born child, and it really feels like the book was born into the hands of a loving village.”
Lastly, Chantal hopes to see more exchanges “between communities to help combat prejudice and foster mutual understanding and respect.”
How To Get In Touch
Find Chantal on instagram @honoredwomb
Written by Dr. Emily Siy and Chantal Blake on 10/16/23