Fertile Roots

An anthropologist looks at how women can educate themselves, take greater control of their health, and push back against a system that dismisses 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?

In Fertile Roots, anthropologist Emily Donaldson offers 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 U.S., 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, Donaldson 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.