photo credit: aphrodite-in-nyc via photopin cc
GP and I are not besties, but that might be because we live on different coasts. Or maybe it’s because we don’t really see eye to eye on a lot of things and I have long deleted my email subscription to goop. Whatever the case may be, I have been a bit steamed about GP and her recommendation for vaginal steaming.
I have nothing against it. My people came up with it. I probably wouldn’t recommend it, but then again, I’ve never tried it. I’ve been a recent convert to the Korean body scrub massage and I thought I would never do something like that, so who knows. In any case, I’m not fond of sitting on top of steaming mugwort. (Want to know more about this? Read this post by an OB/GYN over at BlogHer.)
However, I’m a little inflamed by this because it’s another thing that some schmuck is going to ask me about because I am Asian. It’s something that is part of my culture that people are going to just make fun of. It has become a total mockery now and people are saying that GP has “lost it.” And now, I feel that red-faced shame creeping over me all over again anytime people are posting stuff about this.
Maybe I am taking this too seriously – it’s just a little fun, right? A little joke? But in all seriousness, I feel a lot of shame. It’s something that Koreans believe helps and maybe it does. I don’t have first hand experience. It’s different from the recommendation of a Sitz bath after giving birth, but no one is laughing and telling anyone else that they have “lost it” for doing what’s recommended by nurses in hospitals. (I felt like Sitz baths were amazingly helpful post-partum and recommend it to all new moms not to miss out on it.)
So with a big sigh, I sign off on this post about vaginal steaming. American OB/GYNs don’t recommend it. I personally have no opinion on it, but I do swear by the Korean body scrub/massage. It will make you feel like a new person. And GP, please stop all this mockery.