MENSTRUAL CYCLE-CREATURE COMFORTS: KEEPING WARM
A hot bath is a great help at period time, not only because it keeps us sweet smelling, but because heat eases pain. As in everything else, we are all highly individual in the amount of heat we need. One woman’s hot bath will feel lukewarm to another. In Victorian times women used to be told that they couldn’t take a bath or wash their hair when they had a period, otherwise they’d catch cold and end up with pneumonia. Although we tend to mock such an idea today, it was actually sensible advice at the time it was given. In those days most bathrooms were unheated, hair was long and difficult to dry, and ordinary people’s homes did not have central heating. Now that most of us can keep our homes adequately warm, and dry ourselves and our hair thoroughly and quickly, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t bath as often as we like — providing we have a warm bathroom and the necessary supply of hot water.
A hot water bottle is a cheap form of warmth and there’s nothing to beat its comfort, especially when it can be applied quickly to a localized pain, like the one you feel low down in your abdomen, or in the small of your back. Some women make themselves into a hot water bottle sandwich, with bottles back and front. They find the double source of heat eases a lot of pain away. Many say the heat also helps them to relax. On the other hand there are some who find that direct heat is too exhausting to help them much, more evidence of how different we all are in the things we like and the things we need.
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