Cultivating a Healthy Pregnancy - Part 3

Welcome to part 3 of Cultivating a Healthy Pregnancy.  In today’s post, we’ll be discussing how to support the body after the wild journey of pregnancy has come to an end, and life with your newborn is just beginning.  If you missed parts one and two of our pregnancy series covering natural conception and pregnancy, be sure to go back and give them a read!

Congratulations, mama!  Your little one is finally earth side, thanks to the incredible, intense, and powerful event your body has just gone through.  You’re likely feeling raw, vulnerable, and sensitive, with the full spectrum of emotions ranging from joy, love, and exhilaration to exhaustion, depletion, and pain. 

Postpartum healing is both a physical and emotional journey, beginning most importantly with the first 40 days after birth.  In Ayurveda, it’s said “the first 40 days will impact the next 40 years”, meaning those first few weeks after birth are a vital time to rest and recover the body and spirit, while replenishing lost nutrients and restoring health and vitality.

Unfortunately, doing so has become continuously challenging in our western culture.  Modern day society lacks the necessary support systems and sense of community our ancestors once had, replacing them instead with intense pressures, challenges, and lack of support for new mothers.  Many women lack the resources to take a proper maternity leave, or don’t have help in place to care for both themselves and a new child.  If you feel this sense of isolation and lack of support, know you’re not alone.

Below, we’re sharing some supportive tools and practices to help ease the postpartum time, cultivate deep rest, replenish your being, and nourish body, mind, and spirit – so you can show up as the mother you want to be.

Nest & Rest

The most important thing a new mother can do after birth is create a restful nest for herself and her child.  Release any guilt and take all the pressure off yourself to do anything but rest and learn how to care for your new child.  This might mean leaning on family and friends for meals, hiring a cleaner to help with chores, asking your partner for additional support, and letting go of perfectionism during this time.  This is a time for you to receive, and allow others to take care of you.  You deserve it!

Lean on warming, healing foods

Warming, well-cooked, mushy, and nutritive foods will be gentle on digestion and soothing to the body postpartum.  Think bone broth, homemade soups and stews, porridges, slow-cooked meats and grains, fermented foods such as sauerkraut and coconut or whole milk yogurt, and Ayurvedic dishes like kitchari and golden milk with ghee or coconut cream.

Come into Roberts Creek Well-being to shop Blue Bird Provisions bone broth, Harmonic Arts Golden Mylk Latte Mix, Lee’s Provisions Ghee, Mile One grass-fed beef and wild mushroom chili, Hills grass-fed meats, Yoggu coconut yogurt, Kartheine sauerkraut, and a variety of organic grains

Protect your energy

Now is the time to set boundaries, especially in the first 40 days after birth.  You get to choose who enters the sacred postpartum space, and whose energy feels supportive to be around during this time.  This answer will vary for every woman, and takes some self-honesty and potentially a hard conversation or two.  Some mothers love being surrounded by extended family and friends for support, while others feel extra sensitive to other people’s energy, and prefer to create a safe cave for just their partner and child.  Both mother and child’s auric field is incredibly sensitive in the month following birth, and you are allowed to protect your energy in whatever way feels good.

Replenish with vitamins and herbs

Placenta encapsulation, pre or postnatal vitamins (we love Garden of Life Whole Foods Prenatal!), homeopathics, and nutritive herbs support recovery, replenish lost nutrient stores, and ease postpartum depression.  Natural Calm Magnesium and Garden of Life Probiotics combat postpartum constipation and support optimal gut-health.  Nettle infusions provide the body with important trace minerals to combat hair loss.   Learn how to make one here!  Harmonic Arts 5-mushroom powder supports the nervous system and builds resilience postpartum. Traditional Medicinal’s Mother’s Milk Tea supports healthy breast milk production.  Herbal baths soothe a healing body.

Lean on natural products

Choosing non-toxic products to use on our little one is so important during those early years, since their skin is extra sensitive during this time.  We love Weleda’s Baby two-in-one shampoo and body wash, Weleda’s Calendula Diaper Cream, and Anointment Baby Skincare Essentials to name a few of our favorites.

Turn to nature 

Lying on the grass with your newborn, walking barefoot, breathing fresh air, forest bathing, touching the earth, and allowing sunlight to kiss bare skin are all beautiful ways in which we can turn to nature to heal postpartum.

We hope you enjoyed our 3-part series Cultivating a Healthy Pregnancy.  May your motherhood journey bring you love, joy, and fulfillment.

Written by: Hannah Schmitt