Healing postpartum foods

I posted previously about eating mindfully and noticing how we are affected by how, what, and when we eat. But today I’d like to dive a little bit into eating after childbirth. Many recipients of and participants in new parent meal trains will have a deep understanding when I say: it matters what you eat after childbirth. And it’s also not totally clear what we could (I don’t like to say should) be eating after childbirth. Many of us want to go right back to our old favorites: comfort foods like lasagna, meatloaf, or mac and cheese. Or even things like fast food — we know it’s not all that good for us, but we miss that taste so much! But many new parents are surprised at how hard it is to find a food that feels right after childbirth. Things you used to love don’t sit well — or are actively repellant. It can be hard to adjust when we didn’t even realize there would be an adjustment. When the foods we previously thought of as healthy and nourishing don’t feel good postpartum. Ancient traditions around nourishment postpartum can be a wonderful place to start reorienting ourselves to this new time of nourishment.

In both Ayurvedic and Chinese Medicine traditions, the time after childbirth in considered one where there has been a loss of heat or fire. We need warmth, liquids, and replenishment. Warm hats and socks are standard. In Traditional Chinese Medicine, many even advise no hair washing for the lying in period, as wet hair facilitates significant heat loss. The emphasis is on warm, nourishing, and easy to digest foods with warming spices, like ginger, clove, and cinnamon. In TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine), bone broths, congee, and organ meats are encouraged, amongst other foods. In Ayurveda, ghee, warming spices and rice or lentil based porridges are common.

My own personal experience highlighted this shift in needs postpartum — I went from eating salads daily to craving literally only the Ayurvedic First Days Rice Pudding (recipe below) that my amazing friend and then equally amazing mother-in-law made for me in our slow cooker. It was ALL I wanted, and no wonder — the body needs WARMTH, not raw, cold foods like my old favorite: salads. And I didn’t want heavy, either. Lots of melted cheese, oily meats, like in a lasagna or on a pepperoni pizza — left me sluggish and curled up with a stomachache. Certain comfort foods became DIScomfort foods postpartum, even the supposedly “healthy” foods like cold, raw fruits and veggies. Which, it turns out, is not what your body typically wants or needs postpartum (although exceptions prove the rule, and every body is different!) and that, in the United States, we often eat in excess in general in an attempt to eat “healthy,”

To take it a step further, the belief in both Ayurveda and TCM is that how you nourish yourself and how you are cared for after childbirth has long-term implications for your overall vitality and health. I didn’t know that at the time (and that idea might have felt intimidating in the moment), but it makes sense. We are deeply depleted after childbirth, and we continue to give our energy to our babies. If we are breastfeeding, we literally give body fluids — we nourish our babies with our own bodies. If we never rebuild that, then there are real consequences.

And these preferences and practices aren’t forever. I didn’t eat only rice pudding for the rest of my life. Eventually, most of my old comfort foods were comforting again. Some things changed forever — I can’t drink caffeinated coffee anymore, for example (it makes me feel crazy). And that’s a change I’m grateful for.

Your journey with your body is a lifelong one. So, listen to its wisdom in all the different ages and stages of your life — and you will learn so much.

First Days’ Rice Pudding 

Recipe shared from Sarita Shrestha, OBGyn, BAMS (Ayurvedic Physician). Prep Time: 10 min. Cooking Time: 4 hours.  Serves 4

Put on to cook during labor (or in a crock) and serve throughout the day, even up to 5 times daily the first few days after birth, if desired. Make fresh daily.

16 c pure water
1 c basmati rice
2 c dark, iron-rich sugar (succanat, Rapadura, molasses or dark jaggery)
½ c or 2-3 T ghee per serving (or (toasted) sesame oil)
2 t ginger powder
2/3 t cinnamon powder
½ t clove powder
½ t black pepper or long pepper/pippali (best!)
1/3 t loose not packed saffron (or 2/3 tsp turmeric)
½ t anise seed or cardamom powder

1. Bring water to a boil in large heavy-bottomed pot. Avoid aluminum or Teflon.

2. Pour water over rice and stir, rinse and repeat about two more times, to remove any powders or enzyme inhibitors. Add to the water and boil, reduce heat to simmering without a lid, stirring occasionally for several hours.

3. When beginning to thicken, add the sugar and all the spice powders. Add 1/2 of the ghee.Continue to cook slowly and stir as needed.

4. When consistency is gelatinous, serve steaming hot, with added ghee (another Tbs or more). Keep hot and serve as desired through the day, with as much of the dark iron-rich sweetener and ghee as desired and a cup of hot boiled milk.

From: https://mamabirthing.com/recovery-from-childbirth-postpartum-food/

Photo by Anna Tarazevich