The Art of Postpartum Healing | Nourishing the Mother
The first forty days after a mother gives birth are a right of passage that deserve ritual, respect and space to rest. How a mother is honored and tended to in these days bear implications for her physical health for decades to come. Of most importance is phsyical rest, but the threefold support of mind, body and spirit nourishment is a true artform.
Postpartum with my first was a whirlwind of grief and a dark unknown. Physically I was in so much pain after three days of labor, but mentally in disbelief at the story of our birth. I walked into postpartum pretty blindly, unaware of the rollercoaster it can be. I wasn’t good at using my voice to speak my needs with clarity to those eager to offer support. A lot of my postpartum was the story of unraveling maidenhood to step into mother. There is a dying process that has to occur, and mine definitely felt that way.
This time around, I feel a newfound centeredness. I now know the weight of this season. I know how to slow now. I know how to rest. I can anticipate what my spirit needs for the journey. A security in my voice, an awareness of the portal ahead. I believe postpartum can be a great undoing — one that can be a sacred dance within family. A space to rest, create a legacy of healing and linger in the muddled milky magic of it all.
Postpartum nourishment is so much more than freezer meals (though a well stocked freezer will serve you immensely) it is a time that if embraced, can be a complete reframe of your feminine psyche, how you exist in your physical body and how you embrace motherhood. Embracing the ups and downs to bear witness to the miracle of it all takes intention. Tending to your mind, body and spirit in these sacred days will help take the edge off. Below are some beautiful rituals + rhythms I’m leaning on as we welcome baby no. 02.
Stay tuned to the end of the post for a nourishing giveaway with some of the brands mentioned.
“The first forty days is a period of time unlike any other. It is a short season of life that follows the delivery of your child - an almost six weeks long period that arrives after many weeks of pregnancy and who knows how many hours of labour - in which you recover from birth, your baby unfurls slowly into the world of bright lights and sounds, and together you devote yourselves to forging your relationship outside the womb.
Though brief, it is a time of amazing intensity and massive adjustment. Your body transforms - again - and your heart throbs with more feelings than you ever knew possible. Your internal rhythms ping-pong as days and nights merge. Your stamina and serenity get tested like never before. Your connection to the world you knew loosen, or even come undone, and your sense of who you are begins to change and morph”
FOR THE MIND
sunshine + light rhythm
Postpartum is often described as one long muddled day — I feel this is linked strongly to our relationship to light. While it’s vital to rest in + around your cozy bed nest, getting a healthy dose of morning + evening light can greatly help with healing, your circadian rhythm as well as baby’s. Exposure to early morning light informs our brain to wake up and also stimulates serotonin production, a hormone that naturally elevates our mood. I picture us opening a window at sunrise + sunset for a few days then venturing outside barefoot in the morning + evening for the grounding properties. Using a red light device, clean candles and keeping indoor blue lights off during dark hours can be additional supports to your body’s overall rest and healing.
a place to release
During so much time is spent resting in bed, it’s easy to crave a false reality of shows or social media. As a grounding practice, I’m hoping to document the days and release emotion through writing this time around. Keeping a beautiful journal on my nightstand feels like the perfect place to record, remember and release anything that comes up within the portal space.
tune out to tune in
After birthing your baby you’re experiencing the largest drop in hormones of the feminine experience. Your mind is a fragile place postpartum, it’s vital to preservation of a safe + fertile space through tuning out of outside opinions, media + Googling every little thing. Lean into your village, tune out of the noise and into the sacred bubble of healing + rest for a more connected mind + body.
FOR THE BODY
warming nourishment
In the lying in phase, warming nourishment from ancestral whole foods is vital for the replenishment of the mother and the initiation of the breastfeeding dyad. Prioritizing meal preparation of foods like bone broth, congee, stewed fruits, warming milk drinks and pastured meat + dairy will help replenish your healing body. Here are some easy ways to lessen the prep load. Have a friend set up a meal train, with intention to share your value for warming foods! Lean on companies like Mama Meals ( this link will save you $20 ) to supplement your freezer goods. Stock up on nourishing add-ins for drinks like grass fed collagen (KAYTLYN for 10% off!) and grass fed ghee. I try and always add a scoop of these to anything I’m sipping on. My favorites as of late is bone broth hot cocoa with a grass fed gelatin marshmallow, creamy raw milk herbal chai with reishi ghee and an adaptogenic coffee alternative rich in warming herbs + medicinal mushrooms.
natural fibers
The fabrics that touch our skin are not only important to be mindful of for toxin exposure (microplastics from synthetic fabrics are present in most people’s bloodstreams) but a lesser known fact is that fabrics like linen + wool carry high vibrational healing frequencies. A healthy body resonates around a frequency of 100 hz, the same as organic cotton. Linen and wool resonate at 5000 hz and are known to regulate body temperature, lower blood pressure and soothe the nervous system. Traditional Chinese wisdom says that “warm feet create a warm womb” and wool socks or sherpa slippers are a welcomed comfort for the postpartum days. Having a few linen or cashmere wool lounge sets to cozy up in helps me feel put together, cozy and makes the season feel more romantic. I also will be living in my Honest Cotton robe for the foreseeable future! ( KaytlynAmanda to save 10%) Nursing friendly clothing is vital in the early days of breastfeeding + everything from LOAM is a dream for easy milk access. (KAYTLYN15 to save 15%)
self-care
For me as a mother, one of the highest values I carry is resourcing myself from within so I am able to love + tend to my family. Part of that for me is intentionally nourishing my physical body through breath, connection and intentional skincare. After 10 months of pregnancy, my skin is craving high quality nourishment through the form of saturated skin care, hydrating from the outside in with luxurious tallow and lip balms. (KaytlynAmanda to save 10%) This postpartum I am leaning on the traditional art form of acupressure using beautiful + supportive tools from Mount Sunny curated by the lovely Dr. Shelby Ramirez, a visionary in the wellness space and a mother as well. Having pretty, natural nails is one way I love to feel feminine and the Bare Hands mani / pedi set has been the loveliest self care tool in pregnancy. Natural nails are so chic + not to mention nontoxic. …And you won’t be picking off grown out gel polish a few weeks into postpartum. :)
FOR THE SPIRIT
connection
Postpartum can feel so lonely. It’s a time of deep transformation, and the shifting nature of it all can make the days feel like you’re the only one in the world. Connecting to like minded mothers and intentionally crafting time for connecting to God, yourself + your family can create a sacred space to be seen + known amidst the postpartum emotional waves. Allowing space for this to flow as you need, this is a time to lean into your true voice + honest needs.
flower essences
I recently began learning about the powers of flower essences for emotional regulation + healing and have found them to be supportive and nourishing to my spirit in these months of pregnancy. I love this description of the power of them from Leah Lessene, author of Healing in the Hebrew Months, a reference to the intended sacred rhythms for Earth + life.
“Flower essences resonate the specific healing energy of the flower, as well as the energy of Creator. There is a flower for every emotional disturbance and they can get ultra specific. They vibrate at very high frequencies, where the negative emotional states will cause a person to vibrate at a low frequency. When you introduce a higher frequency into the energy field of a lower one, the lower has to give way to the higher power. Always.
Remember the water? That perfect carrier and recorder of frequency? Our bodies are 70% water - give or take. Sometimes, it may be necessary for our old patterns of chaos and darkness to be overwritten with a new frequency. Our own personal Genesis.”
I love Alexis Smart’s flower essences and my spirit gravitated towards In Love and it has felt very preparatory energetically as our home becomes an oxytocin bubble for the foreseeable future. I have First Aid Kit on hand for moments of shock or stress and am deciding between at Unburden and Moon River for the postpartum phase.
This sacred 40 day window is an opportunity. A place to be held in and by grace, trusting that each day will unfurl with the blessing + beauty promised with new life. Setting an intention is opposite of chasing perfection — it’s an energetic agreement that “This time will be marked by metamorphasis, love and peace.” It’s an empowered choice. A place to bask in the goodness of life itself.
“You, the mother, are not only bringing your child into the world through birth. You are bringing the world into your child, and bearing in to the world *through* your child, the imprint of all the beliefs of your ancestors. That which you know to be true about pain and suffering is being encoded, too.
And in the same way that your baby is being created, so too will vou recreate vourself.”
YOLANDE NORRIS CLARK, PORTAL