Enjoy these important "Secrets" for the first 1½ - 3 Months after childbirth. Fee free to share these tips at baby showers and blessing ways.

Overview
After the delivery of a baby, the digestive power is often diminished; a new mother’s digestive system is very delicate. Yet her needs are great. Choice of foods and how well a mother digests her food has a great deal to do with the quality of her milk, avoiding depression and colic, and the quality of mom’s rejuvenation, strength, comfort, and resulting spontaneous and natural expression of mothering. The following suggestions are time tested, from the ancient system of natural health care called Ayurveda, and found common to many cultures around the world.

Preferred Foods

Pure water, warm, oily, soupy or moist, nourishing, delicious, often mushy or creamy textured, gentle on the digestion foods. Season to support digestion too – include ginger, black (not chili) pepper, roasted/sauteed not raw garlic. Fresh ingredients freshly prepared by a happy cook – these have the best life force. Use ample oiliness, seasonings, moisture, warmth, and of course, love. Mom and Baby will feel the benefits.

There are lots of yummy things you can do with this list. Try adapting your family favorites and refrigerator on-hands with the preferred veggies, seasonings, grains, sweets and proteins. Please avoid making enough for the next day. Leftovers become guaranteed gas for mom and baby! Use of unusually generous good fats, especially clarified butter and sesame oil cannot be over-emphasized, unless with gall bladder/liver medical issues.

We need all six tastes in our main meals for balanced nutrition. These herbs and spices help digestion, deliciousness and rejuvenation - often lactation as well! We lean more on the sweet, fresh sour, and salty tastes though at this time.

Proteins to favor are boiled warm milk (see our article about milk), milk puddings w/o egg; split hulled mung beans in thin soup, perhaps other soaked overnight and well-cooked lentils. Legumes combined with grain or (smaller amount of) nuts or seeds gives a complete amino acid complement. Almond or other nut milk; specially nourishing among nuts and seeds are well soaked, (24 - 48 hours) for snack, or prepared with nut milks, soups, vegetables, grains, or sauces. Lassi, a yogurt or buttermilk drink thinned half with water and seasoned, sweet or savory after 10 days; ricotta, cottage and other unfermented cheeses after 2-3 weeks; Rarely does tofu or fermented cheeses work; most women and their babies have trouble with soy - and the hard cheeses. Chicken and fish soups after about 4 weeks for non-vegetarians.

Carbs- Favor Basmati or white rice (cook with an extra ½-1 cup water per cup of rice), unleavened wheat such as couscous, pastas, chapatis (unleavened tortillas), occasional sprouted grain “Essene” breads, tapioca without the egg, yams, sweet/oiled winter squashes, oats, quinoa and amaranth. Women who have been eating brown rice daily may be fine with it, but is rougher on tender bowels for most. Favor less refined sugars – especially the iron rich ones like date, Rapadura, dark Indian Jaggery, Mexican unrefined, and molasses if possible. Do not cook with honey. Moms need extra carbs including healthy sweets, even if unable to breastfeed, for rebuilding. see fruits.

Fruits to favor include muscle building dried iron rich fruits (soaked or stewed), sweet fresh (not chilled) and freshly squeezed sweet fruit juices (wonderful for their life force and gentle cleansing). Most fruit ferments if not taken alone. Dates are excellent. Papaya is excellent, also aids digestion. Coconut milk is soothing and delicious in puddings, cream sauces, soups, smoothies and over fruit/baked things too. Add ginger. Some do well after 2 weeks with fresh orange juice, others know. It creates warmth.

Seasonings are very important - Fennel, Fenugreek, Basil, Cumin, Caraway; Fresh Garlic - prepared only by roasting or mincing and browning in oil or butter; these also help lactation. Citrus Peel, Cardamom, Clove, Cinnamon, Ginger (fresh is usually best), Turmeric (as in curry), pinches of hing (Asafoetida - instead of Onion now), Hingvastika, Lime, Orange or Lemon juice and Peel, Nutmeg if she is not prone to constipation, Black Pepper, Paprika, Pippali, a little Black Mustard Seed, Tamarind, Marjoram, Thyme, Oregano, Tarragon, Licorice Powder, Ajwan. First week, use extra ginger, garlic, pepper, pippali, cardamom, clove.

Vegetables Cooked until tender to minimize gas, also "oil" or butter and season well – Asparagus, beet, carrot, fresh dill, fresh fennel, fresh fenugreek leaves, pumpkin, okra, avocado, artichoke, summer squashes, chayote. Some green beans or broccoli well seasoned if she is not of thin body type, and peeled eggplant and kale, spinach, or chard may also be fine after 2-3 weeks. Be sure to use oiliness, seasonings, salt, and lime or lemon juice with all the latter.

Fats - Use healthy fats and oils more abundantly than normal. This is important for postnatal hormonal, lubricating, cleansing and rejuvenation needs. Emphasize clarified butter, sesame and toasted sesame oils, butter, coconut oil in the summer and spice it, and some olive are the best ones. Note clarified butter (ghee), coconut, and a little sesame are the best for cooking healthy.

Minimize these as best you can

>Dry, cold, rough, harder to digest, heavy, clogging, fermented foods, and sharp pungent taste. They may for various reasons aggravate mother or infant digestion, accumulate into colic, or slow mom’s rejuvenation. Some are bigger no-nos than others. Rushed or irritated atmosphere in cooking, serving, and eating also weakens digestion, hence mama-baby dis comforts.

Most of us know about these – Coffee, sodas, chocolate, alcohol, garlic (dry, raw, or undercooked), onion, radish, chilies, cabbage family.

Chilled Foods and Drinks – yup, like ice cream, salads, chilled foods/drinks in general. We can cool hot blooded or hot flashing moms if needed with fennel, coriander, cumin, a little mint, chamomile, other food choices and essential oils; including hormonal balancers.

Heavies include red meats, fermented cheeses; cold temp, homogenized, pasteurized, and/or non-organic milk, lotsa nuts, sour cream, yogurt, eggs, fried foods (saute is good, seals nutrients).

Dried or drying foods – Rule of thumb is those obviously pulling moisture from system to digest, like dried fruits, crackers, toast, even sweet and white potatoes. Balance with oil, moist, sweet, sour, salty tastes and influences at best. These and rough dryer grains (millet, brown rice, corn, buckwheat ok sometimes as mush) can be unsatisfying to fragile innards. Reduce drying, bitter, and astringent herbs, (even most chamomile, red zinger and raspberry leaf tea), and watch out for the legumes - heavy wind producers. 2 – 3 cups of strong Sage or Turmeric tea is used by midwives to dry up lactation. Protein powders – if insisting, hydrate, add oil, sweet, spices, warm liquid, without fruit or soy. Avoid fruit-veg mixed powders.

Tomatoes, Peas, Peppers, Sprouts, Salads. Easy also on dark Leafy Greens first couple weeks unless she is craving, also other bitter/astringent foods. The greens are so high in iron and bone flexibility minerals, (especially the stems for the latter), and magnesium, if they sound good to Mom, balance with oiliness, generous ginger or roasted garlic or hing, salt, fennel or cumin or caraway or dill, and perhaps a squeeze of lime, and some sweeter vegetable or (surprise?) - pinch raw sugar as well.

Milk or Half/half with Sour, Salt, or Astringent tastes – These digest best boiled (simplifies protein molecule), unsalted grains, puddings, with sweet taste, sometimes dates (acting different from other fruits), or warm with honey and ginger, cardamom, clove, and/or saffron type baking spices.

Fermented Foods – Yes, includes easy or hard to digest foods, plus leftovers, after 6 hours or so, because of rapid rejuvenation needs and these have more degenerative energy. Such as Soy Sauce, Vinegar, Pickles, Tempeh, Miso, most Cheeses, Mushrooms. Make enough food for just lunch and dinner for the family.

Hydrogenated or most cooked vegetable oils (due to trans-fatty acids). And we get to forget the low-fat idea, for health, emotional, hormonal, mental and physical reasons, unless medically advised otherwise (such as from liver damage, alchohol or gall bladder problems).

Cooking with Honey is proven to create toxic accumulations over time in the body channels, and around nerves, the most difficult toxin to remove! Raw or drinkably warm is fine if you like it.

Leavenings – Yeast, Baking Powder and Soda all are somewhat of a strain on Mom and Baby too.

Meals honoring these principles are such a great gift. Mom and baby have much invisible and quiet work to do right now which has such long lasting effect on their quality of health and family life. And on ours too. So these little adjustments can make a really big difference at this time and with long lasting impact too – "42 days for 42 years" say my teachers!

From Touching Heaven, Tonic Postpartum Recipes with Ayurveda. Consultations, correspondence training modules, and the companion e-books, Touching Heaven, Tonic Postpartum Care/Cooking with Ayurveda are available by E-download at sacredwindow.com.

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