Birthing baby is hard work, that’s why it’s called labor.  We crave comfort afterwards. Labor – or surgery – tends to be hard on the tummy as well as the tush.  So we give mama MUSH. Make sense?  Look at the qualities and you will know what is needed.  Special kinds of comfort food balance best after birth. Using lotsa inner resources, we have natural depletions, creating dryness, tender innards, some (or more) blood loss, maybe hemorrhoids, and or a tear.  Many of the body’s transformational chemistries translate that enzymes, tend to be lowered naturally and need babying, to accommodate the many changes going and coming.

Let’s help make the first few bowel movements easy does it slither through quality.  And with the naturally high cortisol hormones right after birth, digesitive fires have been second fiddled that way too.  I mean they are weaker and need a tweaker.  OK it’s late tonight, but gotta have some fun.   It will help you remember.

And most of us like to eat. Comfort comes with the right comfort foods for mum and baby too.  It is very different after birth, and before – different needs.  In fact, in pregnancy as well as after the birth, sometimes daily or weekly changes can make a tremendous difference for not just the comfort of a full tummy, but results which last for years, decades, even a lifetime.  Food is powerful medicine around childbirth.

First day, days and weeks after birth our bodies are going through a LOT of changes, and although western culture has not figured out much about best care for this time to prevent problems, many ancient cultures have.   Best explained, I have found, by Ayurvedic medicine, it is my pleasure to discover and offer these resources to you.

After childbirth, think more about oily, not just wet.  Mushy not rough fiber right now.  Sweet natural energy sources, fats, sattvic proteins, and healthy comfort foods in the Ayurvedic kitchen look like this:

Panchakola Ghee (or plain with some ginger).  2-3 Tbs for most mamas, in hot water right after birth, first thing.  If in damp climate, or heavy kapha mama, less ghee, ample ginger and other spices though.  Even pittas need spice now.

Loooooong cooked basmati rice gruel.  This is 16 parts water to one part grain, cooked until gelatinous pudding.  (Can use oat or others can be used, rice is best default.  There are some grains which are not good idea – see our cookbook.  If diabetic, use white millet and prep same way.).  Serve with 2-3 tablespoons of clarified butter if you can – yes, PER SERVING, less after surgery or damp climate.  Serve with lots of iron rich sugar (for most mamas).  My favorite is the dark Indian jaggery sugar, hard to find, with has more minerals.  Made into a syrup by boiling 15 minutes (also to be sure it is safe from possible open air drying in India!).  AND lotsa ginger, black pepper, and perhaps some other simlar spices.  We serve the pudding with panchakola ghee which gives the spices more gently and deep to the tissues.  Serve up to about 5 times a day.  Even in summer.  Some mothers use for 2-3 days, as it appeals; can vary the kind of rice, and graduate with other grains (use sweeter/blander/less astringent ones) so you have lots of that Mush, over the first days and weeks.  Make if fresh daily though.

Hot spiced milk tonic.  All she wants to drink; recipe and variations in our cookbook.

Those who are vegan have to work harder at this, and make fresh soaked nuts into mylk daily, without giving more than about 12 almonds worth a day.  Still add a tsp or more of ghee to it if you can.  There is no animal proteins in ghee and it’s effect tops other fats so much.  But there are alternatives.

For non-vegetarians if needed, Chicken broth or other poultry soup, or in some cultures wild animal marrow soup is used.  Just the broth, as starter, then get more dense over the days and weeks.

Ideally boiled organic cream top milk with ginger/pepper/cardamom/chai type spices, sweetened with some dark sugar or soaked dates blended in (iron rich and non-constipating) with a tsp of clarified butter (unsalted, and heavy proteins removed) is available, or freshly made almond milk (easy on the almonds, about 8-12 blanched and ground into this per serving) is a second best, similarly prepared.  These nourish, give immediate soothe to the nervous system, lift to the spirits being serotonin enhancing, and all must be gentle on bruised tissues the first day/s.

For all, if possible either cedar decoction in a tea (deodar is best) or the classically given for 42 days, Dashamool decoction or aristam (herbal wine) are begun right away.  Also from day one, we use a sweetwater lactation tea, upwards of 2 quarts of this very weak/hyrating brew from fennel and 1/2 part fenugreek seeds (1/2 tsp of the seed mix is all you need per quart) keeps mamas benefitting easily for moons afterwards.

Ghee is cell cleansing and like other good fats, gives stable long burning fuel; fenugreek taken in a stronger brew 2-3 cups the first few days may help safely loosen placental fragments.  Spices help wake up the agnis (digestion, tissue transformation and metabolic fires), mush with the fats also helps things move through without resorting to uncomfortable laxatives.

Another key to slither and iron is cooked dried fruits.   Please do not give bran, ground flax, or most other dry moisture sucking fibers in attempt to support the bowels.  They are tender, naturally tentative, and easily scratched and dried out more.  If psyllium you must, or even flax, soak it long till that texture most people won’t touch.  Mix in very moist cereal with spices, or you can mix the psyllium into a bowl of juicy hot cooked and spiced dried fruits, like figs, raisins, apricots, dates, blueberries etc.  Avoid astringent stuff like cranberry, grapefruit and unripe banana, and citrus fruits like orange, pineapple, sour mango or even sub-acid berries – these won’t do mama well for these early 6-8 weeks.

Please stop and think – when you wash dishes, is it easier with hot or cold water?  Same thing with the body not only for cleansing, but digesting, absorbing, and metabolizing our foods.  Just like breast milk is served warm, adult bodies going through lots of change need warm.  Even in the summer.  Even if getting hot flashes – best cool with the cooling dynamics of foods and herbs which are not about what temperature they are served at.

The mineral rich sugars , well cooked carbs, high quality good cholesterol fats, and gentle soothing peace sourced proteins give immediate, and stabilizing, long burning energy, and nourishment for rebuilding depleted plasma and blood, from which we make (among other things), breast milk, blood and uterine lining.

The spices help strengthen our own innate digestive enzymes; it is not as helpful to get them from outside sources.  Wise food combining is essential for happy tummies.  Freshly cooked by happy cook also, and so valuable to how well we can absorb the benefits of our foods.

You may think vegetable juice or a salad meets these needs.  Please don’t serve these if you want to protect happy baby and mama tummies and more.  Come learn the wisdom of the wise women of many traditions, or you could just learn the hard way – your choice.

Sweet taste and oily quality are building influences, not depleting, and very important now.  They can be served in a way that facilitates the unusual cleansing needs after birth, and rejuvenation from so many demands on our mother-bodies.  Warmth, slither, moisture and oiliness protect tender tissues and nourish gently.  Provide good delivery of nourishment for mama, so she and baby can enjoy both taste and effect after baby’s delivery into her arms!  Her quality of breast milk, mood and rejuvenation will all be calling for sweetness, warmth, good quality lubrication, and easily accessed basic nutrients.    These are comfort food tastes.  Mom will be craving them.