Celebrating with foods that make us feel good!

Celebrating a new baby in family gatherings is part of the joy of birth during the holiday season.  Most mamas will eat whatever is in front of them during the holidays and love it, be so grateful for being cooked for, and maybe not put one and one together to why baby is fussy, both constipated, or have sleep, mood and other issues.

Celebration food is yummy, rich, and full of love! It contains qualities mamas crave, and they actually need.  Remember, breastfeeding is nutritionally like running 10 miles a day!  And digestion usually – surprisingly compromised.  Holiday spices are for the most part also just what she needs – extra of.  So, definitely, lean into the best sources for her with warm, oily, moist, sweet, and digestively well seasoned.  For Northern Hemisphere, these are winter balancing needs too. OK, my dear Aussie students, please humor me.

All sounds easy so far – there are a lot of these qualities on the holiday table, right?  Some discernments will help though. There are few early postpartum mama-baby couples who won’t suffer from holiday menus also, even made with the most organic and lovingly prepared foods.  That is, many foods carry needed tastes or qualities, but are prepared and combined such that they so easily create problems like gas, bloating, constipation, cramping even reflux.… and usually in addition, the well known heaviness, dullness.  It’s not just from tryptophan, but from overloaded digestion not able to convert well into vitality and joy.  I don’t believe this is worth it, especially when so fragile.

Would you like some ideas how to modify or favor traditional American holiday foods, to honor a newborn mama-baby best? Here’s a few – more than you can use – to get your juices flowing….pun intended!

Sweet taste first?

Actually, there are reasons to serve sweet taste if not dessert first.  Like, keeping blood sugar and mood up while the main meal gets cooked. The sweet taste WILL get absorbed first also. And anyway. First stage of digestion is in the upper part of the stomach, part of why we immediately feel better when we start to eat. If complex, fruit, or even simple sweet foods come after the rest, it’s likely to derail the digestive process for the rest, and focus on sweet digestion and fermentation results. Then those needed for balance fats and proteins ideally included in desserts are not used right. Especially if the latter fights digestive intelligence with poor food combinations.

More on Fruits

Most fruits taken with the big holiday meal, or even with the celebration breakfast (my family always does it) means guaranteed gas, often intense, for mama and baby.  Give fruits or fruit drinks at least an hour before or after, and please don’t combine with protein powders, dairy, soy, or yogurt.  But a splash of pomegranate juice in a wine glass, not chilled, with squeeze of lime and pinch of salt is nice as appertif, and papaya has special digestive properties.

Cooked chutneys/relishes with lots of spice may work, no guarantee.   That little crock pot ($12-15 at Walgreens?) is so handy for her – put dried fruits, your choice, in with cinnamon stick and few cloves and some water overnight – SO easy for that 5 am feeding appetite which should be there or she needs AyuDoula’s guidance. It nourishes rasa, rakta and mamsa dhatus (plasma, blood and muscle!) and helps the bowels move easily .

Between meals, an hour or more before/after, she will likely love a hot cup of mulled grape juice (high iron!) or cider. Grape nourishes the liver and blood.  Make it easy.  Keep a caraffe or thermous of spiced tea or cider handy to share or not.  For the mulling spices – A no caffiene spice tea/chai mix makes it easy, or just use a tsp or so of grated ginger and pinch clove.  Or half tsp dried ginger.  Her fennel and fenugreek can go in there – doesn’t take much.  Anise actually is more warming than fennel, and can be substituted in winter.  Clove multiplies the vitamin C in stewed apple and pear, by the way, but these two fruits make pectin when cooked, slowing the bowel.  That’s a common discomfort already in the first 2 or more weeks after birth, so wait a bit.

Her Just Desserts

Yes, she works hard and deserves, needs extra treats, if they agree with mama and baby.  Oh there’s plenty choices, and here just tip of the berg.  Holidays tend to be heavy on sweets, and are we here.  Don’t worry, there are other food types discussed below! You might be interested to know though, I heard a yogi talk about the benefit of sugar, eaten during group celebrations, of dissolving the myelin sheath, so it could be reformed with more happiness!  The “tarpaka kapha” involved is a kapha byproduct, ie from earth and water ’tis made – the key structural components.  Sweet taste is made from earth and water,.

Anyway, for the first couple weeks after birth our innards are very tender and we are extra sensitive.  So – mushy, warm, soupy or pudding format and warm smoothies are best.   Use the key principles of – WARM, OILY, SWEET, (usually), EASY TO DIGEST, MOIST, PUNGENT, with simple food combining, not rough and dry, and with YUMMY in mind. For most, a big YES for carb rich, combined with good fats, and protein sources like milk or almond milk all help stabilize her energy.

The first three days, a nourishing Raab is used traditionally (this and many recipes in the cookbook, digital download for $15) is a heavenly warm smoothie benefiting mama – and babe.  Avoid if possible the egg/dairy combos in pies, cakes and eggnog though.  Our cashew nog in the cookbook would be lovely maybe after first 10 days.  Nuts should be well soaked and blended with spices and sweet!  Both recipes – serve hot.

A well spiced yam pie offers some progesterone support along with such soothing and rejuvenative nutrition.  If you have recipes for carrot, winter squash, sweet potato all can be suitable too.  Thicken with a little rice or mung type flour instead of egg, use those important spices, ok full cream or coconut milk (no ½ and ½, food combining and satisfaction both suffer with it), and maybe an iron rich sweetener like succanat or coconut sugar (not fruit, and don’t cook honey!) – now we are talking!   Simple puddings after 1 week, such a pie maybe after 2-3 weeks, is best.

The first 2 weeks, lonnnnng cooked authentic rice pudding, or for lighter fare, tapioca pudding (neither need egg!), with extra fat in it along with strong dose of pepper, ginger, clove, and cardamom.  Use ideally, ghee for the fat, or add pinches of cayenne to warm coconut oil’s energetic coldness, or almond or sunflower oil for lighter, or even roasted sesame oil for kaphas.  Did I say ghee?  Add some more of one of them for her at the table.  Moms do really enjoy the Panchakola ghee, Ayudoulas are taught to provide for first taste and meals after birth, and it is so easy to use on her food for the extra agni/digestive support needed. Unless of course liver/gall bladder condition dictates not.

Do unleavened butter cookies and shortbread with candied ginger/cardamom sound good?  After 2 weeks or so, if bowels are moving well.  The cardamom shortbread is one of our client favorites.  Pfefferneuse – aren’t they pepper spiced? Try a recipe w/o eggs. Unleavened ginger treats, even a dish of candied ginger instead of ribbon candy, is great idea.

Easy on the chocolate, but how about a few Candied pecans?  My best ever are dipped in syrup made from melted dark jaggary (Indian sugar; the really dark stuff is extra high iron though not common in Indian stores).  Use a little water only to heat and dissolve with a cinnamon stick, and maybe add a little dark chocolate. Well, maybe 2 or 3 pecans that way is ok for now.

Chocolate does interfere with metabolism, for all dark chocolate’s great benefits, and baby easily can get rashy.  Save room for some of the savory rosemary or curry spiced toasted almonds too. Pecan pie with egg is heavy though. The fruitcake will really appeal too, though watch for heaviness. Mom served it with such a yummy buttery brandy sauce…. we won’t have it this year, she is 95 now and I won’t be making it.  Anyway, too many of any nuts can congest delicate liver and digestion, and constipate, but just a few are such good sattvic, serontonin enhancing nutrition (almonds especially)!

Mother’s Almond Herbal Snacks are exciting to more than Mama, a great party special. They include saffron, nutmeg, cardamom, ginger, almonds and coconut as well as more exotic ingredients. This recipe and Panchakola ghee are not in the cookbook – ask your local AyurDoula for some!

Sweet making for creative cooks and herbal esoterics

We have been having so much fun with an herb called Anantamool.  Making yummy multi-herbal-date-raisin-nut-ghee-and dark (ie iron rich) sugar treats, definitely same color as chocolate! provides nourishing easy to take medicinal snacks. Inspired by Nomi Gallo, who is one of our and the Ayurvedic Institute’s faculty when she assisted during Dr. Lad’s Herbology for Reproductive Health, these are such a good absorption delivery method for rejuvenative herbals, and defiintely makes you think chocolate!  OK, some of us anyway.

The fat in the ghee, gentle bitter in herbs, hormone regulating and sweet nutrition is similarly satisfying w/o disturbing baby. Anantamool (American Sasparilla) is great for liver and blood, endocrine system, pitta reducing, magnesium rich, benefitting skin health and female hormonals w/o being estrogenic. It is a rasayana (rejuvenative tonic) . And how yummy Anantamool tastes!

This year in Whole Foods, I’ve seen sliced gourmet wedges from big wheels of fig and walnut, or date and almond “cake”. Just two ingredients, best the label tells. I want instructions how to make.

Even better for early postpartum weeks, we can grind clarified butter-roasted edible gum acacia, gently warm the other ingredients with spices in MORE ghee, then press all together. This sliceable fruitcake w/o flour and eggs strengthens connective tissues. A little goes a long way for snack, with cup of sweetwater lactation tea (add ginger for the winter!)

This “fruitcake” is great also for strength, lactation, iron building, and her naturally active sweet taste. Press in a pan and slice, or roll in a ball, whatever, kids love it too. The spice is more than nice, remember, and the ghee more than wheeee-eat-losta-yummy-butterfat!

The Big Fat Story, part 1

Clarified butter is especially good at so many things for mama-baby, like hormones, bones, good cholesterol, lubricates the bowel and smaller body channels, it also helps deliver nutrients and remove wastes – like those deep tissue hard to remove petrochemical toxins and metals that are most risky. OK, it won’t help much with the latter around holiday foods, but could at other times.

We DO need extra fats after birth, and even with that extra baby weight we want to loose, we need the right fats to help loose it. Here’s a snippet of that discussion: Research shows good cholesterols are needed for female hormones, protecting from bone loss, (ref 4) and hormones need balance in order to loose that weight.(ref 5)    Stress weight comes off easier too.  And Vitamin D3 (not 2), plays an important role here.  Grass fed cow milk, cream and cultured butter made into ghee – are pricey, and worth it for the Vitamin D3 and related factors here (ref 1).  Vitamin D acts like a hormone itself, for mood, mineral absorption, immune, blood sugar balance and more at optimal levels.  Advised in winter – take 4-5,000 IU/day, not 600 (ref 1).

Stuffing

Grains, rather than bread, is best, and after the first week or two to avoid constipation complication. Try stuffing a pumpkin that is partly shaved and bake together; use the pumpkin in a soup. Give mama the bottom, really moist and mushy part. If using wild rice for a gourmet touch, since it is kinda rough on tender innards, use just a little, presoaked overnight and long cooked before adding the other. Red, brown, any rice can be used if cooked well – overnight crock pot or pressure cooker makes it very easy. Yes roasted chestnuts are lovelies, but easy on the sage (drying to milk production in larger amounts) For those who use a broth for liquid, it is better not to use from a box due to the lack of life force. I prefer onion sauted with herbs and spices for flavoring.

Non-vegetarians can use fresh poultry broth. Made from neck and foot bones slow cooked overnight to gain all the fats and marrow, and perhaps with giblets will be very healthful and digestible. Using fresh herbs like thyme, oregano, parseley ,maybe some fresh fennel instead of celery if you can get it. In any case, very well cooked, onion and celery are usually ok. Well cooked onion will enhance digestion, like garlic.

Breakfast

Traditional oatmeal needs dressing up and mushing out.  Our First Day’s Rice Pudding idea (any kind of rice except wild) goes over well, but PLEASE NOTE!  that recipe should say ½ cup sugar, not 2!  This is not just a high carb diet.  The 2-3 Tbs of ghee served with cereals and other foods in early days for the lucky (most) qualifying mamas, does cleansing, lubricates, and gives long burning, stabilizing fuel long after the carbs have come and gone. It can be made with various grains especially rices, oatmeal, later wheat/kamut/spelt for heartier fare, or barley, quinoa or millet for kaphas and lighter fare. Millets are preferred for diabetics, with more sweet and favored holiday spices like the anises, fennel, cinnamon, clove, cardamom cooked whole, overnight – no sugar needed, but the fats are – toasted sesame or sesame is good for high kapha.  Even citrus zest is lovely for mamas.   The first day’s rice pudding serves and tastes prettier with spiced ghee, rather than cooking brown sugar and spices for hours into it.

Mothers are advised all the hot boiled milk they like; cow’s cream top not skim for many is best. Adjustment to genetic or acquired difficulties with dairy milk is sometimes balanced with the preparation and spicing methods in cookbook, sometimes with goat, and sometimes nut or grain mylks are needed. Due to the low prana of boxed mylks, freshly made is indicated. My preference here to balance the amino acid profile, is first gently saute a Tbs of amaranth or quinoa in clarified butter or another stable fat which nourishes all 7 dhatus (tissues). Sesame does, coconut does not, FYI.ⁱⁱ Add the almond milk slowly to cook well and enjoy, seasoned with some ginger or your choice.

Instead of heavy Hollandaise (which will sound so good because of the creaminess, protein and sour taste)  new AyurDoulas are learning how to use generous seasonings of herbs, ginger, garlic and onion, with coconut and generous fats (yup, that craving is real) for really yummy saucing.  The avocado is still fine.  If they took Anupama Vaidya’s class, they have a great recipe! After a few days, for mothers craving egg, serving them in this kind of sauce/soup, gently poached in the sauce.   I sometimes serve a bowl of moist and well oiled oatmeal with an egg yolk, salt and generous pepper (avoid milk with this meal).

Main and protein dishes

For the first 3-10 days, there is not much distinction for main, side, etc.  Soups are really a good idea, puddings, a very thin mung broth well seasoned can get thicker with the mung (or red lentil, muth or urad lentil) puree, and include that mother’s garlic chutney if you can on the menu after 3 days.  Hot milk tonic freshly made will be so soothing.  Just keep it simple and easy to digest; ideas above and in the cookbook will make a big difference.

Unless she really wants kitchari on Christmas, Baked yam with lots of pepper and ghee (and Aparna’s mother’s garlic chutney!), and suitably thickness of grain gruels well oiled and spiced are a good idea.  For late postpartum window, we offer recipes for non-tomato based lasagne or pasta sauces with fresh/ricotta or panir cheese, and seasoned panir “steaks”.   Dr. Shrestha’s Sprouted Mung Pate recipe works for me and people love it, but some have trouble getting it to come out right.  Recipe testers?  

Note Yummy sweet and savory dips and spreads – These are best about 3+ weeks postpartum and will be loved for long time to come:  Non-fermented Seed Cheese, Flaxed cottage cheese sauce, taratoor sauce with tahini, Guacomole, flaxed/honey/nut butter (dip an unleavened non-corn tortilla/chapatti) or even a holiday saffron-cream cheese honey/flax oil and lemon zest with cardamom for dipping moist dates!  PLEASE, avoid it possible chilled foods and drinks, or dips from a plastic store bought item like hummous, sour cream, or bean.  They can be quite troublesome.

Non Vegetarians

Ayurveda is not vegetarian; there are reasons to be, and anything might serve as medicine though the field is tighter when we are very delicate.  For non-vegetarians wanting more the first few days, overnight cooked poultry broth w/o salt for 1-3 days, then adding a little of the long cooked meat (not much!) , is best the first week.  Season well.  Gradually after that, thicker.   Although lower in prana and vibration, gas and constipation are not an issue when the broth of the cracked bones prepared with citrus to extract marrow is long cooked. Such options are sometimes advised or craved, and are very iron and nervous system nourishing. Poultry can also be added like egg to soupy spiced sauce instead, for same recipe as above. Start slowly, and again, cook long and gently if you can.

As in the Jewish tradition, avoiding meat and fish, dairy or egg when combined together is general rule and especially important to choose one protein type at this time.  Ok they mix dairy and egg, Ayurveda does not. Red meats are best avoided, along with fish and more solid portions of any meats will aggravate towards constipation, I see it all the time. A long cooked broth freshly served is blood building but even then, red meats can increase hot flashes and tendency to temper in mama and baby.

Vegetables….

Sweet roots, like Beets! After about 10 days, well cooked, the color and nutrition is great of well cooked dishes. A little fresh dill and generous roasted garlic – or onion – along with some of the many spices like ginger or anise which beet agrees with gives many options. I have a favorite puree of beet soup with winter squash, generous ginger, ghee and white cacao butter (not same at all as white chocolate) a little fresh fennel, and other secrets. The color is STUNNING! Creamed veggies can be made with coconut milk; really avoid milk sauces and soups. Use extra spice! And satisfy that craving for creamy with more fats, especially clarified butter or even butter.

Before 10 days be careful; for some beet increases elimination and can increase bleeding. Carrots can be used after 2-3 days, in many ways. BTW – we get more vitamin A from well cooked carrot, and in the top ¼ inch, so trim them with respect!

Sometimes we wait for celebration to use asparagus, being more expensive. It is one of the best early postpartum veggies. Or try this roasted fennel recipe: Trim greens and quarter lengthwise to the root. Using GENEROUS ghee in a heavy bottomed pan, lay the cut edges in the hot ghee. Sprinkle a tsp of anise seeds, some salt, and generous black pepper. When seared on one side, turn and do same on other cut edge. Then lower heat and cover to cook about ½ hour or until the fennel is really tender, but still in nice presenting quarters. Serve hot, with the extra fat. The juiciness of this vegetable will create it’s own steamy and a little sauce. Be really slow to introduce dark leafy veggies, as we have discussed in other newsletters.

Salads? Oh be very careful here.

Sorry ladies, but the truth is, tossed green or traditional raw veggies for dipping are guaranteed gas on tender tummies and the habit will build easily towards colic over time. Try these ideas instead:

1. Warm steamed veggies with lime vinaigrette – like asparagus, or carrot, beet, or even zucchini though that more easily may be gas producing.
2. Emerald Chutney – these are transition recipe variations in your cookbook. Not for early postpartum, although you can add some to soups the last few minutes for the quick cooking. And at 5-8 weeks, mamas love these easier than regular salad on digestion, and really full of prana and the health benefits of herbs like parsley (think warm, kidneys and B vitamins), cilantro (think cooling,

Leftovers and Frozen foods? Oh oh…..

Risky. Honestly.  Main dishes, veggies and grains especially, served the next day, from freezer, or combined with something new for a new dish, are pretty sure to cause more intense tummy problems. And then she may think she has to take enzymes. Then she has expensive pee and poo, you know?  Those dry caps and tablets don’t handle very well.  However – back to the inevitable, ie, how many will eat of the tasty leftovers anyway …. This is helpful for digestive support, and so easy:  Recipe for  Fresh Ginger Pickle: Make a little (like ½ cup max) jar full of thinly sliced ginger.  (Scrape any rough skin and dirt to peel),  Add about ½ tsp salt, and juicy squeezings of a lime (way better postpartum than any other citrus).  Take a slice before eating, and while and after if tummy is really sensitive.  Keeps in fridge for a few days.

The Spice of LIfe

Isn’t it interesting how many of the “Christmas” spices, are important in the postpartum time? There is good reason. Not only improving appetite (ie, deliciousness!), they are so important for improving digestion, absorption, and elimination. Our AHHHHH! For life, is intimately tied to our digestive power – we call it “agni” – our natural digestive enzymes.

The love hormone, oxytocin, thrives on holiday gatherings- any flow of heart – and I’m sure it must help digestion too. We can do a lot to help things along though. A healthy physical digestion makes us more clearly and simply alert, perceptive, and responsive to the flow of love and life all around us. Step by step, when a mother’s community can cultivate understanding of the influences and inner workings of our body, mind and spiri, the layers of Life integrate and bloom healthy and happy.

Agni in the duodenum and it’s source enzymes are related strongly (90% of our serotonin is found there, and serves many functions including neurotrasmitters for contentment). Our culture’s pioneer based food traditions need a little cleanup, according to Ayurveda’s dietary wisdom. It is no wonder so many have mood issues, with conditions especially of the duodenum. Ayurvedic Medicine considers the duodenum a separate organ, it’s role is so significant. (ref  6).  Gluten “allergy”, asthma, mood issues, constipation and diarrhea, diabetes, milk “allergy”, many other issues show their root in what is happening in these first few inches of the small intestine as food leaves the stomach.  This is because such important agni activity happens there – or doesn’t, well enough.

Accumulated poor quality digestion adds up for baby.  I’m sure you DON’T want to experience, or contribute to colic.  Please don’t be afraid to mother the mothers, at least offer to help in this way.

OK, I’m going dancing!

Wishing you such a warm and wonderful holiday season, as the days begin to lengthen and we take time to reflect on our lives, our loves, and our light.

Ysha Bhu

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I   Weston Price, DDS; Nutrition and Physical Degeneration, pp 386-389.  Price-Pottenger Nutrition Foundation, (1939-) 2009.

ii  John Douillard, DC and Ayurvedic Physician; cites multiple references at http://lifespa.com/?s=vitamin+d

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.

Yesterday, a midwife friend asked me for formula ideas for a 3 1/2 month old adopted baby.  This one no longer has access to the community’s human milk supply.  She had the benefit for other mother’s breast milk exclusively for a while – kudos to those adoptive parents for arranging it!  The baby is now being given a formula with organic cream top pasteurized (not homogenized) milk with nutritional augmentation.  The baby is very constipated, going with great difficulty and assistance after 4-5 days, and the midwife advised some water intake. She wanted more ideas.

Today’s header is a big topic and I’m choosing to focus on the midwife’s client’s needs mostly.  You may run into cases with babies who do not have access to breast milk or enough also, so I thought to share my response:

Complicated formulas with cow milk are being promoted by popular nutrition gurus.  I’ve seen popular recipes with raw egg and liver, nutritional yeast, several types of fats, vitamin C crystals, et al.

These certainly may provide more prana (life force) than canned or dried formulas and non-organic ingredients.  Ayurvedic medicine indicates concerns for short and long term  food combining issues, which complicate tissue if not also GI tract digestion.

This can result in slow or quickly accumulating wastes in baby’s body.  In addition, mental factors are involved in different types of foods ingested by the mother, nurturing different mental tendencies for babies.

Some such factors may not be easily understood through scientific models of analysis.  This is due to limited understanding of the sequence of bodily nutrition, and probably not having method to evaluate the effects over time.

There is the “transit time” ie in GI tract, and the longer time for transformation from food into various tissues.  The transit time is certainly affected by how difficult to digest, and what drying, astringent and bitter qualities are in the food for baby or adult.  Food from powders, old food, refrigerated food, food eaten under unpleasant emotions and other factors contribute to constipation.  Undiluted cow’s milk and the added brewer’s yeast (heavy, dry and bitter influences) will contribute.

We have enzymes for each of the 6 major stages of digestion, which correspond with the 6 tastes, over approximately 6 hours in the adult digestive tract.  This is much quicker timewise for babies who are ingesting basically, just some form of milk.  The same principles apply however.

Breastfed babies seem to take minimum 2 hours more often 3 +.  For formula fed babies, including on cow’s milk, it is longer due to harder to digest foods.Food combining can confuse proper enzyme secretion and as a result, leave incomplete products of digestion to accumulate in the body somewhere.

After GI tract digestive processes, this nutritive chyle moves into the lymph and joins the blood, circulating throughout the tissues.  From one tissue to the next deeper etc through all 7, there are different transformative chemistries, enzymes if you will.  And more time – days are involved, not just hours in this process.

Yes, the added water in the formula itself (in this case, usually advised distilled for babies), plus the digestive support of the spices cooked in, plus the triple boiling, and the mineral rich sweeteners all help balance nutrition and support baby’s access to it.

That little bit of turmeric helps many functions in baby’s liver and small intestine, and it’s bitter taste gives b-vitamin support as well.  It is important here not to use raw turmeric.  All 4 spices (recipe to the right) help reduce gas and bloating.  Fennel though not laxative, helps normal peristaltic action and is ph reducing.

Some Ayurvedic physicians, specializing in babies, assess the individual baby’s constitution and imbalances, and further fine tune any recommended formula based on that.

We prefer and advise to not complicate baby’s body with the food combining and digestive issues known for thousands of years.  In addition as you probably know, it is more and more significant to use organic ingredients, GMO free feed for the dairy animals and it’s many effects through the milk on digestive system, hormones and tissues; and if possible, unhomoginized milk.

A lot of western herbalists advise that pregnant women drink red raspberry leaf tea and nettle tea to ease birth and for lactation support.  These herbs are also recommended for anyone who is experiencing some nutritional deficiency/anemia/fatigue, etc.  This blog is about the Ayurvedic perspective of these herbs.

Raspberry leaves are mildly bitter and astringent with cooling virya/energy and that means pungent vipak/penetrating post digestive effects. The astringent quality gives mild hemostatic, anti diarrhea and uterine toning. He does not cite them as galactagogue in action. There is very small amount of Vitamin C (sour) and pectins and sugar (sweet taste) behind it all. In any case, they will be PK- and V+ (pitta and kapha reducing and vata increasing) which means you are right, it needs padding for balance. I might offer raspberry leaf to pitta mamas, with oat straw, as Ayurvedic midwife Terra Rafael did with her clients, and add cardamom and chrysanthemum prenatally, or coriander/toasted cumin in pregnancy. In the postpartum early weeks, she will need stronger pungents/warming herbs with it, yes–even for hot blooded mamas.

Nettles are also blandish, a little more still mildly bitter and astringent, with cooling energy and pungent vipak, more strongly PK- and V+. They are diuretic, also hemostatic, said to be galactagogue, expectorant tonic and nutritive, and Ayurvedic midwife Terra Rafael offers nettles to Kapha mamas. I add fresh or dried ginger or pippali or some such. Terra says it may help with low energy and fatigue because it counteracts flaccidity, removes dampness and brightens the chi.

Oat straw or Avena is not in his book (?!), but it’s taste is mostly sweet from the high bone/nervous system supportive minerals. It is a little drying, must have some astringency my guess. Also cooling, not sure the vipak. PV-K+ in excess, we offer it sometimes to Vatas and warm it up.

About anemia – we know there are several types of anemia, and we know natural sources are more bioavailable–dried fruits, dark red/purple/black fruits, molasses, not just leafy greens are great sources, as long as vatas hydrate or stew them. Nettle is particularly rich in iron, and raspberry leaves have some too. Minerals from leafy greens are more available with some citrus or sour taste added, in veggies and in herbal teas too. Lime juice would be my preference as best for pitta and vata, or lemon for kaphas; rose hips have some sourness and perhaps will act on the green leaves, I’m not sure – and some sweet taste for the vata too.

Dr. Ramakant Mishra gives a really wonderful recipe for building the hemoglobin for vegetarians on u-tube, with his wife demonstrating the recipe, and in separate video he discusses the science.

The mineral content of these “western” herbs, and green leafy vegetables, makes them considered “nutritives” by western herbalism. In Ayurved, we think more of nutritive tonics as the rasayanas which tend to rejuvenate on deeper endocrine and dhatu levels. That said, they are lovely and inexpensive properly used, and minerals are important in pregnancy! I sometimes see mamas’ kitchens with big bags of these though, not getting used. I’m sure it is because of the imbalance in the taste/virya/vipak they don’t understand how to balance.

A mild effect over time consistently used can have stronger effect. Vatas have to be especially careful with diuretics, bitter, and astringent tastes. Pittas do need cooling, bitter sweet and astringent tastes, and kapha needs pungent, bitter and astringent. The western approach as you probably know takes large amount – like a generous handful of the cut dried herbs and steeps and keeps this in a quart of hot water (which becomes cool) to drink through the day. In my opinion balance is needed for it to be most valuable, and well used for perhaps all body types, although more kapha mamas have more padding and may feel amply warm during pregnancy already. Many pittas do not need diuresis.

Would you like to spend some time with retiring Ayurvedic midwife, Terra Rafael? We are now offering her 24 hour online course, Enhancing Fertility, Pregnancy and Birth with Ayurveda. 

Namaste!

Ysha Bhu