Prioritizing Your Health as a New Mother: 5 Maternal Care Musts

Postpartum care is essential for your newborn, but it is also a must for you as a new mother. After carrying and birthing your baby, your body needs time to rebuild from blood and fluid loss, nutritional deficiency, fatigue, stretched ligaments, hormone shifts and more. Prioritizing your health and well-being allows you to recover quicker and more fully, so you can take on the tough and incredible job of caring for your baby. These 5 essential maternal care practices will help support you in your healing journey, so you can thrive:

Rest

Traditions around the world uphold a resting or lying-in period for mothers in the postpartum time immediately after birth for up to 6 weeks. New mothers in many countries in Latin America, India, Somalia, Egypt, China, Japan, South Korea, and Thailand rest for 21 – 40 days after having a baby. Their families and communities come in and support their households to make this lying-in period possible because they know the importance of rest on a body’s healing process and in allowing ligaments to not get overstretched.

Warmth

Warmth helps promote blood flow and circulation throughout the body to bring nutrients and oxygen to areas that are in need of healing and support (i.e. the internal wound from where the placenta was). Warmth, also, facilitates the release of Oxytocin which can help prevent postpartum hemorrhage, support breastmilk production, and increase bonding and attachment between mom and her baby.

Bodywork

Bodywork can help a new mother navigate and support the changes taking place in her body. Bodywork can support the restoration of organs to their pre-pregnancy position, break up scar tissue and stabilize the pelvic floor. It can, also, calm an overworked nervous system to optimize the body’s  functioning, including the absorption of much needed nutrients.

Warming and Nutrient Dense Foods

Easy to digest and nutritious foods such as soups and stews with bone broth are a great way to restart a new mother’s digestive fires and replenish her body from the minerals and nutrients that were lost during the pregnancy and birthing process. Warming foods can help spark digestive fires and help with getting toxins and unneeded hormones out of the body through elimination.

Community

New mothers are trying to get to know and learn about their baby in those initial weeks postpartum, and the support of community that feels good to a new mother helps her be able to focus on her baby and her own health and well-being. Isolation as a new mother can have a negative impact on her nervous system and make her more likely to experience feelings of depression or anxiety. New moms need their support system – they need good meals, conversation, encouragement, guidance, and support which they can’t get if they are alone.

Maternal care in the first weeks immediately after birth is necessary to help heal your body and nourish your soul. Think about what you would do if you just ran a marathon. When you finished, you would think about your needs. You would probably stretch your muscles, change your clothes to help regulate your body temperature, eat a good meal to help replenish your body, and rest. Now, what would you do if you had to run that marathon, again?

After carrying and birthing your baby, which can feel like a marathon and much more, why wouldn’t you take time to care for your health? What do you need to do for you to keep you going as you run that second marathon back, i.e. learning and caring for your newborn? Prioritizing your health and well-being as a new mother is a must that can help you thrive, so your baby can thrive. Show your baby the importance of self-care by including maternal care into your postpartum plan.

Origin sponsors New and Pregnant Mom Meetups through Mothering Life twice a month in Evergreen, Colorado, and those in need of community and support are encouraged to come for some conversation and camaraderie. The Origin team is here to support your care both during pregnancy and, also, during an equally important time – postpartum.