So, you’re a new mum. Soaking up the beautiful, squishy, newborn love bubble, but you can’t help but shake the niggle of sadness when you look at your freshly birthed body. Then the shame and guilt sets in for spending even a minute of your precious, quickly depleting energy on thinking any thoughts about your newly wobbly, maybe saggy, body, or anything other than ‘WHAT A F!CKING POWERFUL GODDESS I AM’. You know you should only have applause, gratitude, and deep appreciation for what your incredible womanly body has been able to achieve in such a relatively short amount of time, but that niggle stills persists.
Why has society pushed woman so far with body shame that one of her first thoughts after creating, growing, and birthing the miracle of LIFE into this world, is how wobbly her belly is, or flabby her thighs have become. It makes me so angry! We should be CELEBRATING woman in ALL OF HER GLORY – every roll, dimple, wobble and lump. The focus should be on her health, and the health of her baby, because the latter cannot exist without the earlier. Nourishing the mother should be the first consideration, for her to be able to properly nourish her babe, and as long as her health is priority, the extra little bit of weight that is necessary in pregnancy AND breastfeeding will come away in time.
Did you know that adequate fat, protein and carbohydrate intake are essential for healing post-birth, regulating hormone levels, and supporting healthy milk production. Birth is enormously taxing on a woman’s body, and both rest and repletion is absolutely necessary to ensure optimal health is supported. It is not a time to cut calories, count kilojoules, or try a fad diet, as this can often lead to postnatal depletion, reduction or complete halt in milk production, and if continued over time, other significant health conditions. Woman’s postpartum journey is a time for wholesome rest, deep appreciation, enormous gratitude and complete surrender.
I so very hope that you find Partum. a safe, informative space to come to for inspiration and support in your postpartum journey, and my nutrient dense recipes are easy to follow to ensure your postpartum body is THRIVING! Let’s do away with the body shaming and guilt, and just focus on our REAL health. Food is the easiest and first step in this passage, so lets get to it ladies!