Pillars of Postpartum
Breaking down the key components to postpartum:
“A positive postpartum experience is built upon pillars we can craft and tailor to our families individual needs.”
From my in person and professional experience serving families through this tender time, these are my conclusions which are always growing and expanding, as to how we build a systematially beneficial postpartum process.
Preparation:
Planning for bringing baby home is a huge focus of most of the conversations we have about postpartum. What stroller to buy, what nanny to hire and which bottles are top rated. These are important things but they are not the most important things. A fancy stroller does nothing for a parent who can’t get out for a walk, or who is otherwise struggling to adjust.
Preparing our minds, bodies and emotional selves for bringing a baby home and navigating the fourth trimester and beyond takes more than a comprehensive registry. Holistic and intentional preparation will no doubt lower a parents risk for having a negative experience or developing Postpartum Mood Disorders.
As I have written about many times in previous blogs, Postpartum Mood Disorders are highly preventable and are mostly the cause of what seems to be either neurodivergent predisposition or adverse circumstances in parenting.
We prepare by learning about what the biomarkers for postpartum mood disorders are and if you or your family has had them, we learn about what your and your partner’s fears or anxieties are, we learn about what hormonal changes are happening during the first three months postpartum which is called the fourth trimester because our newborns are still gestating outside of the wombs.
Nutrition:
Nutrition during postpartum is commonly referred to in relation to diets and losing weight. Rarely do we say that maybe fats and red meats and chocolate are things you should be eating. When we give birth not only do we release a human, an organ, and a decent amount of our blood, but we also release hormones. These physical and chemical losses need to be replenished.
When I talk to my clients about nutrition I make sure to mention cultural connections to food, ancestral recipes they may be able to get from family members or that they remember eating when they were sick growing up. Everyone’s body and health is not uniform so their nutrition should be individualized as well. We do that by looking at the roots of our eating and physical habits to restore and recover after birth and into feeding your baby, sleep changes and continued change.
Eating things that feel good and nourish you from the inside out are crucial. Things full of life and warmth, to encourage circulation and healing. Every culture around the world has their version of “chicken noodle soup”, which is a great dish to think of in terms of postpartum food and diet. Feeding yourself well, is a form of self care, which can be practiced everyday and is effective in preventing perinatal mood disorders.
When food is limited or access to it is, we talk about the last pillar of postpartum -
Community:
This pillar is as ancient as time, written about in novels such as The Red Tent and many others, the traditional village was a built in support system of family members, aunts, moms and sisters, who would hold space for and guide each other through transitions into parenting. They shared stories, nutritrional wisdom and gave hands-on help. This cultural blessing has been lost with colonialism and the erasure of communities in favor of the industry promoting idea of the Nuclear Family.
Community is where we find solidarity, validation and resources from trusted peers. When we are born without a large family and into circumstances that do not lend themselves to the growth of a rich network of support, we have to find ways to craft our own. Working through the road blocks and obstacles that keep us from finding our community (which are especially prevalent if you are from a marginalized community) is integral to the strength of these pillars, as none of them can stand without the other.
Once our Pillars of Postpartum are in place, Preparation + Nutrition + Community, we can face any adverse experiences during postpartum head on with the best possible foundation towards building the rest of our inner and outer worlds in a healthy and intentional way.
This concept is just the tip of the iceberg that will be covered in my book, YES BOOK! After many years of debating what kind of piece I want to first get published I finally settled with what my heart and mind are currently working on everday. I am enrolled with Postpartum Support International to begin my certification in Perinatal Mood Disorders, which will work in companionship with the three-year Somatic Therapy Program I was accepted to this month. This pathway will help me write my book and writing my book will help me finish this pathway into being a Perinatal Therapist.