In some cultures there is a rest period of up to 30 days to help the mother recover. She won’t have visitors, she won’t leave the house and she will focus entirely on bonding with her baby. That is so far from the experience I had with Scarlett when she was born. Not that I am complaining in any way, because I am so grateful for the love we had around us at that time, but we had visitors flooding into the hospital and then when we got home from hospital, it was Christmas Eve so we ventured out to visit family that night. I remember my boobs felt like they were about to explode, I wasn’t having any success with feeding, I ended up getting mastitis. I was so stressed out and I remember even having a diary to schedule all the visitors we had coming over in the first few weeks! I saw it as an achievement to say I’d been to the shops with baby in the first week instead of recognising what a huge deal childbirth was and just giving myself time to heal.
It leads me to ask the question…Why are we putting so much pressure on ourselves to be such great mums so early in the piece? Just giving love, cuddles and milk should be enough, but in today’s society it’s like we have to be better than others or prove we’re taking it all so well when in fact it is totally OK to just “be”.
So this time around things are going to be very different. I’m not going to bask in the glory of proving to anyone else or to myself that I’m capable and independent. I’m going to completely think about myself and what suits me best. Just writing this makes me nervous, in a world where so many people judge and expect so much of others. But you know what – F#*k it, that’s what I’m doing because it’s best for me!
In terms of trying to combat the fact that it is likely I’ll suffer in some way from postnatal depletion, I’m taking the advice from Dr Serrallach and I’d encourage any of you reading this to do the same.
He recommends recovering mothers consume high amounts of good fats. I’ll be consuming extra servings of bone broth, oily fish, avocado, nut butters, coconut oil and tahini as well as chia seeds. I’ll also be supplementing with vegan omegas to feed my brain and nervous system with DHAs. He also recommends high amounts of algal oil for vegan mothers. If you’re looking for a great solution to this, email me about our Omegas as it ticks all the boxes.
I already eat a lot of organic vegetables but I will be super mindful of increasing my intake after baby. I’ll load up on smoothies and I’ll also be taking into consideration multiple ways of supplementing with my nutritional support capsules as well as other additions like spirulina.
If you’d love support around how to start taking action towards avoiding post natal depletion I’d love to chat with you about joining our Fit Mumma’s Club.
My biggest message: Don’t forget about taking your nutrition seriously and as hard as it might be… put yourself FIRST!
The Bossbabe Collective was founded by lifestyle coach and personal trainer Jessica Schembri. Jessica leads a team of women around the world in helping them to work from home and in her time in this role it has completely changed her life and the peoples lives around her for the better. The Bossbabe Collective is a culmination of these dreams coming true and her passion for helping others with heath and happiness is now her full time “job”. Check out her Facebook group: Fit Mumma’s Club.
