Postpartum University® Podcast

EP 157 Postpartum Depletion Series: The Do's and Don'ts of Postpartum Nutrition

• Maranda Bower, Postpartum Nutrition Specialist • Episode 157

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The standard of postpartum healthcare, especially when it comes to nutrition, is shockingly low.

We're bombarded with conflicting advice, misleading marketing, and a lack of credible information. Today, we're diving deep into the dos and don'ts of postpartum nutrition, but fair warning – some of what you'll hear might challenge conventional wisdom. It's time to separate fact from fiction, debunk myths, and empower new mothers with the knowledge they need to nourish themselves and their babies effectively. 

In today's episode, we're sharing: 
"DO" recommendations 
"DON'T" recommendations 
Why this might feel highly controversial and how (and why) to adjust your perspective when it comes to postpartum nutrition 
Where these recommendations come from and how it is deeply rooted in science and enriched by the wisdom of our ancestors. 

It's time to shake up the status quo and pave the way for a healthier postpartum experience. It starts here. 

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Maranda Bower:

Depression, anxiety and autoimmune symptoms after birth is not how it's supposed to be. There is a much better way, and I'm here to show you how to do just that. Hey, my friend, I'm Miranda Bauer, a mother to four kids and a biology student turned scientist obsessed with changing the world through postpartum care. Join us as we talk to mothers and the providers who serve them and getting evidence-based information that actually supports the mind, body and soul in the years after birth. Hey, everyone, welcome to the last episode of the Depletion Postpartum series and I am going to get into the do's and don'ts of postpartum nutrition and we're going to do that today. It's going to be super hot and we'll tell you. We have done some of these posts on social media and these are the ones that are going absolutely viral. But first, before we get into that, I want to give you a huge thank you from the bottom of my heart. I have gotten so many podcast reviews from this series and so many messages in my inbox thanking me for really busting some of these big myths and speaking aloud for what so many of you are struggling with, especially if you're a professional trying to share this information in the world in which doesn't necessarily understand the physiological changes that are happening within the postpartum period, and I'm just so, so grateful for all of you who have reached out to share that, because that really helps me know that, one, I am serving you well and, two, it gives me the oomph to go even more. So thank you, thank you, thank you, and if you haven't yet left a review, please, please, do that. That would mean the world to us. So today we're talking about postpartum nutrition Again, a topic that's often overlooked or brushed aside in this whirlwind that is new motherhood. But here's the truth the standard of postpartum care, especially when it comes to nutrition, is shockingly low. We're bombarded with conflicting advice, misleading marketing and a lack of credible information, and today we're diving deep into the do's and don'ts of postpartum nutrition. But, fair warning, some of what you're going to hear might challenge conventional wisdom, and it's really time to separate that fact from fiction and debunk myths and empower new moms with the knowledge they need to nourish themselves and their babies effectively. So buckle up, because we're about to shake up the status quo again.

Maranda Bower:

So when I did post like this on social media, they were highly controversial, and I get it. There are so many people who are using fear tactics, bait and switch, marketing mimics and just plain lies. But what I'm telling you today isn't any of that. It just so happens. It goes against the standard and, let's be real, as I said earlier, the standard for postpartum care is really low and when it comes to postpartum nutrition, it's practically non-existent. Really, that's the truth. So here's what I share on some of the postpartum do's and don'ts that are pretty, pretty standard, some things that I share for you to do. These are not the controversial ones, so I'm going to get them out of the way real quick here.

Maranda Bower:

Making a plan that's pretty standard. We want to make a plan for postpartum, especially when it comes to nutrition, especially when it comes to making meals in advance so that we don't have to think twice about it, being mindful of your food and how you feel, being able to eat, often without worry of time. How many of us are up at two o'clock in the morning, three o'clock in the morning, five o'clock in the morning, and I don't know about you, but when I was up with my babies, I had to eat, sometimes a full-fledged meal. Sometimes it was dinner number two, maybe even dinner number three, it didn't matter when I was eating. It was as long as I was eating when I felt my body hungry. I always recommend eating organic and local and I think that's pretty standard. I don't have to go into that so much. This is about quality of food. Communicating your plan If you're making a plan, communicate your plan with your partner, with your friends, with your mother, whomever it is who's going to be in your space. Let them know what it is that you need and what it is that you want from them. Understand that difficult births take time to heal. So if you've had interventions, if you had an emotionally difficult birth experience, if you've had a cesarean, all of those scenarios are going to require longer healing times. Again, pretty standard. We got that. That sounds absolutely legit, right.

Maranda Bower:

Drink plenty of fluids. Soak your rice, beans, oats, nuts overnight. Now, this is one that most people understand pretty well and it's about optimizing digestibility and nutritional value. So when you soak these foods, you're essentially kickstarting that germination process and that process activates enzymes that break down compounds which can inhibit the absorption of minerals like calcium, magnesium, iron, zinc. So by soaking, you're essentially predigesting foods, which makes it easier on your digestive system. So we know via science, a lot of nutritionists and dietitians understand this. We got this. For most people, this is a relatively easy thing to understand, and here's some lists of don'ts that I have in postpartum that I think are also fairly understandable.

Maranda Bower:

Right, don't take nutrition lightly. Nutrition is a serious deal. Don't set everything in stone. Yes, make a plan, but things happen, we deviate, and whatever happens is going to be okay, I promise you. And don't feel obligated to make everything from scratch. Oh, my word, if you are in the third trimester or maybe you're already in the throes of motherhood and postpartum and it doesn't matter if you're six weeks postpartum or six months postpartum or two years postpartum If you're struggling, make a plan and don't feel obligated to make all of that bone broth on your own. If that's something you love to do and it feels easy for you, awesome. But if you're already in a state of overwhelm, there's some really easy hacks out there, and I highly encourage you to look at the postpartum nutrition plan, where I give you so many of those hacks so that you don't feel like you're obligated to do all of this cooking and being in the kitchen and slaving over a stove, especially when that's just really hard stuff, right? Okay, so most people can agree to all of that. All of that again, standard.

Maranda Bower:

Well, of course, I have to go and complicate this all with science and age-old cultural wisdom. See, what I'm teaching isn't just based on dry research papers or even trendy fads I hate those, they're not here whatsoever but it's also tapping into this deep-rooted tradition that mothers have relied on for centuries, alongside the scientific insights. So imagine sitting down with a trusted friend or a grandma and you're swapping stories and uncovering secrets passed down through generations. That's what I'm bringing to the table here that postpartum nutrition is both deeply rooted in science and enriched by the wisdom of our ancestors. It isn't either or it's both, and here's the dos and don'ts that people have a really rough time with. Are you ready? Okay, do eat warm food, don't drink ice water or cold smoothies, okay. Now, I know that's like what I go very deep in this episode or on this conversation in the episode 138, where warmth is medicine. I highly suggest you listen into that.

Maranda Bower:

But real briefly, let's get into this. We recognize the importance of heat therapy and modern medicine when it's applied to surgery, illness, major accidents. The amount of literature and science on the topic is well documented Cold foods, coldness, slow blood flow. That inhibits proper oxygenation and wound healing, among other factors. It also reduces the absorption of fats, which are necessary for hormone balance, milk production, wound healing Again, mind blowing that we have science and apply it to other significantly physical events, but childbirth is never one of them. Crazy, however, cultures around the world practice this over and over and over again. It is one of the many universal truths that we have when it comes to postpartum nutrition, and here's what I mean by universal truths. It means that every culture who has a practice for postpartum care regarding nutrition practices this. Every single one of them Eat warm foods, don't drink cold foods, don't drink ice water, cold smoothies, etc. Salads are also part of that cold foodness. Okay, so I know super controversial. If you want the deep talk, go to episode 138. Hey, I'm going to be 100% straight with you.

Maranda Bower:

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Maranda Bower:

Here's another one Do cook all fruits and veggies. Use broths as much as you can at every meal. Eat the same foods often and don't take supplements right away. I gave you quite a bit. Eat foods that are cooked. All fruits and veggies need to be cooked. Use broths at every meal. Eat the same foods often and don't take supplements right away.

Maranda Bower:

This is all based on the same principle is that the way we digest food and postpartum changes. I talk about this significantly and many of the other episodes in the Depletion Postpartum Series, but what you need to know is that, physiologically, where our gut has shifted, it's changed, it is adapting to motherhood and it's undergoing these physiological changes that affect the way we digest. We are not able to digest foods the same way, so that salad that many of you eat after giving birth is not helpful for you because it requires so many enzymes and gastric acids and juices to break down that food and your body doesn't produce that at the level it was. It actually takes your body so much time and energy to digest that food. Oftentimes we experience a lot of gas and bloating because of it. We call that normal because we're not eating in a way that's very helpful for our bodies. We are consuming so much energy to absorb our food and digest our food. It's causing a huge ruckus in our intestinal tract. It brings us misery. For many of us, it also supports inflammation. I'm going to get into the conversation of inflammation here in a minute, but what I'm saying is it's hard for the body to digest these foods. We have to give it time. This is why so many cultures around the world do the amazing soups, stews, broths, porridges those are standard meals. Every single meal in the postpartum period in the first several weeks, follow these guidelines.

Maranda Bower:

I want to tell you about supplements too, because this is something that I hear all the time. What do you mean? I can't have supplements. It's recommended to follow the prenatal vitamin and carry that into the postpartum period and all of that stuff. Yes, that is true, those are super important. I absolutely believe that those nutrients are incredibly valuable to us. However, if your body is not digesting a salad, if it's having a hard time getting food into it, if it can't even digest a hamburger because it's so rich and dense and full of ingredients, which is also really difficult for the body to digest a multitude of things being thrown at it, it's very challenging. How do you think it's going to break up a man-made pill? It's not. It's going to flow right through you. There are exceptions to the rule.

Maranda Bower:

I am a huge believer in supplementation through herbal extracts, through herbal teas, through tinctures, herbal tinctures. I think herbs are nature's vitamins. They are so nutrient, dense and full of vitamins that if we were to start consuming those alongside of bone broths, using broths at every meal, we're going to have so much more nutrients available to our body and we're going to be able to digest them more. So, so much more that is going to be digested in a way that's not going to hinder absorption. It's not going to be something that gives us gas and bloating. It's not going to take up so much energy because, goodness gracious, we don't have the energy to give to digesting our foods, when we need to use that energy for healing our bodies and preparing for breastfeeding, and getting the sleep that we need and nourishing and loving our baby. Those are the things that energy needs to go to.

Maranda Bower:

Okay, here's another one Don't eat gluten and dairy. Okay, I know, this is a huge one and one of my least favorite, because I love gluten, I love dairy. But here's the thing it's highly inflammatory. We have study after study that shows that in the US, particularly the US, gluten is very different, it is processed differently and it is very inflammatory. There's a couple of studies that actually show that gluten affects every single person. No matter if we know it or not, it causes inflammation in the body. We also know that studies show over 15 million people in the United States are allergic or react negatively to dairy. You don't necessarily need to think that, oh well, I don't have any tummy issues or I don't have any issues, I'm fine with it, but oftentimes your body says something very, very differently.

Maranda Bower:

I know somebody in my life right now who's struggling with this very thing. He has not been able to breathe out of his nose for a very long time one particular nostril, I'm talking for years. Finally he went and got some help. He's got nasal polyps, no issues with stomach, no other issues whatsoever Someone who has perfect health, except he can't breathe out of a nostril. He did a test to find out what his allergies are. All came back gluten, dairy and rice of all things. He's eliminated those and it's been about eight weeks, because it actually takes a significant time for your body to eliminate the proteins of gluten and dairy at least six weeks. It's just crazy. But when he did that, all of a sudden he's able to begin breathing out of his nose again. He's like this is insane.

Maranda Bower:

I would never have thought that my nose related issue was from foods that I was eating, causing inflammation in my body. You just don't know how your body reacts. You just don't know. I have someone who's very close to me and I've seen this so many times in clients too how gluten makes people angry. I've experienced this After the birth of my second. Anytime I consumed gluten I would get rageful, really rageful, uncontrollable. I didn't understand. I've had clients do the exact same thing, where they were perfectly fine Maybe they were doing the postpartum nutrition plan. They're like I'm feeling amazing and then they accidentally ate the leftover chicken nugget out of habit from their kid and all of a sudden, an hour later, they are just off the charts, feeling angry and mad at the entire world and not feeling like they have any control over it.

Maranda Bower:

And we have so much data and science to back this up. And here's why it's important because the postpartum is a very inflammatory period. There is a lot of healing going on and it's important. Inflammation right Inflammation is triggered in the body to signal to the body hey, I need healing. So we want inflammation because we want the white blood cells and the cytokines and all of those to go to whatever site and initiate the healing process so that we feel better. That's important. But it's also going to take us a lot of time to feel better and so that inflammatory period is a little bit longer for the postpartum body. It's even longer for somebody who's been through an intense birth experience or even an intense pregnancy experience, recovering from that, or a cesarean. All of that can take a toll on the healing and inflammatory period of postpartum. And when that inflammatory period becomes chronic, if we're not giving our bodies what it needs, it is going to wreak havoc. That's where depression, anxiety and autoimmune disease develop. And I've said this over and over and over again we know that postpartum depression and anxiety is rooted in inflammation within our bodies. We can actually scientifically predict when somebody will experience a mood disorder based on the level of inflammation within their body.

Maranda Bower:

So don't eat gluten and dairy, even if it's just temporary, as you're in that inflammatory period. If you're healing, how do you know you're in an inflammatory period? If you're the first six to 12 weeks postpartum, you're in an inflammatory period If you're experiencing hair loss, joint aching, constant fatigue, mood disorders, gut health issues, even if it's constipation or slight gas or indigestion, those kinds of things. All of that is inflammation-based. So if that's you, get rid of that gluten, get rid of that dairy.

Maranda Bower:

I've also heard a lot of questions about well, if I get rid of gluten and dairy, what about my baby? If I'm breastfeeding my baby? New studies are showing that giving babies the immune system boost with gluten and dairy via breast milk, that's going to help them not become allergic. But I'm going to tell you that science is still very, very new and that is not what we're seeing. We're actually seeing significant rises of babies being allergic to gluten and dairy. It's significant really. We see that through eczema issues. We see it through constant spitting up, we see it through major colic periods. There's so much evidence that shows that babies are becoming more and more intolerant of those things, and women having to get rid of those in their diets to support that. Okay, that's a big one, but I have another one that is even more controversial Don't eat vegan or vegetarian.

Maranda Bower:

I know this is really really, really tough, but I will tell you, every single culture in the world that practices veganism or vegetarianism will go without in the postpartum period, meaning that they will eat animal product in the postpartum period and then, after they've healed, they return to their vegan or vegetarian diets, as culturally practiced. I think this is absolutely incredible if you think about it. The reason being why this is not something that I would recommend is because the fats and the protein that are derived from animals are so much easier on the body to digest, and we know, study after study, when somebody is ill or somebody is sick, there's two things that can be related. It's either too much meat, too much animal product, right that over consumption, which is something we see in America all the time, can make someone very sick, and the other one is not getting enough, and that is so many women today. We cannot create enough breast milk, we cannot regulate our hormones if we don't have enough fat in our bodies. We need a significant amount of fat and we need a significant amount of protein, and no amount of nuts, no amount of peas, no amount of any other source of protein is going to give us what we need without also giving us what we don't need. And I have a really great example for you here.

Maranda Bower:

I have seen some images going around on social media about how it's better to eat almonds over chicken, and if you look at it, it doesn't quite make sense. Because if you have an, on average, about a three ounce serving of chicken breast that contains approximately 26 grams of protein, but a handful of almonds which is about well, if you look at one ounce, it's about 23 almonds that only contains around six grams of protein how many almonds would you have to consume in a sitting to equal that of one serving of a chicken breast? It's pretty phenomenal. And not only that, it's actually harder for the body to digest those almonds, especially if there was no soaking involved in those almonds and there's so many other components that go with it. Oftentimes we're consuming nuts that are stored away in really awful places for a long period of time, and we know over and over and over again that many brands and many things that we're purchasing from the store have rancid oils within them, so they're not as healthy. They just aren't as healthy.

Maranda Bower:

Now, of course, source matters. Just as source matters with where you get your almonds or you get your nuts, meat matters as well. Animal proteins matters. This is one of the reasons why we say shop local and shop organic, because that does make a huge difference. If that's available, that is definitely something you want to do. There's so many things that I can go into on that topic alone and I do offer more information. I'm going to drop the show link in the show notes below so that you can go take a listen to the other episode where we talk specifically about veganism and vegetarianism and postpartum and what I recommend.

Maranda Bower:

Okay, in all of this I will tell you I get lots of hate mail, especially from the last one about being vegan and vegetarian. I had one mama recently tell me that I was being very misleading and giving incorrect advice, especially about vitamins and supplements and how it's recommended that we continue that prenatal vitamin in postpartum and how there's nothing wrong with gluten and dairy and what's wrong with drinking ice water. I get it, but really what's misleading is a society and medical system that has normalized postpartum depression and dysfunction. Common does not equate to normal. What we are doing to mothers right now is not working. We are failing women and their families. It's amazing that we understand so deeply the need for emotional and mental support in the years after birth. We even recognize that our own body physically changes, but not once do we question what those changes are on a biological level and, even more, how do we support those biological changes so that we heal faster and deeper and feel better?

Maranda Bower:

What I'm sharing here is age-old traditions and cultural norms, and that's combined with science. Unfortunately, these postpartum traditions and care tools have been lost over generations and our science fails to acknowledge postpartum physiology. Most Often, I had another person in favor of veganism and vegetarianism tell me that I wasn't basing anything on science and that if we just listened to our bodies, we would have the right answer. All of my years working with women, I wish that were true to listen to our bodies and to feel our needs Certainly and ultimately, the best thing would be to listen to our bodies, but I will say that this is so incredibly difficult to do when you are in postpartum, often with little support, and you are fed so many lies by media and society on what is healthy.

Maranda Bower:

No matter how we perceive what's best for our bodies, we are heavily influenced by what we've heard to be true about health. Vegan and vegetarianism is a prime example. It's the one thing I will get the most hate on for and it's the one thing that I will stand so very firm in. Not only have I seen it repeatedly hurt both mothers and babies, I've also felt it in my own body and how it ruined it over the course of years. I was vegetarian for two years and it destroyed my body. I felt how it's ruined my body and I think it's interesting that, on top of all of this, every culture in the world that practices veganism and vegetarianism but one will omit these practices in postpartum because of the healing power of quality animal products.

Maranda Bower:

I'm not here to change your mind. I'm here to speak a truth and change the way we experience postpartum life for the better, because, god, we need it. If you're listening to this, you know everything I share with you is backed by science. My postpartum nutrition certification program has over 200 research articles and journals referenced. But also, I implore you to look beyond just research. By only listening to science and dismissing cultural practices and women's experiences that have been proven effective for generations and more generations, more than we can count, we are dismissing cultures and women in favor of science, and that is the very reason why we are in such a terrible predicament with postpartum and motherhood in the first place. In summary, postpartum nutrition is often overlooked, but it shouldn't be, and today we are challenging the status quo by separating fact from fiction and empowering new moms with the knowledge they need to nourish themselves and their babies effectively. Remember, postpartum nutrition is a journey and by taking small but intentional steps you can lay the foundation for a healthier and happier postpartum experience.

Maranda Bower:

I am so grateful you turned into the Postpartum University podcast. We've hoped you enjoyed this episode enough to leave us a quick review. And, more importantly, I hope more than ever that you take what you've learned here, applied it to your own life and consider joining us in the Postpartum University membership. It's a private space where mothers and providers learn the real truth and the real tools needed to heal in the years postpartum. You can learn more at wwwpostpartumu. That's the letter youcom. We'll see you next week.

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