What you eat when your baby is born, is as important as what you’re eating during pregnancy. How you nourish yourself post-birth is important not only to your baby (whether you're breastfeeding or not), but also to your recovery. 

Your body undergoes significant changes after birth — your uterus shrinks back to its pre-pregnancy size, your connective tissues adapt, your breasts begin producing milk, and your skin regains elasticity. On top of that, you need to replenish the energy you expended during labour. 

The best way to do this is by eating soft, warming and nutritious foods.

The nutrients found in bone broths, seafood, eggs and good fats are extremely important for healing and milk production in new mums. Warming foods like broths, herbal teas, porridges, and foods seasoned with warming spices like cinnamon and ginger are incredibly nourishing. And soft, soupy, moist, creamy, oily and mild foods are ideal for supporting your weakened and slower digestive system.

This makes perfect sense. 

When you're recovering from pregnancy and birth, tremendous shifts are happening internally. Healing tissues that have been stretched, torn (or cut) require plenty of protein, especially the amino acids glycine and proline, which your body uses to make collagen. These are found in abundance in bone broth and slow-cooked stews, soups and curries that incorporate animal foods. 

After almost 10 months of having your abdominal organs pushed into a tighter space, your digestion is considered to be a little slower and weaker than normal, so eat gently for the initial period after birth. The moistness of coconut-milk curries, slow-cooked lentil soup and shredded slow-cooked meat helps to replenish the liquids lost during birth and counter the dryness in the digestive system that can lead to constipation.

Should you lose a significant amount of blood during labour, replenishing with red meat and organ meats (especially liver and heart) provides high amounts of easily absorbed iron and vitamin B12. Foods such as eggs and seafood provide additional protein along with iodine, B-vitamins, zinc, choline, DHA and other essential nutrients that help speed healing and also enrich breast milk. 

Furthermore, energy needs to go up during recovery from birth, especially if you're breastfeeding*. Your body can more readily extract calories from cooked foods compared to raw foods. Hence the addition of easy-to-digest foods like cooked veggies, slow-cooked meat and warm porridges to a postpartum diet.

*Exclusively breastfeeding mothers burn an additional 500 calories per day for the first 6 months postpartum.

So, what foods should you eat to enhance your postpartum recovery? 

Here is a list of foods to guide your meal prep. Many of these foods can be made in bulk and frozen so you have plenty of nourishing, nutritious and healing foods on hand once your baby is here and commanding all of your time and attention.

• Soups, hearty stews, and curries made with bone broth.

• High-iron foods, such as slow-cooked meat and organ meats, such as liver, kidney and heart. (You can easily hide liver in recipes such as chilli con carne, meatloaf, shepherd’s pie and meatloaf).

• Plant based iron-rich foods like lentils, chickpeas and other beans including kidney, tofu, and steamed/cooked leafy green vegetables such as spinach and beetroot leaves, broccoli and brussels sprouts.

• High-fat foods like butter/ghee, fatty fish like salmon and sardines, nuts/seeds, oils like coconut, olive and avocado. Soak nuts first to soften them or have some nut butter from the jar.

• Foods rich in omega-3 fats, such as seafood, eggs and grass-fed beef.

• Iodine-rich foods, such as seafood or seaweed-infused broths.

• Soft-cooked vegetables (instead of raw vegetables or salads).

• Well-cooked grains/starches such as oatmeal, rice or sweet potatoes eaten alongside plenty of fat and protein to provide enough energy and stabilise your blood sugar.

• Plenty of warm liquids, like broths and herbal teas.