My new book: Nutrition for Postpartum Playbook is a postpartum mother’s new best friend. It will guide you through how to nourish your body with ease and confidence and help you to remedy common postpartum symptoms. Let me share with you why you will love this book.
First of all, to clarify, I have only released it as an e-book at this stage.
I made this decision purely from observing how many e-books and paperback versions of my last book Your Holistic Guide to Pregnancy Nutrition I sold. Most people bought the e-book version, so I decided I would start by selling my new book as an e-book version at this stage.
Now that we have that part out of the way, I wanted to share my heart behind creating this book.
The ‘why’ behind the book
In my first two postpartum seasons, I struggled with postpartum depression and anxiety. I was one of the first women in my friend circles who had a baby, so I did not have many people to learn from about motherhood (apart from my own mother and Aunties, who at that point, had adult children).
I wanted someone around who just got it and told me that the feelings I felt were normal.
To tell me that my baby will learn how to sleep eventually.
To tell me that I will feel like myself again.
To tell me that I don’t need to be anxious about every little thing that seems so ginormous at the time.
Seven years later, I have learnt that somehow all the little things I worried about at the time taught me not to worry so much about them with my third and fourth babies (I have God to thank for those life lessons and the freedom I have through Christ each new day.)
When we are newly postpartum, our bodies are fragile, our emotions are raw. We need community. We need older women to tell us that we will be okay. We need community to help look after us so that we can be in the best state to look after our precious baby.
Our fast paced society does not recognise or make space to value postpartum practices like:
– 40 days of postpartum rest
– Postpartum warm, nourishing foods
– Postpartum healing practices
– Giving the new mother the proper care she needs
Or my favourite: the knowledge medical professionals and midwives should be imparting into their pregnant patients about proper postpartum care and nutrition.
I had completed my holistic nutrition studies after having my third baby.
So by the time I gave birth to him, I had the knowledge I needed to rest, to eat warming, nourishing foods and to say no to many things I said yes to in my first two postpartum seasons.
I believe that the lack of consideration of my own needs in those first two postpartum seasons led to depression and malnourishment.
I did not know how to look after myself properly. By neglecting to do so, I did not ensure that I was looking after myself to protect my mental health and wellbeing.
I see many new mothers these days riddled with anxiety and fear about how to take care of their babies.
We have information at our fingertips and I don’t believe it helps us make decisions with confidence, rather decisions based on fear.
This is why I want to empower new mothers with traditional practices and wisdom in postpartum care.
Because when the mother is well looked after and nourished, so her will baby be.
What you can expect from this book
The book is easy to read, compact and is not exhaustive.
It is educational with practical tools.
It is specific, yet broad enough not to overwhelm you.
Here is a break down of the topics in the book:
- Nourishing the early days
- Optimal foods for postpartum
- Critical postpartum nutrients
- Afterpains
- Cracked nipples
- Breast engorgement
- Mastitis
- Thrush
- Swelling
- Hair loss
- Hemorrhoids
- Lochia (blood loss)
- Night sweats
- Postpartum depression
- Stress
- Thyroid dysfunction
- Weight
- How your diet affects your breast milk
- How to naturally increase milk supply
- Possible reasons for low milk supply
- Oversupply of breast milk
- Formula/alternative feeding
- With 15 delicious postpartum recipes
How it will leave you feeling
It is hard to articulate how it will leave you feeling, as I am the author and cannot speak for a first time reader!
But my hope in writing this book will leave readers feeling:
- Encouraged to know their worth as a mother
- Empowered to make wiser, healthier choices for their postpartum bodies (and babies)
- Equipped with the right tools and wisdom to approach various postpartum conditions and symptoms
- Inspired to look into root causes of postpartum conditions and symptoms that they may encounter
- Inspired to make some delicious, warming and satisfying recipes for their postpartum season.
It truly is a practical resource I wish I had with my first baby. It is something I wish every new mother could read!
So, if you are about to have a baby for the first time or the fifth time, if you have a friend who is postpartum and you want to give her a gift that will truly support her or you want to be well prepared for when the time comes for you to have a baby: please grab a copy of the e-book!
I know it will be worth your time.
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