The days (and weeks) following birth are a hazy mix of feeding, sleeping (well trying to) and spending countless hours gazing at your new bundle. You eagerly anticipated these days for months, and they may unfold exactly as you envisioned or in ways you never expected. Nevertheless, the Fourth Trimester is a period of healing and rest. This soup is an ideal choice to restore warmth to your body and soul, irrespective of the season. Blending the vegetables creates an easily digestible meal that your digestive system will appreciate. Nourishing bone broth, packed with collagen, combines with coconut milk, abundant in healthy fats that promote healing. Incorporating warming spices like turmeric, which acts as a utero-tonic to aid in the uterus returning to its pre-pregnancy size and possesses potent anti-inflammatory properties for postpartum healing, and ginger, known for aiding digestion as the digestive organs readjust after birth and supporting milk supply as a lactogenic herb.
As your doula, my role extends beyond providing education, encouragement, and empowerment. I am here for you during this precious time as you embrace parenthood. While you relax with your little one, I will cook for you in your kitchen, the delicious aromas filling your home and senses. I will hand you a bowl filled with love that warms your heart and supports your healing. THIS is how postpartum should be.
Recipe: Nourishing Postpartum Soup
Ingredients:
1 large Butternut Pumpkin (or half a large Crown Pumpkin)
3 large Kumara
2 Onions
1 bunch of Celery
8 Carrots
2 Granny Smith Apples
10 cloves of Garlic
2 TB fresh Ginger
4 TSP fresh Tumeric (or 2 TSP ground tumeric)
1 tsp Cinamon
1 tsp Cardamon
1 Bay Leaf
Salt
Pepper
Ghee
2L Bone Broth
1 Can Coconut Milk
Lets Get Cooking!
Preheat oven to 200°c
Line a tray with baking paper and top with a few dollops of ghee.
Start chopping! Peel the pumpkin and kumara if desired and then roughly chop into chunks, along with the carrots and apple.
Spread on an oven tray and top with some more ghee.
Bake in the oven until vegies can be pierced with a fork - about 25-30mins.
While the veggies are baking, chop up the onions, celery and garlic.
Fry the onions and celery in a stock pot with a dollop of ghee until they are soft. Add the garlic and cook for a minute or so.
Add the spices to the onion mix and fry until fragrant.
Once the veggies are cooked, add them to the stock pot, along with the bone broth and coconut milk and simmer for 20 mins or so to allow the flavours to infuse and develop.
Remove from heat and use an immersion blender to blend the soup until smooth, add a little water if required to reach desired consistency.
Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Enjoy!
“The spectrum of women’s experiences is wide after childbirth, encompassing the woman with minimal maternity leave and the one who plans to stay home indefinitely. But pretty much everyone experiences how the first forty days are inherently imperfect, rife with confusing and clumsy moments, dotted with messy and awkward parts, and sometimes even streaked with melancholy. If you can create space for all the ups and downs, including challenging feelings, and if you can do just a few small things to take good care of yourself during this time, you can help to create the conditions recommended by the old wise ones. You can enjoy a safe, supportive, healing environment that benefits mother and baby today and in the future, and practice staying connected to yourself even while taking care of another. The transition into motherhood - or motherhood again - is an incredibly important time of your life, and there is always an opportunity to bring sacredness into the experience of caring for a new baby.”
- The First Forty Days | The Essential Art of Nourishing the New Mother, by Heng Ou