Top 4 Postpartum Natural First Aid Tips
Getting ready for the arrival of a baby is usually the central focus of many entering into this either new or familiar era once again. Clothes, nappies, toys, sheets, prams, birth plans, prenatal yoga, birthing classes and the list goes on. We do however forget to contemplate life after that incredible portal to Motherhood, where in fact self-love, care and nurture are the most important aspects of wellbeing and overall bonding capacity with your little.
This is a short guide to preparing yourself (or even helping a friend) prepare for a smooth transition into postpartum health, nurture and healing — with simple, easy, non-demanding rituals, self-care and natural first aid measures that inject a little love into you and your incredible, healing body that accomplished so much over the last 9 months and will do beyond the sleepy newborn stage.
Here are my top 4 postpartum natural first aid tips —
1. Snack and Meal Preparation
Snack and meal preparation. Good food is the ultimate first aid. Our need for nutrition and quality nutrition post birth and breastfeeding literally triples. Prior to the arrival of your little one, preparing freezable snacks as well as meals will be a lifesaver. Cook up various bulk meals for family dinners in the months prior to birth, which you can savour a few leftovers and freeze. Think stews, soups — warming foods in particular. Ensuring you have energy dense snacks on hand is also a big priority. Nothing was better than pulling out choc fudge, protein bliss balls during those 3am power feeds! Don’t be afraid to ask your dear friends for help. Food in place of gifts is so underrated. Reset your nursing space often, ensuring you always have your water bottle filled with water to sip during breast feeding marathons.
2. Frozen Herbal Maternity Pads
I made this at least one month prior to delivery by steeping a large pot of Organic Comfrey leaves, Lavender and Calendula flowers in boiling water. Once the decoction had cooled, I soaked maternity pads and placed them on multiple trays before putting them in the freezer. Once they were frozen I pulled them off the tray and stacked them neatly inside a zip-lock bag. My morning ritual post birth included a nice hot shower, lathering myself in oil/lotion, placing Witch Hazel on slightly defrosted maternity pads before finally sitting down to nurse. NOTE: about 15 minutes will suffice and be sure to sit on a towel as it will soak through underwear. These pads made all the difference to my overall sense of wellbeing and sped up the recovery and healing of minor tears. It was such a beautiful way to nurture myself after a long-night before another long day ahead.
3. Arnica
These pilules sat on my nursing table along with my water bottle and hot tea. For the first 3 days post birth I had 3x homeopathic Arnica 30c daily, and continued for another 10 days at 1 pilule daily. Arnica 30c supports the healing of the body and decreases swelling post birth. I also used Arnica cream (Weleda) topically on my belly after the shower to minimise physical stress and strain on the soft tissues and muscles of the belly. This also helped with after pains.
4. Prenatal and/or Placenta Capsules
Firstly, another two things I kept on my nursing table. Secondly, I am voting to change the name of prenatal vitamins to Mother Vitamins, because if anything our requirements for these vital nutrients escalates significantly after birth and their deficiencies can speed up the process to postnatal depletion. The thing with prenatal vitamins is that we usually think of them as essential for the baby, but in actual fact (unless you are already significantly deficient in vitamins/minerals), your body will almost ALWAYS provide your baby with everything they need even without the vitamins. This means you are essentially stripped, as our bodies will provide for our babies before it thinks about us – and isn’t that just a wonderful thing! Camilla talks about common nutrient/mineral deficiencies postpartum here as well as placenta encapsulation in this post (which I also felt immense benefit), so it would be worthwhile revisiting these journal entries to keep these things in mind as you enter the beautiful postpartum vortex.
“The severity of the symptoms experienced at perimenopause is directly related to the amount of times a woman has ignored the symptoms she has experienced during the other times in her life cycle, premenstrually and postnatally.”
Seeing your Naturopath pre-birth is a wonderful way to inspire further practices to instil into your postpartum care plan. Quality and therapeutic ranges of supplements vary greatly between store bought and practitioner only products, hence I strongly suggest you speak with your naturopath about your Mother Vitamins before self-prescribing. Another wonderful thing naturopaths can help with are Partus Preparator herbal extracts, which I also took for myself during the last few weeks of gestation to a couple of weeks post birth to tone the uterus, prepare for labour, support the nervous system, reduce after pains, assist breast milk production and expedite healing and recovery.
I hope this inspires you to get creative, prepare and fully believe that you are worth every little indulgence you can get during this special time. Remember, the way we treat and look after ourselves, the way we replenish our stores in this beautiful fourth trimester has a vast impact on the way our health and vitality plays out in the later years of parenting and beyond. In Chinese Medicine, the way we look after ourselves postpartum influences our whole menstrual cycle and the ease and grace in which we experience menopause as we move from Mother to Maga to Crone.
Olivia x
NOTE: always opt for organic ingredients and sanitary items where possible. Our skin is the largest organ in the human body and will absorb toxic chemicals and pesticides as readily as being ingested.