My postpartum journey in 9 foods
This post was a fun one to write. I wanted to share a little bit about my journey with food after giving birth. As I started writing, I realized that the memories I have attached to different foods were often quite emotive, and spoke to where I was at in my postpartum journey. As this post developed, it became a little bit of a roadmap of my life since giving birth 18 months ago - moments of exhaustion, joy, and survival. If you are currently pregnant, this post might provide a little glimpse into what life with a new baby can be like. So, let me tell you the stories of 9 foods I’ve eaten as a new mom…
1. Walnut chocolate chip cookies
I will be forever grateful to my friend who brought be a whole box of these cookies after giving birth. If you’ve had the walnut chocolate chip cookies from Thai Orchid in Grand Cayman … you know. There is nothing else like these cookies. These cookies are some version of heaven, especially when you are a ravenous breastfeeding postpartum mom, who can only use one hand to eat, and it’s 3am.
2. Meal replacement smoothies
The memory attached to this smoothie was the first time I realized how vulnerable I felt as a postpartum mom. I was stuck in bed breastfeeding my baby and I could barely walk, but I was starving. I felt so helpless. My husband wasn’t with me because he had to use his paternity leave to move us from one apartment to another (we moved when our son was 1 week old - chaotic, but a story for another time…) My husband came home and brought me this smoothie, and I’m pretty sure I cried. Tears of gratitude, of overwhelm, or simply baby blues, who knows - all of the above maybe?
3. Pasta bakes
After we moved we started digging into the small freezer stash I had prepared for us before giving birth. The mac and cheese pasta bakes stand out in my mind, mainly because they took way longer to cook in the oven than I’d expected. I remember my husband, my mom and me, sat around watching a movie late at night, hoping the baby wouldn’t wake up before we got to eat. When the pasta was finally done, I had one serving… then another… and then finished off the tray. I remember feeling guilty at the time for eating so much. Now, I realise I was refuelling after not eating enough during a whole day of breastfeeding. That’s where I was getting all my extra 500 calories from (did you know you need more calories when breastfeeding than in your third trimester of pregnancy?!? I had no idea!)
4. Pizza delivery
Eventually, my mom had to leave, our friends stopped bringing us food… and we had to get on with life with a new baby. And I still needed to fuel my breastfeeding, but I didn’t always have time to eat, yet alone to cook. I’m pretty sure one week we ordered Domino’s pizza three times. No shame in the breastfeeding calorie consumption game.
5. Takeout salads
Eventually, however, my body was smart enough to realize that I needed to eat more nutrient-dense foods - not just to fuel my breastfeeding, but to replenish my nutrient stores after giving birth. But I still had absolutely no capacity to cook for myself. I looked into meal delivery services in Cayman, but there were none at the time that would work for us. So I DIY-ed my own meal delivery plan using that would cost the same amount as our weekly grocery budget otherwise would have cost. I wrote a whole list of the meals from restaurants that would fall into our budget - restaurants like Island Naturals, Fresh, and Seven Mile Greens had affordable options for a range of nutrient-dense meals. I would order several meals at once and keep them in the fridge for two or three days. It felt so good to have a salad bowl with a variety of produce & proteins that I could just grab out of the fridge whenever I had the chance to eat.
6. Chocolate cherry granola yoghurt bowl
At some point my GP referred me to a dietician. I’m SO grateful for this (and also annoyed I didn’t see a dietician during pregnancy - I bet it would have helped me to feel so much better both during pregnancy and after!) She helped me to see that I was undereating because I simply wasn’t getting enough calories per day for a breastfeeding mom. She also explained to me the importance of protein when you’re breastfeeding, and based on my height and weight and how much I was breastfeeding, she recommended I should be eating 25-30 grams of protein per meal, with two additional protein-based snacks each day!
In general, it made such a difference to my energy levels to be eating more protein throughout the day, but the key was starting the day with a high-protein breakfast. My breakfast each day became a bowl of Greek yoghurt with frozen cherries (I found organic ones in bulk from Cost-U-Less) and chocolate granola. This is what I’d already been having before for breakfast. But doing the math of how much protein and calories I needed, I now also added to the bowl two tablespoons of peanut butter and two tablespoons of a chia/flax/hemp seed mix I made. Over a year later, I still eat almost the same thing every day for breakfast with my son (minus the chocolate granola, because I realised it seemed to be making me crave more sugar later in the day.)
7. Chicken drumsticks
Another big change came when my son started solids. I knew I wanted to try baby-led weaning, but I didn’t have any mental capacity to figure out what foods to give him. I would have just given him what my husband and I were eating, but our diet still wasn’t great (lots of Boxed Mac and Cheese, and Domino’s still featured weekly (we saved it for whenever we’d had a day that was really, really hard … which happened at least once a week). Anyways, I decided to buy the Solid Starts bundle. This really helped me, particularly the first 100 days meal plan, because I didn’t even have to think, I could just follow instructions (I would do anything to lessen the mental load with a baby.)
The recipes would often serve more than the two or three tastes my son would have, so I ended up eating a lot of the meals, too. There were even meals in the plan that intentionally made enough servings for both parents and baby (score!) This helped me to figure out the logistics of getting back into the kitchen as a new mom. Most of the time, with my baby in the wrap. Gradually, I started cooking more often, and more nourishing meals.
The other thing that was a big change for me around this time was that I started eating meat, starting with the chicken drumsticks from the Solid Starts meal plan. I had been vegetarian most of my life, and vegan for 4 years before I got pregnant (I chose to reintroduce eggs, dairy, and seafood into my diet when I found out I was pregnant). Initially, I only started eating meat because I wanted my son to have more iron and be exposed to the textures, and I couldn’t be bothered to cook separate meals for us both. However, for a variety of reasons, including from a nutritional standpoint but also just because I believe it is helping me to feel better mentally and physically, I’ve stuck with eating meat. For a deeper exploration of the suitability of vegan and vegetarian diets for pregnancy and postpartum, I hear Lily Nichols’ book Real Food for Pregnancy has an evidence-based analysis and can provide guidance for those who do decide to continue vegan/vegetarian diets throughout pregnancy/postpartum.
8. Ghee
From 8-12 months, cooking became a bit of a nightmare. My son was very clingy throughout the period of separation anxiety which peaks during the last few months of their first year. Wearing him in the carrier was not an option, as he’d figured out how to grab things like knives and hot pans. That whole time period is a bit of a blur, especially as that was when the sleep deprivation seemed to really catch up with me, and my mental health generally was not in a good place.
However, after 12 months, my son started becoming happier to entertain himself by playing his toys while I cooked. Eventually, I started having enough time in the kitchen that I could actually experiment a bit more. I also just generally had more mental capacity to think about my wellbeing, and so I decided to explore ayurvedic cooking for postpartum. I first learned about ayurveda in a 200-hr yoga teacher training in 2018, and I had since heard it mentioned a lot in regards to postpartum. I decided to try incorporating some more ingredients that are traditionally used in ayurveda for postpartum women, including ghee and warming spices. I created a weekly meal plan based around foods that should help me experience more balance, according to ayurveda. Whilst there were many other changes happening around this time that could also have influenced how I felt, I do think that this ayurvedic-inspired meal plan did seem to really help with restoring my energy levels and my mental clarity.
9. Smoked oysters
Since training as a postpartum doula, I have learned a lot more about the importance of nutrition postpartum - for replenishing your nutrient stores after pregnancy, to help sustain your energy levels, for your mental health, and for transferring vitamins through your breastmilk. My interest snowballed from listening to a podcast about the importance of postpartum nutrition, to learning about the different vitamins that are important for postpartum recovery and repletion, to then taking courses in postpartum nutrition so I could gain a deeper understanding.
I wish I had known everything I know now back when I was in my early postpartum days. Actually, I wish I’d learned about nutrition before I was even pregnant, because there’s so much I could have done before and during pregnancy that could have helped me feel better postpartum. One of the nutrients I realized I was not getting enough of was zinc. Oysters happen to have loads of zinc, and canned smoked oysters are a quick and easy snack perfect for busy moms.
Looking back, I see that food was a constant thread through the whirlwind of postpartum. Food has ultimately been a way of caring for myself, a way of surviving, and a way towards healing. As new moms, we often forget our own needs in the rush to care for our babies. But taking the time to nourish ourselves with food is one of the most powerful - and essential - acts of self-care we can offer. Pregnancy is the best time to start planning ahead for postpartum. If you’re already in postpartum and realising you need to prioritise your nourishment more, then consider reaching out to a postpartum doula, who can swoop in to get you on the right track by helping with meal planning, grocery shopping, and meal prep.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Ceridwen is a postpartum doula and lactation counsellor based in the Cayman Islands. She offers personalised, evidence-based information to help pregnant families prepare for their baby’s arrival. After birth, she helps postpartum families to feel calm, confident, and cared for, with a focus on lactation, mental health, and community building.
Learn more about Ceridwen here.
