Month Ten
“The Golden Month,” or the Aftermath
In Chinese medicine, the month after baby is born is still considered an intimate extension of your pregnancy. It is easy for everyone around you to focus primarily on the new baby during this time, and although that may be a welcome aspect of your support, in order for baby to best be taken care of right now, you need to be the focus of care and nurturing. A healthy mom is fundamental for a healthy baby—after all, baby benefits from your resources. This postpartum period should emphasize nourishing and replenishing you, and by extension, baby will be getting all the nourishment he needs.
The main lifestyle focus for you should be rest and bonding with your infant and incorporating nutritious food, such as a daily dose of the Boosted-Up Chicken Stock (recipe on page 46), for your recovery and continued stamina.
Breastfeeding
There are plenty of conflicting strategies and opinions about how to breastfeed—timed feeding versus feeding-on-demand, for instance—but remember that, just as you know your own body, you will get to know your baby’s needs better than anyone. Utilize strategies in conjunction with intuition and experimentation to discover what will work best for you and baby.
That said, breastfeeding is not necessarily as intuitive as it is made out to be. It can be a skill that you learn and develop. Different techniques, combined with persistence and patience, can make a big difference in successful breastfeeding.
By the way, breastfeeding can be a great remedy for postpartum depression. It helps balance hormone swings and increases endorphin levels—but it can also pose some challenges.
There are also some nifty gadgets such as breast pumps (I highly recommend renting or buying a hospital-grade one), nipple shields (very useful if you have small or inverted nipples), and supplemental nursing systems, or SNS, which are tiny tubes that you tape parallel to your nipple to distribute formula. Some women use these to supplement while waiting for the milk supply to kick in. That way, the baby is in training to associate where food comes from and is practicing her latch right from the start. Supply and demand usually start to match up after a while! Don’t hesitate to seek out a lactation consultant for more tips.
Here are some strategies to facilitate ease in your experience.
Milk Supply
GENERAL TIPS TO BUILD MILK PRODUCTION
• Decrease your level of stress (the more relaxed you are, the greater the release of prolactin and oxytocin, which facilitates milk production and bonding).
• Stay hydrated with water, stocks, soups, and noncaffeinated teas.
EMPHASIZE THE FOLLOWING FOODS
• Fermented foods (such as miso soup and sauerkraut) in small amounts with each meal
• Soaked oat and barley congee (1 cup grain to 8 cups water, boiled and simmered until porridge-like)
• Beets, carrots, winter squash
• Almonds
• Avocados
• Leafy greens
• Sea vegetables
Directions
Boil ½ cup barley in 3 cups of water for twenty-five minutes. Pour into cup and add 1 teaspoon of fennel seeds. Cover and let steep for ten minutes. Optional to also sweeten with honey.
Drink daily as needed.
Engorgement
Engorgement, or intense swelling of the breasts, often occurs when milk first comes in, or when baby decides to not take much milk during a feeding. It may be incredibly uncomfortable, but will generally resolve as supply adjusts to baby’s demand. To help this adjustment along, apply warmth and gently massage breasts toward the nipples, hand-express the milk to start it flowing, and then encourage baby to nurse.
ADDITIONAL TIPS FOR ENGORGEMENT:
• Soak cabbage or comfrey leaves in cold water and apply to breasts for twenty minutes.
• A hot ginger compress can help when applied under the arms and to the outer areas of the breasts (but not the nipples). Chop up a handful of fresh ginger root, tie it in a muslin bag, and simmer for ten minutes in boiling water. Let it cool just until you can tolerate the temperature on your skin, then lightly squeeze out excess water and apply for five to ten minutes to each spot.
Cracked Nipples
To remedy cracked nipples:
• Check baby’s latch.
• Apply vitamin E, aloe vera, or lanolin and ice to nipples in between nursing sessions. (Be sure to clean off the goop before nursing.)
• Express a few drops of milk and rub it into the areola to help the healing time.
• Exposure to sunlight can also be beneficial.
Raw and inflamed breasts can leave you susceptible to infection, so if you develop any flu symptoms, call your provider right away.
Mastitis
Mastitis is an infection that most often originates from engorgement. You can identify it by a reddening of your breasts that can include lumps or streaky areas and may be combined with a fever.
Because mastitis is caused by residual pooling of milk inside the breasts—a fertile ground for bacteria to enter the nipple—the best way to prevent it is to express at each feeding until the milk is gone. Attention to cleanliness, positioning, proper latch, and relaxed nursing on demand can also all help to prevent mastitis. For severe or persistent mastitis, antibiotics may be necessary to prevent abscesses.
Urinary Incontinence after Birth
If you’re not already doing kegels regularly, revisit the section on incontinence on page 152. And on a practical note, wearing a pad may be warranted for a while.
A sitz bath with astringent herbs can also help retain some of the leakage and temporarily tighten the muscles while you do the structural rebuilding. It’s also a warm and gentle encouragement for healing after birth.
Processing the Placenta
Postpartum Placental Consumption
Many cultures have rituals around disposal or consumption of the placenta. Some traditions include burying the placenta and planting a tree with it that can grow alongside the child. In Chinese medicine, the placenta is traditionally dried and prepared as capsules for the new mother to consume to help her recovery by replenishing her “essence.”
This may seem like cannibalism, but many animals “clean up” after their young, and if you’re interested in placenta encapsulation, there are folks such as doulas, midwives, and Chinese medicine practitioners who are qualified to safely prepare the dehydrated capsules for you to help you recover and rebuild from birth. However, it should be noted that in some women, consuming the placenta can interfere with breastfeeding. So, if you’re having any issues with that, discontinue use of your placenta capsules for a few weeks.
POSTPARTUM SITZ BATH
Ingredients
1 cup Epsom salts
2 ounces witch hazel
2 ounces dried calendula
2 ounces dried chamomile
2 ounces dried comfrey
2 ounces dried lavender blossoms
2 ounces dried lemon balm leaf
2 ounces dried plantain leaf
2 ounces dried yarrow
Directions
Combine all ingredients and fill several muslin bags with a handful of the concoction in each bag. To use, fill sitz bath tub (a plastic bin that fits on the toilet seat) with hot water and place one muslin bag into the bath to steep. When the water temperature is tolerable for you, soak for fifteen to twenty minutes.
See the resource section for where to order dried herbs.
Benefits of Placenta Consumption
A trove of research has analyzed the components of the placenta and the potential benefits to its consumption by new moms. Some of the highlights of what the placenta contains and what its benefits are:
• Oxytocin: helps with pain and increases emotional bonding with baby
• Thyroid-stimulating hormone: boosts energy and helps recovery from stressful events
• Interferon: stimulates the immune system to protect against infections
• Gammaglobulin: boosts the immune system and helps protect against postpartum infections
• Prolactin: helps with lactation
• Iron and protein: to reintroduce essential nutrients back into your system to promote healing and recovery
Postpartum Nutrition
Being a new full-time mom is not easy. In order to support you and your little one, you must eat! When you’re breastfeeding, you need 300 to 500 more calories per day than you did before you were pregnant. If you’re at a loss for what to eat, seek out a local nutrition counselor and enlist your friends and family in a food rotation.
General guidelines for postpartum nutrition include eating easy-to-digest, protein-rich food, eating regularly, and avoiding any food that you notice your baby is sensitive to. Here are some recipes to consider.
BONE STOCK WITH POST-PARTUM HERBS
Traditional Chinese Medicine guides mothers to eat certain foods and herbs for the first month after birth to aid recovery. Bone stock is a great way to nourish you and your baby and draw on the ancient Chinese secret of postpartum vitality. So, keep going with or revisit your Boosted-Up Chicken Stock (see recipe page 46) with the addition of the following ingredients added into the cooking process: a palmful of both goji berries and Chinese red dates (also called Jujube).
YAM, GINGER, AND ADZUKI CONGEE
This is a gentle, nutrient-rich porridge to promote postpartum recovery and give you the protein boost you need for producing breast milk.
Ingredients
1 cup white rice
¼ cup adzuki beans
1 yam, peeled and coarsely chopped
About an inch of fresh ginger root, chopped
10 cups water
Directions
Simply place everything in a stock pot or slow cooker and simmer until porridge consistency (approximately four to six hours).
BLOOD ORANGE SHRUB
This refreshing, vinegar-based beverage can help consolidate and rebuild fluids that were lost during birth.
Ingredients
1 cup freshly squeezed blood orange juice (you can also substitute other citrus if you can’t find blood oranges, which tend to be in season from December through May)
1 cup organic sugar
1 cup apple cider vinegar
Sparkling water
Directions
Stir the sugar into the blood orange juice, then let sit until the sugar is completely dissolved (1-2 hours). Mix in apple cider vinegar. Add 1 tablespoon to a full cup of sparkling water (to taste) and enjoy.
The ingredients in the tea, and many of the ingredients in the cookies, are galactagogues (foods that can help increase lactation), while replenishing minerals too.
Tea Ingredients
¼ cup dried alfalfa
½ cup fennel seeds
¼ cup dried nettle
½ cup dried red raspberry leaves
¼ cup dried dandelion leaves
1 cinnamon stick
3 cloves
Tea Directions
Combine all of the ingredients together in a large jar and shake to blend. Fill a tea ball with a tablespoon or two of the blend and place in a cup of boiled water. Let infuse for about ten minutes. Add a touch of organic, whole cream, or homemade almond milk (see recipe page 32 if you’d like).
Cookie Ingredients
2 cups organic rolled oats
1 tablespoon freshly ground fennel seeds
2 tablespoons freshly ground flax seeds
½ cup organic coconut sugar
¼ cup tapioca flour
¼ cup nutritional yeast flakes
1 teaspoon aluminum-free baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
¼ cup plus 2 tablespoons coconut oil, melted, plus extra for pan
2 tablespoons molasses
2 eggs
½ teaspoon organic almond extract
Cookie Directions
Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease a cookie sheet with coconut oil. Place oats into a high-speed blender or food processor and blend until coarsely powdered. Grind fennel and flax seeds in a coffee grinder or with a mortar and pestle until powdered. Combine all dry ingredients into a bowl and mix together. In a separate bowl, combine almond or tahini butter, melted coconut oil, molasses, eggs, and almond extract. Stir well. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Mix with a spoon or hands. Form small balls and gently flatten with back of spoon. Bake for fifteen to twenty minutes or until slightly brown. Remove from oven and transfer cookies to a cooling rack. Store in an airtight glass container. Enjoy a cookie with your tea daily!
General Postpartum Support Tips
Get Sleep
I can’t say enough about how great a postpartum doula is for the first week. If you can get a little sleep, your overall coping skills and bonding ability will probably improve greatly.
Receive Massage
Nurturing touch can be very replenishing after birth. See if you can find someone who can come to your house.
Navigate Mood
It’s normal to feel overtaxed. Just keep an eye on it and make sure it doesn’t get incapacitating. You can enlist a therapist or a psychiatrist to give you support and help you assess the possible need for breastfeeding-safe medication.
Tell Your Story
Find a forum, either in person or online, to share your birth story. This can be a very therapeutic way to process your experience.
The Aftermath
Now that you’ve concluded your pregnancy journey, the support you need is just beginning. Keep drawing on all the ways you’ve learned to care for during your pregnancy, and don’t hesitate to seek out resources during your post-partum period, or as I call it, the aftermath.