Congratulations on the new addition to your family! Now that your life has been turned upside down (in the best possible way), pregnancy may already be a distant memory, as the blissed-out feelings of loving someone more than you could ever imagine have taken over. This is why we recommend reading this chapter before the nirvana sets in (i.e., during your third trimester).

Postpartum healing needs many things. Nutrition is very important, but there are other pieces to the healing process that also need to be addressed, including nurturing your time, your relationships, and your body. Oh, and staying off Google, aka Pandora’s box, for all first-time parents.

Your body has taken almost 38 weeks to grow this amazing human using the energy and building materials you provided. In postpartum, the focus is on maintaining the right nutrients to provide enough energy for breast-feeding and for taking care of your newborn so you can enjoy this rare time in life. Although the first three months are among the most beautiful moments with your baby, usually they are also filled with less sleep and less time for you, so finding ways to take care of yourself during these first few months is very important.

THE BABY BLUES AND POSTPARTUM DEPRESSION

Before we tell you how to prepare for postpartum, we want to talk about postpartum depression (PPD). This is a real condition that can affect up to 15 percent of women in the first weeks after having their baby, according to a study by the Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior at Brown University.¹ We provide all the tools to help and support you so that you have a different experience postpartum, but we want to explain what PPD is first.

The baby blues are the “bluesy” feelings that a mother might experience immediately after birth that tend to end around two weeks postdelivery. Postpartum depression is clinical depression and more significant. PPD can be a continuation of baby blues, where they just never go away, or it can even begin around six weeks postpartum and last for up to two years. It’s important to note that a postpartum woman experiencing mood swings and crying for no apparent reason could be experiencing baby blues. A certain amount of these varying emotions is very normal after having a baby and shouldn’t necessarily be considered problematic. Baby blues are experienced by about 60 to 80 percent of women according to Shoshana Bennett, PhD.² Clinical postpartum depression, on the other hand, is much more severe and lasts much longer. We chose to focus on PPD since the seriousness of this condition should be properly understood in order to recognize it and get necessary treatment. (Also, we include information about ingesting your placenta and how it helps stave off PPD starting here, and rest assured, it will more than take care of baby blues, too.)

The baby blues are the “bluesy” feelings that a mother might experience immediately after birth that tend to end around two weeks postdelivery. Postpartum depression is depression and more significant. PPD often begins around six weeks postpartum and can last for up to two years.

During pregnancy, the placenta guides the body to increase progesterone levels many times higher than what a non-pregnant woman would normally produce. Then after the baby is born and the placenta is gone, progesterone levels drop quickly and dramatically. Progesterone is known for its mood-boosting effects, so while these hormones drop, estrogen levels remain the same, which can make the body feel like there isn’t enough progesterone. According to the Mayo Clinic, this dramatic hormonal flux may contribute to postpartum depression. It also correlates to other drops in hormones produced by your thyroid that have the potential to leave a new mom feeling sluggish, tired, and depressed.³

THE PLACENTA AND POSTPARTUM DEPRESSION

Some women are definitely more susceptible to PPD than others. There are a variety of reasons for this, including genetics, biological makeup, a history of mental illness, and environmental issues. When some of the symptoms associated with PPD emerge, many women just attribute it to normal fluctuations in hormones and sleep deprivation—which is often the extent of it.

However, for some, the transition to full-blown PPD can be swift and unexpected. Suddenly a new mother is faced with the possibility of needing antidepressants and the decision about whether to continue breast-feeding while taking medication. Obviously, this is something no mother wants to deal with while she is adjusting to being a mother and trying to bond with her precious baby. This is why we want to boost your body and help you prepare for an enjoyable postpartum period and this is where your placenta might just be the best answer you could hope for (see later in this chapter for more information).

We want to be clear that we fully understand the seriousness of clinical PPD, and if you have a history of mental illness or a family member who has had PPD, please consult with your mental health clinician and medical doctor to understand all your options and choose what is best for the health and well-being of you and your family.

PREPARING FOR POSTPARTUM

What to eat? When to cook? Whom to have over? When to have them over? Is this a party?

A basic component of survival is eating, so let’s start there. Usually the last thing you and your partner want to do immediately after bringing your beautiful baby home is cook and prepare three meals a day, plus snacks. You want to have unlimited time to stare at your precious newborn and oooh and ahhh at his every movement or non-movement, at each sound and silence. So, plan ahead.

Create what we call a food bank before your due date by preparing some of your favorite dishes that can easily be frozen and reheated. Better yet, if you have some favorite meals that family or friends can make, ask them to prepare that meal by your due date so you can freeze it. Meals such as casseroles, stews, and soups are fantastic to have on hand. Pick your kid’s or partner’s favorites, too, so that you have a variety to choose from. Nutritious bars and cookies full of protein are also wonderful to include in your food bank.

Having a full food bank will give you and your family a basic foundation for emergency food; all you have to do is heat it up. Our recipes chapter (see here) is packed with make-ahead meal ideas and recipes (including a Milk-Boosting Cookies recipe that helps with breast milk production, not that you’ll need it).

Learn How to Receive; It Takes a Village

Accept offers for help from your family and friends. The people who love you are excited about this time in your life, too. Your baby is their grandbaby, niece or nephew, goddaughter or godson—or maybe just a fresh face to coo at. It can be difficult at times to open the door to your heart and your home, but remember that friends and family are just trying to help and to share this experience with you and your partner. So if you are already getting offers, please, please do not say no. It’s okay—better than okay—to say yes.

We know many new mothers who respond to offers for help with a polite “No, we are fine, but thank you” because they think if they are already accepting help from others, it somehow means they are not going to be the supermom they expect to be. This is, how can we say this…? Wrong! You are a supermom by saying yes. Take the offers, mamas. Right from the start, it takes a village to raise this little one. Accept with grace and gratitude and enjoy that meal!

Not only do we strongly urge you to say yes, we even think you shouldn’t be afraid to say specifically what you like. People who want to help need and often rely on being given detailed instructions. Whether it is your favorite takeout or a nutritious homemade dish, by all means, share it with anyone who offers to help. Otherwise you might end up with nothing, something you dislike, or worse yet, having to offer and provide them a snack or meal when they come over to see the new baby. Let’s not let this happen, ladies.

Online meal calendars are becoming more and more popular and help you build up a food bank. They generate registers for friends and family to sign up to bring you meals during your first two to three weeks home with baby. We suggest the meal train websites mealbaby.com and mealtrain.com to get you started (coordinating a meal train is a great job to give a family member or friend).

Visitors

Your friends, family, neighbors, coworkers, and even people off the street (seriously, they seem to crawl out of the woodwork) might all want to meet your baby when she’s mere minutes old. You know they are just so excited to see this new life, to congratulate you, and to be part of the whole experience, but this can be tricky ground to maneuver when you are physically recovering and possibly exhausted.

First, remember your priority is to take care of yourselves and to protect this precious time. Avoid having a ton of visitors—unless, of course, each one of them cooks you a meal, massages your feet, and cleans your house (including the windows and toilets). Seriously though, ladies, try to keep the visitors to a minimum, maybe two to four people at a time, and for short intervals, around thirty minutes to an hour. This may sound strange now, but that is only because you are still pregnant. Once you are home with your newborn, and everyone and their mother wants to come over and meet the new baby, you may feel differently. You may want to memorize this script: We aren’t taking visitors for the first few days, but we would love for you to meet the baby soon. We’ll call you once we are settled.

You can help prepare your people for this by casually mentioning all the things you’re looking forward to doing during your first two weeks at home with baby. You might share how much you are looking forward to spending this precious time alone with each other, getting to know your new addition before having to share him or her.

“But I’m super social,” you may protest. “I’m envisioning being surrounded by all my family and friends after my baby is born.” This, too, is great. And you very well may want to have a lot of people around shortly after baby arrives and relish everyone’s ooos and ahhs.

But can you assume that each of them will be in tip-top health, that no one will sneeze or cough around your baby, that they will all wash their hands as they enter your house and take off their shoes, that your baby will coo, smile, and sleep perfectly, and that you will be the quintessential glowing new mom and feel totally comfortable with everyone holding your two-day-old baby? And that breast-feeding will be seamless and there won’t ever be one blowout in the diaper arena? Hmmm… This very well might happen—in fact, we hope it does for you because it sounds fabulous. But in case your reality looks a little different, we just want you to feel prepared to handle it as gracefully as possible.

Though it’s doubtful that all of these worst-case scenarios will happen simultaneously, it’s pretty likely that something embarrassing or stressful will happen when others are around you and your new baby. Just remember that in these circumstances—as in almost any stressful or embarrassing situation—laughter and perspective should be your best friends. It won’t be the end of the world if your best friend has to wait a day to see your new baby, if your mother-in-law sees you breast-feeding 48 hours after you last showered, or if your baby pees on a work colleague.

There’s honestly no way to predict how you’ll feel the first days and weeks with your new baby. Try to respect and cherish that time. Allow for the fun and joy of parenting to shine through instead of putting yourself under a gray cloud of worrying what might (probably not) happen, especially to other people.

This is your time, with your baby. It will never happen again, so relax and bond with your new baby. Remember, the day your baby is born, you are “born” into motherhood. Enjoy your new role. Lie around and fall in and out of sleep as your newborn does. Hold him or her 20 out of the 24 hours of the day, and figure out how this new person likes to be held or cradled. This is when having to make food or receive visitors can interrupt this new flow and discovery.

These considerations really aren’t negative in the grand scheme of things, though. They often create the funniest moments, the best stories, and the fondest memories. Mostly we want you to feel as prepared as possible to handle an unexpected influx of visitors and to think through what you might want most during this new season of life.

NEW MOTHER ISSUES

Now that you have your food banked and your boundaries set for early visitors, it’s time to look at a few common issues for new moms.

Bloated, stretchy skin, hair falling out, bleeding—what is all this? It is the stunning result of a warrior goddess who just brought life into this world. A body that should be respected, loved, and praised for all its hard work before and during labor. Love your body, don’t judge it!

We have outlined some wonderful homeopathic remedies for your post-delivery needs. Flip ahead to the homeopathy appendix (here) to see which ones you may want to have on hand to help speed up your recovery from either vaginal childbirth or a cesarean section.

Constipation

We know, we just can’t get away from it, but constipation is common postpartum. Fortunately, you can still follow all of our first trimester recommendations from Chapter 6 for relieving your symptoms.

Tearing

Sometimes our bodies do not stretch the way we’d like them to during delivery. You may have one or more tears from delivering the baby, which can be quite uncomfortable and lead to fairly painful urination. See our sitz bath recipe in the previous chapter (here) to sooth the skin and promote healing. To lessen burning during urination, use the perineal irrigation bottle the hospital gave you to dilute the urine as it comes out. You can also use your hands to cover the tears or to open the labia more to allow the urine to come out without making contact with the tears.

Postpartum Bleeding

Vaginal bleeding after childbirth can be like a light period, but the difference is you don’t have the option of a tampon—pads only, postpartum, which takes care of business during the day. At night we recommend using an adult diaper. Yes, really. Getting up or scooting around in bed to breast-feed can shift a pad and allow for bleeding to escape onto your bedding, which only adds to your laundry. Using an adult diaper is a foolproof way to keep everything in that you don’t want coming out. Plus it’s only for the first couple of days.

Clogged Milk Ducts and Mastitis

Once you begin to breast-feed, clogged milk ducts and mastitis can become a painful reality. A milk duct may become clogged for a variety of reasons, from an incorrect latch, to a too-tight bra. Symptoms are swelling, redness, and pain. If this duct becomes infected, it can turn into mastitis, a breast infection with pain, swelling, redness, and fever or flu-like symptoms. If this happens, call your health care provider, especially if you have a fever.

While at home you can try a few things until you confirm you have mastitis. A cold cabbage leaf placed on the breast can provide short-term relief for the pain. It acts like a cold compress that perfectly cups your breast. Massage the area, pump or breast-feed, avoid clothing, and allow your breasts to be free. You can also call your homeopath for recommendations and get phytolacca 30C and belladonna 30C (the little white pills in blue vials you can find in the supplement section of your health food store) to reduce symptoms.

They say breast-feeding is the most natural thing, but the truth is, it can be difficult to get into a good rhythm at first. Take advantage of the lactation consultants your hospital may offer, and be sure to have a trusted person to call when you go home. These trained professionals can help with everything from sore nipples to milk flow to nursing-bra fittings, and everything in between.

Hemorrhoids

Oh my, they are back. Postpartum, the most likely reason for them is pushing during delivery. Just flip back a chapter to our recommended treatment protocol (here) and hopefully you’ll be feeling better very soon.

OMG! I’m Losing My Hair!

Not every woman experiences hair loss, but many women find that around the third month postpartum they are losing enough hair at each brushing or wash to make a small wig. Don’t be scared; this is normal. Your hair was stronger and thicker during pregnancy, partially because you weren’t losing your normal daily amount. Without the pregnancy hormones coursing through your body, that amount no longer stays on, and for some reason, chooses to depart your scalp all at once. Since there isn’t anything wrong with you, a treatment isn’t necessary. Simply brush often, and when at the hair salon or washing your hair in any sink, advise your stylist and be careful not to let it all go down the drain.

Where Are My Abs?

Somewhere between nonexistent and sort of there. Pelvic tilts and holding a plank push-up position will help activate them again. Start this as early as your doctor says you can. Also, don’t be alarmed when your body shrinks to its pre-pregnancy size, but the skin stays a bit stretchier. This new super-stretchy skin should return to what it was before, but it is usually the last thing to tighten back up.

Remember that tattoo you got in your early twenties? You look at it and know it is a symbol that represents that time in your life. In the same way, any body changes that you might have postpartum should be looked at as a symbol—a symbol that your body housed and grew new life. Honor it!

Where Is My Brain?

For many women, it seems that most brain activity just moves from your uterus to your boobs, leaving the mind a little lonely. If you forgot about it—which you probably did—we talked about this in the third trimester chapter (here), so take a few minutes to revisit it and you’ll feel much better.

POSTPARTUM NUTRITION

Our postpartum nutrition recommendations are based on a breast-feeding mother. However, they will be just as helpful for a bottle-feeding mother, with the exception of not needing the added calories—between 300 and 500 calories per day—that a breast-feeding mother requires.

Your breast milk will most likely be the only thing that your baby eats, or rather drinks, for the first three to six months of life. Some babies don’t take solid food until somewhere between six and twelve months—every baby is an individual, just like each pregnant mother is an individual. It’s okay and healthy to respect those differences.

That said, the World Health Organization (WHO) puts out the following statement about breast-feeding:

Breast-feeding is the normal way of providing young infants with the nutrients they need for healthy growth and development… Colostrum, the yellowish, sticky breast milk produced at the end of pregnancy, is recommended by WHO as the perfect food for the newborn, and feeding should be initiated within the first hour after birth… Exclusive breast-feeding is recommended up to six months of age, with continued breast-feeding, along with appropriate complementary foods, up to two years of age or beyond.⁴

For some women (such as those going through chemo or who have had a double mastectomy), breast-feeding isn’t an option. For others, sometimes breast-feeding isn’t as natural for both mom and baby as it seems it should be. If this is the case, you’re not alone. If breast-feeding is an option but not happening easily, it can be extremely discouraging, but don’t beat yourself up about this possible speed bump. Willow suggests finding a lactation consultant to work with. Continue to follow our recommendations, and don’t give up! It often takes two to three months for both mom and baby to figure out all the workings of breast-feeding. Remember, it is a new job for both of you!

If breast-feeding isn’t an option, please continue with our diet recommendations because your diet is still extremely important for your health as a new mom. And please take a moment to look into organic formulas, or even donor milk. Donor milk? Sounds weird, we know. But there are many healthy women who donate their extra breast milk for those who can’t or don’t produce it themselves. It’s similar to the role of a wet nurse back in the day. Ask a local lactation consultant for more information.

Chiropractic and craniosacral therapy (see below) can work wonders on mom and baby and help with breast-feeding. Get a trusted referral and try it!

Craniosacral therapy (CST) is a gentle, noninvasive, yet effective type of bodywork for newborns. As a baby is born, the head molds to fit through the mother’s pelvis and during this time the cranial bones normally overlap one another to fit through. However, if any overlapping persists or affects the baby’s skull, it can interfere with proper cranial nerve function and lead to colic, breathing, swallowing, feeding, or digestive issues, and more. Craniosacral therapy can address the effects of such issues that may have been from a normal birth, rapid or prolonged labor, vacuum extraction, forceps extraction, or cesarean birth.

Carol Gray, craniosacral therapist and midwife, describes the craniosacral system as “the membranes and fluid that surround and support the brain and spinal cord.” This includes the bones of the skull (cranium) extending down to the base of the spine (sacrum). She further explains that “the fluid within the membranes is continuously draining and refilling and it is the rhythms of this filling and draining that a CST works with.” Cranial and cervical subluxations (misalignments of the bones of the skull and neck) may be the cause of dysfunction of the tongue, jaw, and sucking reflex. Research indicates that over 80 percent of babies are subluxated immediately following birth due to the stress of the birth process, even in straightforward, “easy” births. When trained therapists like Carol Gray perform this therapy, they seldom use more than five grams of pressure (the weight of a nickel).

Chiropractic therapy is similar but works with the spine, from the cranium to the base. Although many chiropractors are trained in CST, they generally focus on the vertebrae and the placement of the bones, not so much the fluid, and take into consideration that successful breast-feeding depends upon intact nerve supply. Chiropractic care, from a pediatric-trained and experienced chiropractor, safely and gently removes interference and brings balance to the nerve system so that breast-feeding can become a wonderful part of your baby’s life.

Either one would be a good choice to start with if you are experiencing challenges with breast-feeding. When looking for a CST or a chiropractor, look for experience, referrals, and testimonials. You might already have a relationship with one or the other or know someone who has benefited from treatment. Ask around and inquire specifically about your issue, then choose accordingly.

If you are exclusively breast-feeding, your body will be the only source of nutrition for your bundle of joy, and your personal diet is still extremely important. It is imperative that you include the following in your diet to maintain a well-rounded supply of nutrients for your baby:

• Protein

• Healthy fats

• Adequate calories: 300 to 500 extra, nutrient-dense calories in addition to the approximately 1,800-to 2,200-calorie daily intake (which is determined by your weight, height, activity, and stress levels). We are definitely not proponents of calorie counting, preferring to tune into our bodies’ needs, but this gives you a general idea of what your calorie needs might be.

• Omega-3 fatty acids

• Vitamin D3

• Multivitamin

• Chlorella to cleanse the breast milk. Chlorella is a single-celled green algae and known blood purifier and liver detoxifier.⁵ It has also been shown to decrease the amounts of dioxins in breast milk. Dioxins are those nasty environmental pollutants we can absorb from our diet and personal products like shampoo. We can also get them from drinking out of plastic water bottles (especially if they are not in non-leaching containers and have been exposed to the sun). Be sure to introduce chlorella slowly because some people report increased gas and stomach upset when they start. There are also some people who simply do not tolerate it well. If you are or think you might be one of these people, you can try swapping out chlorella for an AFA blue-green or spirulina algae, or marine phytoplankton.

You may notice that you are hungrier and thirstier postpartum than you were while you were pregnant. That is because a breast-feeding mother can burn as many as 600 extra calories per day. That is a lot of calories. So stay hydrated and stay well fed. And forget about the weight. Seriously, do not focus your energy here. It took your body nine months to grow this amazing baby, so please give it time to return to your pre-pregnancy figure. Some women may also find that the weight doesn’t shed completely until they are done breast-feeding, while some may shed it because of breast-feeding. Each of you has a unique body during pregnancy and during postpartum. Just try to keep in mind what’s most important:

• Healthy baby

• Healthy mama

• Healthy family

The rest will come at exactly the right time.

NOURISH YOUR BODY: WHY CONSUMING YOUR PLACENTA IS THE SMARTEST THING YOU’LL EVER DO

You might think, “What are these ladies talking about? Do what with my placenta?” This subject may seem a little avant-garde or hippie-granola for you, but we just ask you to hear us out.

We believe that the more information you are exposed to (no matter how crazy it may sound at first), and the more you can research yourself, the better informed you are to make sound decisions involving your pregnancy, birth, and postpartum. No matter what you ultimately end up deciding, rest assured we will always support you with information and knowledge.

So, back to the placenta. What exactly are we talking about here? We are speaking about the amazing and powerful effects of the placenta and how ingesting it postpartum can be a tremendous help in preventing the baby blues or full-blown postpartum depression,⁶ in easing fatigue, and in increasing milk supply.⁷ All things that make you feel amazing and are great for baby.

Before your imagination runs wild or you get grossed out, please note, we don’t expect you to eat your placenta the way an animal would. This is most certainly not what we are talking about. Let’s be civilized about it: Dehydrate it and take it in pill form like a vitamin or take it in the form of a liquid tincture.

How to Properly Obtain and Ingest Your Placenta

Let’s begin by explaining what the process looks like. If you are interested in ingesting your placenta, then at some point during your pregnancy you will need to hire a placenta encapsulator, which you can find through word of mouth, your OB or midwife, or even through a simple Internet search. They are trained and certified professionals who must follow strict guidelines by completing the OSHA Compliant Online Bloodborne Pathogens Course for Doulas and Placenta Encapsulators. This is to ensure a sanitary environment before preparing the placenta for the dehydrator.

Once you have your baby and deliver your placenta, and your doctor approves it as a viable, healthy placenta, you can request that it be preserved. Ideally, it will be stored on ice in a cooler that you bring with you and keep in your room, or in the refrigerator at the hospital or your home. Freezing it is not ideal because it can take as long as twenty-four hours for it to defrost and most encapsulators and moms prefer to have it encapsulated within a few days.

Your placenta encapsulator comes and retrieves your placenta from your home or hospital soon after you give birth. She then prepares the placenta one of two ways, either lightly steaming it before dehydrating it (follows traditional Chinese medicine) or just preparing it in raw form before completely dehydrating the placenta. Once dehydrated, it is ground up and put into capsules. Parts of the placenta can also be made into a tincture (which allows for a longer shelf life) or cut up into raw pieces to put into smoothies or soups. (Placenta encapsulators often suggest a combination of all three forms.)

The Placenta Defined

The placenta is an organ that develops during the first weeks of pregnancy. It is a physical connection between the mother and baby during fetal development. Its function changes throughout pregnancy to accommodate the needs of the growing fetus, but the primary function is to ensure the exchange of nutrients and waste products between the maternal and fetal circulatory systems. Any waste production from the fetus is transferred to the mother’s blood stream via the placenta, and then the mother’s lungs, kidneys, and liver flush out the waste as if it were her own. Until just fifty years ago, it was believed that the placenta was a barrier to keep all toxicity away from the fetus; however, we have learned that although it’s a remarkable organ with highly sophisticated functions, it does not keep all toxins from the fetus. This is another reason diet and abstaining from alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs are very important.

In essence, the placenta carries blood, oxygen, and nutrients in, and takes carbon dioxide and other waste products out. It also releases hormones in both the mother and the baby that help sustain a pregnancy and affect fetal growth and other functions.

The Placenta’s Hormones

The placenta takes over from the hypothalamus during pregnancy and regulates hormones such as progesterone. The placenta is known to contain the following beneficial hormones, proteins, chemicals, and iron:

• Gonadotropin is the precursor to estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone.

• Prolactin promotes lactation.

• Oxytocin provides pain relief and bonding with baby (also produced during breast-feeding to facilitate this bonding). In pharmaceutical form, this is a very addictive drug because it promotes an intense feeling of well-being and connectedness with others.

• Thyroid stimulating hormone boosts energy and helps recovery from stressful events.

• Cortisone combats stress and unlocks energy stores.

• Interferon stimulates the immune system to protect against infections.

• Prostaglandins regulate the contraction and relaxation of smooth muscle tissue (the contractions of labor).

• Hemoglobin replenishes iron deficiency and anemia, a common postpartum condition.

• Urokinase inhibiting factor and factor XIII stop bleeding and enhance wound healing.

• Gammaglobulin is an immune booster that helps protect against postpartum infections; it also contains high levels of iron.⁸

The Placenta and the Birth Process

The placenta is essential for mother and baby; without a properly functioning placenta the fetus would not survive. In the birth process, the placenta is so important that it actually warrants its own stage of labor. In the third stage, this amazing vital organ releases from the body, completing labor, though most women do not realize this because they are so focused on their baby.

During the baby’s first few moments outside the womb, the placenta receives a signal to finish infusing the baby with no less than a third of baby’s oxygen-rich blood supply. Then the arteries in the mother’s uterus begin to close off, causing the expulsion of the placenta through strong uterine contractions. During this time, even after the placenta is expelled, it still exchanges blood with the baby until the baby reaches equilibrium and the umbilical cord finishes pulsing, usually ten to thirty minutes after birth. Some midwives have even reported feeling the cord pulsing for an hour or more.

Do we have your attention now? Is this an amazing organ or what?

After the placenta is expelled from the mother’s body, any hormones that were produced by the placenta fade from the mother’s bloodstream. Studies show that immediately after the placenta is delivered, the corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH) levels in a woman drop dramatically; progesterone levels also drop suddenly, leaving your body feeling estrogen-dominant. The symptoms these events produce—fatigue, memory loss, fear, anxiety, depression, sadness, weight gain—can lead to the baby blues.⁹

Placenta Encapsulation in Detail

Now back to what we want to share with you. Along with nutrition and alternative care such as homeopathy, placenta encapsulation reintroduces some of the hormones and iron from the placenta back into your system. This supplements the body naturally while it takes its time resuming production of the proper balance of hormones on its own. Think of it as the most natural approach to bio-identical hormone therapy.

Experience and studies have confirmed the benefits of placenta consumption for breast milk production, overall energy, baby blues, and staving off PPD, but we believe there is a lot more research that needs to be done before the mainstream buys in. Sometimes we resist information that goes against the cultural norms simply because we don’t know too much about the alternative approaches. You’ve probably noticed by now that we are passionate about sharing this information so you know more and can begin to feel comfortable with the possibility of new choices. We think, in time, using placenta for postpartum energy and hormone replenishment will become more popular as people discover how it’s helping more and more women. It’s nothing new, but something whose time has come again. It’s kind of like when Americans shunned fat in their diets, only to discover years later that replacing fat with more sugar led to problems with obesity… Trust that nature has a plan.

Keep reading, gather more information, do more research on your own, and then make the decision as to whether this is the right path for you. We don’t support fads; we support informed decision-making.

When you ingest your placenta, one of the immediate and profound results is increased energy. Many midwives and practitioners have noticed the positive effects of placenta encapsulation as early as the same afternoon of taking it. Mothers felt more energy and more emotionally positive about their life-changing experience. We both have had clients who have experienced the positive benefits and dramatic difference after consuming their placenta with their second baby and not with their first. Placenta consumption supports the biological transition naturally. Combining this with a steady, healthy diet like the one we have outlined, as well as your favorite alternative therapy such as acupuncture, craniosacral, and/or homeopathy, can make a tremendous difference in both emotional and physical symptoms.

Because your placenta is the exact match to your hormonal profile, it provides exactly what your body needs to rebalance your hormones and to maintain healthy iron levels. Low iron levels can lead to difficulty concentrating, depressive symptoms, and fatigue. It’s all coming full circle now. Your placenta is as perfect for you as your breast milk is for your own baby.

Consuming your placenta can also increase your milk supply. Traditional Chinese medicine has used the placenta medicinally for thousands of years, and one clinical study conducted by the First Obstetric Clinic at Charles University in Prague, published in Gynaecologia, achieved impressive results, stating: “Researchers conducted a study on 210 women who were expected to have insufficient milk supply. They gave dried placenta to the women and discovered that 86 percent of them had a positive increase in their milk production within a matter of days.”¹⁰

Eighty-six percent within days? That sounds fantastic to us. While there isn’t adequate research to fully explain the mechanics of these results, we do know that the prolactin found in the placenta is the very same hormone that promotes lactation. We also have strong anecdotal support for its efficacy from the testimonies of many women, suffering with low milk supply after their previous births or before ingesting their placenta, who experienced a rapid increase in their milk supply after consuming their placentas.

We mentioned estrogen dominance earlier, but what does that mean? During pregnancy, the placenta guides the body to increase progesterone at levels many times higher than what a non-pregnant woman would normally produce. Then again, when the baby is born and the placenta is gone, the progesterone levels drop quickly and dramatically.¹¹ Progesterone is known for its mood-boosting effects, so while these hormones drop, the estrogen levels remain the same.

Ideally, these levels return to those of pre-pregnancy and everything is fine. But for some that just doesn’t happen and their bodies go through a different transition phase, in which they think they have more estrogen than normal given the sudden loss of progesterone. This perceived imbalance mimics estrogen dominance and can result in symptoms such as fluid retention, weight gain, anxiety, or depression.

We hope now that you understand the process and reasoning behind placenta encapsulation, any myths or preconceived notions have been tempered, and you have enough facts to weigh the odds and to make the right decision for yourself and your baby. Willow and Christa cannot recommend this highly enough. They both have had several clients who notice a marked improvement less than forty-eight hours after ingesting their placenta capsules/tincture with their first or second baby. Those who were on baby number two did not experience the insomnia or exhaustion they did with their first, were able to lose weight quicker, and enjoyed the process more.

You are now fully prepared to bring home your baby and set yourself up for a graceful transition into motherhood. Whether filled with spit-up and blowouts, or sleepless nights and a lot of unknowns, our plan will keep your body balanced and filled with nourishment so that you can in turn nourish your baby and enjoy the most special moments in your life that are to come—hours and hours of gazing upon your beautiful new baby.

1. Decide what you want your visitor policy to be and let people know.

2. Form your meal action plan (cooking/freezing and meal trains).

3. Order your chlorella so you are ready to start taking it to cleanse your breast milk.

4. Be conscious about your food choices. It’s still critical to nourish your body and your baby if you’re breast-feeding during this hormone-balancing time. You will want to focus on the three key food groups below to give you the most stamina:

• Protein

• Healthy fats

• Green leafy vegetables

5. Supplements to continue: prenatal, fish oil, vitamin D3, vitamin C.

6. Stay hydrated—you might want to keep a water bottle stashed in every room of the house that you might be breast-feeding in those first few weeks and months. The thirst can hit you fast and hard as soon as you start nursing.

7. Decide on placenta encapsulation.

8. Consider seeing a chiropractor or craniosacral therapist to realign your body and mind post labor and birth. See one that works on infants as well to give your new baby the same body and mind realignment.

9. If you want to get more specific, get hormonal tests within a few months postpartum to see whether you are depleted in certain areas.

10. Make sure to have on hand your postpartum homeopathy kit (balancingyourhealth.com).

CHAPTER NINE

The Ultimate Postpartum Survival Guide

Balancing your hormones quickly and effectively