A Primer on Ayurveda for the Childbearing YearsPart 4: Ayurveda for Postpartum Self Care By Terra Rafael (formerly Terra Palmarini Richardson), Midwife & Ayurvedic Practitioner The postpartum is a very tender period of time for mother and baby. Ayurveda's recommendations can protect them from taking on imbalance & stress during this sensitive time. During pregnancy the woman is to be worshipped as a Creatrix; postpartum this level of devotion and caring is twice as necessary, for it includes both Mother & Child. Ayurvedic teachings tell us that postpartum is one of the special times in a woman's life that her whole physiology is changing quickly and can be set to actually rejuvenate the mother. The women I know who have followed these teachings postpartum have had better postpartum experiences and continued to feel better as their life went on. In contrast, most women in our culture try to get back to "normal" life as quickly as possible-it's almost as if it is a sign of strength to act as though postpartum isn't a special time. This is dangerous for the future health of the mother-if she overdoes it and is careless in the weeks following the birth she can be setting up imbalances that can plague her for the rest of her life. One example of what can happen was June, an athletic & healthy Pitta woman, who felt great right after her birth - and proceeded to go on long, strenuous hikes just 2 weeks after giving birth. In the year following the birth June found herself getting weaker instead of stronger and having frequent bouts of illness - something which hadn't happened for her before. Only though strong attention to her imbalances that stemmed from postpartum could she rebuild her immune system and strength to withstand the stresses of motherhood. With postpartum care & attention the picture can look much healthier. Stacey, a Vata woman, had already given birth once before. During that postpartum she developed a sleeping problem (Vata type- waking at about 3 am) that stuck with her for years. When she began using Ayurveda she finally cleared up the problem. Then she became pregnant again and was worried she may fall back into the old pattern. However, this time she followed the Ayurvedic postpartum recommendations and she ended up feeling great after her postpartum, with no sleep disorders. The postpartum period is one generally of great change, The changeable sleep schedule, the loss of fluids common to postpartum, changing hormonal balance, the loss of weight, and the extra space left in the abdomen after childbirth means Vata is there for the mother. Women who went through a cesarean section are even more Vata due to the opening up of their abdomen & uterus, letting air & space into their most inner body. The mothering of a newborn with it's irregular and changeable schedule also contributes greatly to Vata dosha easily going out of balance. Vata reducing measures are necessary to prevent Vata symptoms or the possibility of Vata moving any excess Pitta or Kapha in the body to form symptoms of those doshas. For the baby, leaving the contained and watery womb to go into the spacious, airy, stimulating, and relatively dry world also means a big increase in Vata dosha. The baby is just unfolding into this world, learning to adapt and to act in a dance with life. Introduction of harsh stimuli & separation from the mother during this time are insults to the tender nervous system of the newborn. So during this time Vata reduction is the basic care plan to help both mother & baby.
As mentioned in Part 1 of this series, Vata is made up of ether (space) and air. It has the qualities of: dry, cold, light, changeable, mobile , and rough. It's "home base" in the body is the abdominal/pelvic area - so key in childbearing. When it is balanced we express it through living in a flowing, flexible, enthusiastic, and creative way. Some of the symptoms of imbalance are constipation, shakiness, gas, cramps, sleep disturbance and fatigue. Emotional symptoms of Vata imbalance are feelings of being overwhelmed, fearful, and/or distracted. It is also related to grief. Vata reducing measures are counter to the qualities of Vata. We use moisture and oiliness, warmth, heaviness, routine, stillness & quiet, and smooth, flowing lifestyle. Many of these Ayurvedic postpartum teachings were first promoted in our country through the Mother Baby Program of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and further developed by Martha Oakes, Diplomate Ayurvedic Postpartum Practitioner, Experienced Ayurvedic Postpartum Doula Trainer. If you would like to learn more about training or consult with her, you can reach her at ww.sacredwindow.com or 866.224.0609. She also has a self-published book available expanding on the information in this article, recommended if you want to try it or help others with it. First of all we must "Mother the Mother", While the new mom is mothering the baby, she too must receive care. In this way both baby & mother are best nurtured. She should not be entertaining visitors, cleaning house, doing laundry, or cooking meals. To the best of their ability, families must plan together ahead of time and in a thorough manner, how to have the mom taken care of for 4-6 weeks postpartum. Most people may not be able to provide care for a full six weeks - at least 2 is a minimum to prevent the mom from doing too much. In our midwifery practice we usually said 2 weeks minimum with an extra week for each other child in the household.
One danger is that the partner will try to take up all the slack, becoming exhausted too. This can be emotionally as well as physically trying. It is important to call on the community to support the family at this time. Churches, coworkers, friendship circles and support groups are often good places to find this help. If a woman doesn't have this kind of community when she becomes pregnant it is most important to start developing it-it will serve her throughout parenthood. The pregnant women can ask a girlfriend to coordinate volunteers. They would use a sign-up sheet at the baby shower or blessing way and then the friend would call people after the birth to confirm when they would come by to clean, drop off food, or do some laundry. Specific personal food needs & guidelines should be in writing & given to everyone providing food. Enough food could be supplied for both supper and lunch. Another time honored technique for mothering the mother is to have family or friends come & stay for some time postpartum. It's imperative that the everyone feels absolutely comfortable about the person staying there-or the stress will offset the help provided! Plenty of communication about boundaries needs to be made before, during & after the visit to keep things clear and easy. Oiliness or unctuousness is needed to offset the dryness and roughness of Vata. This is provided postpartum through daily oil massage with warm sesame oil, eating food with plenty of ghee and olive oil, and sesame oil enemas (when working with a trained practitioner). The daily oil massage is best done by someone trained in Ayurvedic postpartum massage-but these practitioners are still few & far between. The technique used by these women are specially suited to the Vata needs of the women & their changing bodies. However, any trained massage therapist could give a slow, gentle, firm, steady, integrative, repetitive massage with warm sesame oil to good effect. Plenty of oil to the head is important for calming the nervous system. It's good to have someone there to help with the baby during the massage time and try to schedule so feeding happens just beforehand so mom can relax as deeply as possible - and whoever massages should be ready for the needs of the baby to nurse on the massage table. The massage can start in the first days for a vaginal birth, after one week for someone who had a cesarean. Many people can't afford daily massage by someone for 2-3 weeks, so doing self massage or having a friend or partner do the massage for at least some of the time is another viable option. Whoever does the massaging should remember the principles to balance Vata through massage- slow, gentle, firm, steady, integrative, repetitive massage with 4 - 8 oz of warm sesame oil. Besides calming Vata, daily massage helps the body reintegrate into its non-pregnant state. It keeps circulation going-very important for someone not moving around a lot during the recovery period. This helps prevent of the possibility of blood clots forming from blood stagnation. Massage also stimulates all the organs and energy points of the body to promote general health and emotional well being. Warmth must be provided by keeping the room temperature comfortably warm. During and after the massage a hot water bottle can be applied to the abdomen to bring warmth deep into the Vata part of the body. Warm baths after the daily oil massage will also keep the cold of Vata from lodging in the body. This is often a favorite part of the postpartum treatment. Cold drafts should be avoided at all times. Rest may seem illusive for a postpartum mom at times between baby care & self care. But rest she must-especially when the baby sleeps. Helpers are what can allow this to happen. If the house is a mess or other household tasks are not covered most people find it hard to rest. This is one time Ayurveda allows sleeping in the day, since the mom is recovering from childbirth and also having sleep interrupted by the baby nursing. A nap is recommended after her daily oil massage & hot bath. Sometimes soothing music can help to calm and allow rest-pick out tranquil music to use when the energy starts getting too hectic. Many women are anxious to resume their former shape and want to exercise as soon as possible. Women should know that it is common for some to not get back to their pre-pregnancy weight for 6 months. Some women don't lose that last extra weight until they end breastfeeding and their hormones shift again. Exercise programs should not begin in earnest until after the first month and the lochia flow has ended. Doing some gentle stretches and brief walks outside later in the postpartum period will refresh and feel good without straining and using energy that would better go to the transitioning body in other ways. Containment of the uterus by wrapping the abdomen after the massage & bath will keep Vata from staying in the space left by the baby leaving. This is a common practice in traditional cultures which proves helpful today as well. If the uterus is allowed to flop around freely while the ligaments are still loose it is more likely it will assume a position which will inhibit circulation , as well as the outflow of the lochia, causing stagnation that can lead to later problems. Quiet and seclusion are other forms of containment and important to avoid over stimulation for both mom and baby. Both are wide open and very sensitive. It's not the time for lots of out of town visitors or to have large parties of people. One case involved a baby born only 3 days earlier being brought to church and passed from person to person. Everyone was very excited & loving-but it was too much and the baby ended up getting sick. I cringe when I see obviously newborn babies at the supermarket. The mom's nervous system is also reworking itself with the new levels of hormones and like the other times of hormonal change-adolescence & menopause-reducing stimulation allows for a smoother transition. We put a sign on the door of families of newborns with a birth announcement and a "We Mother the Mother" statement requesting people who visit to stay only 15 minutes, and to lend a quick hand to do dishes, vacuum, or take a load of laundry to do. We educate the women about the importance of limiting visitors and have them warn people ahead of the birth. After the first few weeks a celebration can include everyone! Routine & Simplicity are other ways to calm Vata. When our body recognizes a rhythm happening in eating it digests better; in resting it rests better. Again, preparation ahead of birth time makes it possible to foster simplicity by being familiar with the self care routine, having meals preplanned and supported, and household needs covered. Wholeness includes eating whole foods prepared to calm Vata, yet modified for the specific needs of postpartum women. Martha Oakes presents a dietary plan to support postpartum rejuvenation. It includes all the tastes in proportions most healthy for postpartum women, avoiding the extremes. It favors foods that offer clear, life giving energy, avoiding those that stress the body or add the energy of decay (such as fermented & aged foods).
Vata Diet Modified for Postpartum Mothers-by Martha OakesFood Qualities: Favor these: Reduce or avoid these: (These qualities calm Vata and should be emphasized.) Sweet Basmati Rice, Unleavened wheat Meats, esp. red, candy, ice cream Pasta after 2 weeks, Tapioca (no eggs) Easy on white sugar, breads, Natural cane sugar, honey, sweet fruit, hard to digest sweets Yams, carrots, beets, poultry/fish after 4 weeks, cottage cheese, ricotta, tofu, milk Salty Sea & rock salt, seaweeds (cooked) Chips, soy sauce Braggs Amino Acids, kelp Sour Fresh lemon or lime juice, tamarind, Fermented cheeses, miso, vinegar, Sweet oranges, yogurt or buttermilk yogurt, sour cream, wines, Lassi (mix them with ½ water) grapefruit Oily Milk, butter, ghee, ricotta cheese, Most cheeses, fried foods, nuts Olive oil, sesame oil (esp. roasted) Warm Warm or hot temperature foods & drinks Heavy Essene breads, chapatis, tofu, avocado, Aged cheeses, meats, nuts, eggs, Some nuts soaked 24-48 hours, nut leavened wheat items, yogurt Butters when thinned White meat soups after 4 weeks Food Qualities: Favor these: Reduce or avoid these: (These qualities increase Vata and should be less dominant in the diet.) Pungent Cumin, Caraway, Ginger, Black pepper Garlic, Onion, radish, chilies, Cinnamon, Cardamom, Black mustard, sage, peppers, thyme, oregano, Caraway, clove, basil rosemary Vata Diet Modified for Postpartum Mothers-by Martha Oakes--continued Bitter Turmeric, fenugreek, spinach, Coffee, chocolate, goldenseal, Licorice, chrysanthemum, Echinacea, dandelion, green leaf veggies, Aloe vera juice, peeled eggplant, rhubarb, yarrow Grapefruit seed extract Astringent Split hulled or soaked 24 hr mung beans legumes in general, rhubarb, Spinach, nutmeg, cinnamon, turmeric dry wine, pomegranate, cranberry, Raspberry and hibiscus leaf (for Kaphas) green apple Dry Barley, cooked or soaked dried fruit, corn, potatoes, beans, crackers Dried fruit if unsoaked or cooked Cold Cool temp drinks or fruit in summer Cold foods & drinks, ice cream, Milk and foods right out of the Refrigerator Light Spinach, sweet apples, barley Corn, crackers, salads, apples Another aspect of wholeness is cultivation of the baby and mother bonding, tied closely to breastfeeding. Breastfeeding is a given in ayurveda. If a mother is imbalanced it can not only effect her milk production-it can also pass on the imbalance in her milk to the baby. Infant massage, which can be used to encourage father and baby bonding, is another aspect of the wholeness for the baby and family. Massage is practiced universally in India and it starts as soon as the umbilical cord is healed. Then daily oil massages are given to babies before their warm bath. Randomized, controlled studies on both preterm and healthy full term infants show that massaging daily with sesame oil was most effective in promoting growth and length of time babies slept after the massage. At the same time Vata needs attention a postpartum woman's digestion is very often disturbed. One way to look at it is that giving birth can use every bit of energy in the body, depleting the digestive fire. It must be rekindled in the postpartum so that the food she eats is well digested to serve in making balanced milk for the baby and for her own recovery & rejuvenation. Digestive fire kindling guidelines are followed as closely as possible and digestive teas & herbs used to get things going.
Guidelines for Rekindling & Protecting Your Postpartum Digestive FireTo rekindle the digestive fire: About 10 minutes before meals take 2 spoons of grated fresh ginger with a splash of lime juice & a pinch of salt - if that's too complex just eat a slice of peeled fresh ginger. This will wake up your digestive enzymes naturally and get them into a rhythm. If you have absorption problems, immediately follow your meal with takram-this is 2 tablespoons of live culture, unsweetened yogurt churned in a cup of water with 1 tsp of ground cumin. Drinking Cumin Coriander Fennel tea is another digestive help. It burns body toxins, kindles digestion, and helps any gas move out. This tea helps your body self regulate its hormones and helps promote milk production as well! Mix equal parts of Cumin, Coriander & Fennel seeds. Use 1 tsp per cup tea. Simmer 10 minutes, strain & drink. Although baby & sleep may be unpredictable, try to eat at regular times, this way your body can anticipate meal times by starting its digestive juices going at the usual time. Eat your largest meal between 10 am and 2 pm when the digestive fire is normally at its peak. Don't overeat at a given meal. Overeating smothers the digestive fire, just as putting too much wood on a fire will eventually put it out. One guideline for how much to eat is to cup both of your hands in front of you. The amount you can hold in your hands is about how much your stomach can hold and do its job well. Eat food at room temperature or a little warmer. Eating with your fingers will make sure it is the right temperature. Test your tea with your little finger. (Cancer of the esophagus can be triggered by habitually eating foods too hot.) Digestive enzymes are temperature specific and evolved to work with room temperature food-not refrigerated , frozen or iced.
No fruits eaten with other types of foods Melons always eaten alone Milk always taken alone except for totally sweet fruit ie. Dates, mangoes, figs or cooked with basmati rice Don't mix milk with dal, fish, or meat-this is definitely a dangerous combination. Don't take yogurt in a meal with meat.
For the baby, leaving the contained and watery womb to go into the spacious, airy, stimulating, and relatively dry world also means a big increase in Vata dosha. So during this time Vata reduction is the basic care plan. So by keeping warm, daily oil massaging & warm bath, keeping the baby's head covered with a little hat and sesame oil on the fontanelles, these all help offset Vata becoming too high in this period of time. Avoiding cold drafts is especially important. If the mother avoids Vata imbalance, drinks sufficient fluids, and eats a healthy diet her milk will also be balanced-imbalanced moms make imbalanced milk that can effect the baby. More fluids may be needed at this time due to the Vata influence. Babies generally digest the breast milk in about 2 hours, so constantly feeding the baby may end up depressing the digestive fire of the baby and cause digestive disturbances. Also, babies may be sensitive to some foods the mother may be eating. If the mother drinks Cumin Coriander Fennel Tea regularly it will help the baby's digestion as well as help move out any gas that may form before it becomes a tummy ache. If the baby is having mucus problems it is often due to the mother eating too much cold food or Kapha (mucus) increasing food. However, don't cut out ALL of the Kapha foods because they are necessary for formation of the plasma which in turn forms the breast milk. Since this may be a delicate balance, take some fresh ginger tea as soon as there are signs of excess mucus beginning to show up in mother or baby. (Several cups of day would be needed in this case - otherwise use it as a general digestive once or twice a day.) As illustrated by the above examples, in general newborn babies are treated by giving the herbs to the mother. By a couple of weeks postpartum it's possible to have a good idea of what the constitution of the baby is by how she/he looks and acts. Through this one can cultivate a suitable environment to nurture the type of personality the baby tends to have. Children in general are in the Kapha stage of life-when things are forming and are more dense. This is one reason for children having lots of mucus compared to adults. Vata baby: Thinner, long fingers, easily distracted, when emotionally imbalanced: overwhelm Needs a strong rhythm to lifestyle, calm, avoiding overstimulation, teaching how to be grounded. Pitta baby: Medium, tends to be fair skinned, light thin hair or almost none, sensitive skin, wants stimulation, more focused, gets frustrated, when emotionally imbalanced: anger Needs developmentally appropriate challenges, teaching how to relax and wind down Kapha baby: Rounder larger, very deep "inny" belly button, calmer personality when emotionally imbalanced: clinging Needs stimulation, teaching how to be motivated Remember-most of us are combinations of Vata, Pitta and Kapha rather than just one pure type, so go with what seems most predominant. By taking the advice and support of Ayurveda during the postpartum, mothers and babies will be setting the stage for a happier, longer, and healthier lives. Terra Richardson practiced homebirth midwifery 13 years in Boulder, CO before retiring to focus on Wise Womanhood, offering classes and a holistic healing practice using ayurveda, flower essences, & Reiki energy healing. She coauthored Pregnant Feelings with Rahima Baldwin Dancy and wrote soon to be published, Giving Birth to Ourselves-Contemplations for Midwives & Other Birth Companions. You can learn more about her classes & practice at http://www.wisewomanhood.com or by calling 720.628.5015.
|
|
