#postpartumnutrition

Your body goes through major healing after birth, and the right nutrition speeds up recovery. Discover foods that boost strength, mood, and overall wellness naturally. Read blog to understand how postpartum nutrition supports faster healing.

HI

It’s been a long time.... long fucking time. 

I have been immersed in my work. Carving out a way for myself in this new carrier path. Absorbing as much knowledge as I can from the professionals around me. I have been neglecting all other areas of my life, I have no idea what’s going on with most of my friends, my home is a mess (like always), my body is a mess, I haven’t even seen the sun in months ( I hate sunlight anyways), I’ve had bronchitis for 5 weeks now (possibly even a fractured rib from coughing so much). I’m not condoning any of this, in fact I am finally starting to balance out my life more. But I have been working. Learning. 

I’ve been to a few good places to eat and will share them soon. But first, let’s talk about postpartum depression. 

I feel inspired to talk about my own experience with postpartum depression because of a recent podcast I heard. 

One of the attending physicians that I work directly with, is a bad ass, and one of the smartest most insightful people I have ever met. She shared her own story with postpartum depression and I want everyone to take a listen.

Take a listen now:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/postpartum-depression-with-dr-pereau/id1335892956?i=1000409689419&mt=2

I am not shy talking about mental health, in fact I will talk about it with anyone anytime. 

I wanted to share the details of my postpartum depression, because I feel like it may be the most stigmatized mental health disorder. 

Mothers have such unrealistic expectations on them in our culture. Here are some facts: 

1 in 7 postpartum women will develop postpartum depression (PPD) or some form of it. 

Men, foster and adoptive parents can develop PPD.

PPD can happen during pregnancy.

People can develop PPD but also, especially if left untreated, can develop postpartum psychosis, and also postpartum OCD.

Postpartum psychosis can be life threatening for the parent and the child.

Suicide is the second leading cause of death in postpartum women

For Help or more info: 

https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/postpartum-depression-facts/index.shtml

I have always had depression, as far back as I can remember, and never really knew or got help for it until I was an adult. But after I had my daughter, I felt something different than I had felt before. 

I didn’t feel that intense instant bonding that people describe. I kept waiting for my exhaustion to go away so I could finally feel “happy” about being a mom. (spoiler, the exhaustion doesn’t really go away). I felt overwhelmed most all of the time. I cried most all of the time. I was terrified when my partner would leave me and dreaded being alone with the baby. I was tired all of the time, and kept thinking, if I just get more rest and have more of a break, I will feel better. 

But also a new kind of depression symptom arouse that I had never really felt before, and didn’t realize it was part of PPD. 

I felt like I was loosing my mind. 

My thoughts would race and I didn’t have any control over where they went. I was afraid constantly that something would happen to me or my baby. The fear was irrational but felt totally reasonable at the time. I would turn a corner in my home and my heart would palpitate thinking that there would be an intruder or murderer hiding for me just around the corner. I wouldn’t open the blinds for fear someone might see me and climb up the balcony and break in. I started to not put my baby in her own crib in her room and only had her sleep with me because I was afraid there was evil spirits in her room.  Now I do NOT believe in ghosts or the supernatural like that, so this thought freaked me out and I recognized it was a distortion but I still gave into it anyways. Then the really scary thoughts would race into my head. I would think: what if I just let my baby drown in the bath, what if I just threw her out the window, what if I just took a bunch of pills and never woke up, I would look down at my wrists and think of how easily it would be to cut right through them. These thoughts would come into my head and right away I would feel terrified for even thinking of them, shameful, and I hated myself for them. I never wanted to act on them, but they would come into my head constantly. Worst of all I was scared to ever tell anyone because what if they took her away, what if they locked me up, surely everyone would think I was a horrible person let alone a horrible mother. I begged my partner to come home from work every single night, telling him I couldn’t go on like this. The feelings of being overwhelmed were beyond overwhelming, I felt hopeless and insane. 

I finally went to talk to a therapist, he explained to me that what I was experiencing was postpartum depression, AND THAT I WAS NOT ALONE in this feeling. 

Talk therapy really helped me, the thoughts of evil spirits or intruders or hurting myself or my child went away. But the overwhelmed feeling never really went away. I was starting to bond with my baby, but slowly. 

Fast forward to a couple years later when I was in my internship, working beyond my means, giving everything I had and then some. My stress levels increased to the point that one day, during my internship, I was at a conference for an organization educating public health professionals about postpartum depression, about how even within the health care community it is overlooked, about the women who let it progress to postpartum psychosis and the deadly outcomes, and heard other individual stories of PPD. It triggered me, I broke down, I cried right there in front of the person giving the presentation, she pulled me aside, calmed me down with breathing techniques. I told her I used to have PPD, she said, “It looks like you still do.” 

I spent the rest of that week in bed crying all day, curled up in the fetal position, only having the energy to make a phone call and set up an appointment with a psychiatrist. I knew I needed more help. 

I started taking medications for depression, and eventually, I had enough energy and motivation throughout the day to be productive. Getting out of bed doesn’t feel like climbing Mount Everest. Parenting is still the most difficult thing I have ever done. But I have joy in it. 

Now here are my nutrition recommendations for all of you postpartum parents: 

Do what you can, don’t beat yourself up for what you can’t. 

Now is not the time to focus on weight loss

Now is the time to focus on nourishing yourself both literally and figuratively

So that you can nourish your little one

It is more than okay, it is necessary, to have help from friends/family/professionals

You’re not alone and you don’t have to do it alone

Now is not the time to restrict food

Make sure that you are eating when you are hungry and that you eat until you are satisfied

Make sure you are having all of the macronutrients - Protein, carbohydrates, lipids (fats), especially if you have just had a baby/breastfeeding. Your body has a lot of repair to do and a lot of nutrients to give to your little one, so you need to eat much more, it is easy to become malnourished if you are not honoring your hunger. 

And being malnourished means that your brain is malnourished which means that your likely hood increases significantly of feeling depression, anxiety, sleep troubles, mood swings, fatigue, irritability, poor concentration, poor memory, difficulty calming down in times of stress, and difficulty with all the other things that our brain does for us.

Take time out for just you and you alone, doing things that relax and replenish the body and mind - otherwise there is no way you will have anything to give to your child or your relationships