New Baby Recovery: Nourish yourself to Nourish baby!

You are a new mom or about to be ! Congratulations ! This is such a great new step in your life and whether it is your first or your have several kids already, the experienced mom in me knows we always have new stuff to learn about new mom and baby care, during pregnancy and during the 4 trimester. Also the 5th, 6th, etc.

Focus on your body to best care for your baby’s growth

As a matter of fact, I’ve had 5 babies and 5 completely different recoveries ! I am now 7 months pregnant and trying to focus on delivery and recovery prep. I was always most thankful for the support, the help, the meal trains, but what I had to do every time is re-learn and learn more about how to recover better, faster, with less tiredness and less nutrient depletion. Because how you recover and nourish your body will define how you, body and mind, will be in a few years. If you want to conceive again this is even more important, as your health will also define the health of your next baby as well!

This post is not meant to give personal medical advice – ask your doctor or nutritionist ! – but to provide some thinking pointers that may help with a smooth landing ! There is probably no time in life beside pregnancy and postpartum when your nutrition will impact your physical and mental well-being more, especially if you decide to breastfeed your baby.

A Fellow Mom’s Experience and Readings Talking

Some of this information I learned from experience, and some I learned in the books I recommend during this (my 6th) pregnancy! Since I often have regrets and “wish I had known that”, I’ll try to share a few of the things I wish I had known with you. Take what you want out of it: we are all different, with different bodies and history, different support systems, and different culture and lifestyles. We sometimes learn useful info from unlikely people, so I hope I tell you something you didn’t think about!

NOTE: This post is about nutrition: How you eat and recover the few months after baby’s birth will also impact how quick you can comfortably go back to physical exercise ! Don’t rush into judging your body: it takes 9 month to grow a human, 9 months and more to get it back to close to normal – preferably after you make sure to take care of pelvic floor health and closing down the belly separation called “diastasis recti” with a qualify physical therapist.

Three Go-To Books that will provide great info !

Best pregnancy and postpartum nutrition book:

Real Food for Pregnancy by Lily Nichols- specifically the chapter called “the 4th trimester” Lily Nichols is a real helpful source of information on women’s nutrition, whatever your diet choices! If you can’t sit and read, get the audible version, this still will be a very helpful resource.

Book on Best foods For recovery and taking care of mom

The First 40 Days

The First 40 days by Heng Ou, Amely Greeven, Marisa Belger contains very helpful information on how important this time of recovery is for new mothers ! It includes many self care tips for modern moms. Also, various recipes of nutrient dense foods aimed at recovery and that were adapted to different food cultures!

Natural Birth The Bradley Way by Susan McCutcheon ,

Don’t forget that your delivery will impact your recovery. After a first disastrous birth experience, I can only recommend attentively reading a very old book. It can help avoid so many medical interventions from epidural to c-sections and recovery heart ache. I discovered it before my second baby was born and it saved me from more C-sections. There is NOTHING like learning how your body works during delivery. Not only will it help alleviate many fears. It will also empower you to give birth naturally without any additional medical intervention.

You may prefer medical interventions. However, be aware that it can backfire into many more interventions, and a harder recovery. Also, a harder recovery may negatively impact your first days of breastfeeding. If that is what you have decided to do, you don’t want difficult first days to define the rest of your breastfeeding experience.

Natural Birth the Bradley Way teaches you to let your body do the work of giving birth and to relax while it does. Nothing more helpful and empowering than that, truly!

Best book on breastfeeding if you have to read one

I will talk about breastfeeding because, as a mom focused on naturally raising my children and feeding them nutrient rich foods, I do believe breastfeeding is the first step to raise healthy children that enjoy healthy nutrition. If your choice is different, it’s okay, you have your own reasons. But don’t close your ears to all the advantages this choice entails. As parents, we are often led to change our minds or to take slightly different paths than planned. The information we learn can at least lead us to adapt when unplanned problems occur.

The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding: Completely Revised and Updated 8th Edition Paperback – (2010)

Real mine of information that will explain the impact of nursing on you and baby, as well as obstacles and reliable ressources.

Note: Neither of these books is meant to make you feel guilty about whatever decision you make. We all live different lives with different challenges and support systems. They are simply aimed at giving you information mothers have at hand to make and informed decision for herself and her family.

Post-Baby Recovery: Tips for Optimal Mom’s Recovery and Baby’s Nutrition

When it comes to the post birth time, it is important to be aware how nutrient depleted a mother’s body is.

We a baby for 9 months, and even if we prepare for pregnancy by nourishing your body best we can, baby soaks up as much as she can to grow well. You now have to replenish your body to recover, and perhaps to make sure your baby keeps growing well thanks to your own milk.

What do you need to know to make sure it goes well? How much and what may impact milk quality, what foods are important for both mom and baby, and how breastfeeding may already train your baby to like healthy foods!

What you eat will impact the quality of your milk for baby

• First be aware that no industry can match the quality and nutrient density of your milk! Even if you hear your milk can be of poor quality, too little in quantity or have toxins in it, the industry cannot match its quality, purity, digestibility, and how well adapted it is to YOUR child. You can always supplement your milk, but none will be better for your baby than yours.
• Even if you milk is the best for your baby, you can always IMPROVE it’s quality through nutrition ! This is what Lily Nichol’s book, ” Real food for pregnancy”, will teach you in its chapter on the 4th trimester : what nutrients may improve milk quality and where to find them!
• If taking care of baby was the avenue for you to take care of YOURSELF? I believe that through pregnancy and our new role as mothers, we instinctively take extra steps to care for our baby. By improving your nutrition for milk quality, you also nourish your own body better and are more able to replenish your empty nutrient tanks! So this focus may actually help you hit two birds goals with one stone: you may actually learn to take even better care of your own body, which will be thankful since you NEED this energy to better experience the challenge!

What nutrients will impact baby’s Breastmilk nutrition density?

Mom’s food quality impacts the quality of her breastmilk. My most striking experience was stomach flu: If you ever pumped your milk, you will difference density from milk before and during a stomach flu. Nutrient density changes as well:

• According to Lily Nichols, nutrients affecting milk quality are generally vitamins B1-B2-B6-B3-B12, vitamine A, D, and K,  Choline and fatty acids, selenium and iodine. Physicians always recommend continuation of prenatal vitamins for mothers because pregnancy already depletes Mama’s body of many of these nutrients. If you breastfeed, be particularly focused on nutrient density.
• Fish eating: 4.5 oz of seafood per day will impact DHA  (omega 3) levels in breast milk! Specifically animal DHA. Moreover, she stresses that there is a link between mothers consumption of DHA and mom’s health when it comes to incidence of postpartum depression and resilience to stress , and so-called “mom brain”. Do not underestimate quality and amount of DHA in this precious time.
• Vitamin D from Mom goes into the milk, therefore more is needed for Breastfeeding.
• Iodine, which found in sea food also is important for baby and mom: it helps prevent thyroid dysfunction, impacts your capacity to lose pregnancy weight. and improves breast health.

• Probiotics : They help prevents mom’s vaginal infections. They also help build baby’s microbiome, especially if you are treated with antibiotics during birth. Antibiotics during birth may have affected both yours and your baby’s microbiome negatively.
• Be aware that the most nutrient dense foods impacting your health and your milk supply are quality animal food sources. Very important nutrient for baby development: Vitamin B12. It seriously impacts brain development Choline also is in meat and organ meat and is important for memory. Vitamin A is crucial to infant growth and prevention of infection. Colostrum is very rich in vitamin A. If you don’t take enough vitamin A, baby won’t get enough in her milk. You can find easily absorbable vitamin A in liver and read meat.
• NOTE that I do not advocate for any specific diet. However, like Lily Nichols, I do believe that vegetarian and vegan lifestyles makes nourishment particularly difficult for fertility related issues.
• Gelatin, collagen, vitamin C will help healing and recovery. Of course, organ meat do contain gelatin and collagen, as well as bone broth. Vitamin C is abundant in all fresh, raw produce.
• To learn more about nutrient density in certain fertility-friendly foods and where to find them go to this article!

Breastfeeding is tastebuds training for your baby

Train your baby’s tastebuds for healthy foods you love !

The taste of your food transfer into your milk. Therefore, eating healthy for yourself is the best way to make sure your baby starts life with tastebuds used to healthier foods. Varying tastes, textures, types of meals trains your baby to like diverse foods too!

The more diverse your foods are, the more likely your baby is to like diverse foods.

Think about it: formula always tastes the same. Contrary to this, breastmilk composition changes according to the hours of the day and tastes differently based on your nutrition. So It is understandable that so many kids are picky eater.

One notable advantage of breastfeeding: the more Mom changes varies her foods, the more baby learns to like when foods change too. If you are not adventurous, don’t worry. Unless you eat the same exact food at every meal, your baby still will try more than one food per day!

Now let’s look at how your cooking method can strengthen your capacity to make nutrient dense meals. That will help replenish your postpartum body!

How steam cooking can help you nourish you both!

Cleanest and Most nutrient dense way to cook

This website is designed to inform you about all the benefits of steam cooking for your nutrition journey. There is a lot of evidence supporting the fact that it is the healthiest cooking method. But is it bland? It CAN be, but does not have to be, depending on how you practice steam cooking ! And that’s what this website is also for. Providing recipes and guides to learn steam cooking to make flavorful, quick and nutrient dense meals that TASTE GREAT! Are you worried about pesticides, additives, pollution? Steaming is a great way to keep the food you purchase as clean and as nutrient dense as it can be. Even if you can’t necessarily afford the highest quality foods.

Eating nutrient dense foods will be more supportive of weight loss in the long run

Think about it. The more nutrient dense your food is, the less calories you need to ingest to feed your body what it needs. Not necessarily the calory count though! Cravings are just that: your body seeking nutrients. If we feed our bodies just calorie-dense foods that are nutrient poor, it will keep seeking more foods.

Your body is smart: craving foods is a way of telling you it needs some nutrient(s). If you listen carefully, you may be able to train yourself to know what your body needs to eat at this moment. Fatigue may mean low iron. Muscle soreness may mean you need potassium and magnesium. Lack of stress resilience may mean you need vitamin B6 (abundant in salmon), magnesium and trace minerals. Try to have nourishing foods at hand, like fresh fruit and nuts that can provide lots of nutrients quickly. Steam cooking is helpful to keep nutrient dense foods, whether meats, grains or produce. They remain dense and tasty for your enjoyment, and quick to prepare all at once.

Steam Cooking as Ally to new moms

Now when it comes to being a new mom and making your own food, here is why it can help:

• It is a quick way of cooking ! And that helps a lot ! Most moms have little time to cook with a baby on tow, especially if baby doesn’t easily settle down. You can easily make something quick while baby wearing if you want !
• It helps detoxing your foods ! Most moms are weary to give foods containing more toxins to their baby, in a toxin rich environment especially. Steaming detox your foods, which I appreciate especially since I can’t afford it all organic !
• It preserves your foods’ taste, fiber levels and nutrient density. Postpartum recovery relies heavily on replenishing mom’s nutrient levels, and it is all the more important if you breastfeed. Any nutrient you can preserve in the food you buy is a win! Also, short time cooking preserves fiber, and also keeps the glycemic index of your meals lower.
• It is important to pick the right tool for cleanliness and efficiency’s sake ! Look at my rating of Best Performing Food Steamers for 2025, Based on Health

You won’t need a special baby appliance to baby food fast, one appliance feeds all!

Are you thinking about baby foods? I’m here to tell you that you won’t really have to buy tons of equipment to prep food! Chose a good appliance for yourself and your family first. For baby, all you need to add is an immersion blender or a small blender.

If you adopt steam cooking, you may prefer a special baby food appliance, but really you don’t need one. I explain why in my rating of baby food steamers for 2025. Just like you did before, you can keep making the same foods for yourself and your child. The difference is that now, his food source is not only restricted to your milk. All you need is to grind it fine depending on age, and how many teeth you little one has. For that, keep the same steamer you had, and blend it quick with an immersion blender.

Steaming is great for that as it can keep meals simple and tasty. The more your foods natural taste and fibers are preserved, the less you will need to add to these foods for your child to enjoy it. I will come back to this topic of making baby foods in a later post!