Planning For A Nutritious Postpartum

Below are tried and true ideas to prepare a nutritious no-to-low-effort meal plan for a nourishing postpartum period as well as a list of nutrients and foods that will help your mind and body recover faster. Often, the last thing one wants to do after giving birth is to get right back to cooking. Nutritious foods are not just important during pregnancy, but also extremely important postpartum as you are feeding your baby (if breastfeeding) and healing your body from the rigors of pregnancy and birth. 

4 Ideas for No-To-Low-Effort Meal Planning

#1 – let’s leverage the power of your community by starting a meal delivery calendar. A meal delivery calendar is a way for friends and family to sign up to bring you meals on a specific day and time. You can create a profile yourself or have someone set one up for you. Once it is set up you can share the link however you would like. Here are two options for a meal delivery calendar. 

  • Take Them a Meal – An easy-to-use platform that includes the option to send a meal from their menu or to sign up for a date to bring a meal. This site also has recommendations for meals that travel and/or freeze well. 
  • Give in Kind – Has informative videos if you need help setting up your page. It also includes lots of features that can be customized exactly for you, with a calendar that you can add days/times you prefer deliveries, what days your dog could use a walk when childcare for older children would be appreciated, and any other task you are having difficulty accomplishing. You can also request gift cards for restaurants/grocery stores, and whether you want folks to stop by for a visit or just drop off food.

While Take Them a Meal is exclusively for meals, Give in Kind has the option to include tasks as well, like walking your dog or looking after your older children. On both, you are able to list food allergies/preferences and can get as specific as you need to. Also, folks can denote what they are bringing so you don’t get consecutive lasagnas.

#2 – Make and freeze meals. Lily Nicols, author of “Real Food For Pregnancy” which I highly recommend, has a wonderful lineup of recipes for the postpartum period that can be made and frozen ahead of time. If you’re the kind of person who wants to prep and cook food for yourself, this list of recipes is a goldmine. 

#3 – Meal Delivery Services. Setting up a meal delivery service a few weeks or a month before your due date can be an easy way to guarantee that you will have a few meals in the fridge and reliable meals delivered on specific days. I would recommend starting this service before you have your baby to make sure you enjoy the food. Consider putting a meal delivery service on your baby registry, might as well get something for yourself! Here are a few options for healthy and diet-diverse services:

  • Green Chef  $12-$13.5 per meal. A fabulous-looking and sounding rotating menu with options for many different diets and allergies. This service does require some prep such as chopping, combining ingredients, and cooking or heating the food.
  • Sunbasket $10-$18 per serving. Again a dazzlingly diverse and scrumptious looking menu with options for different diets and allergies. You can get meal kits (some prep such as chopping, combining ingredients, and cooking or heating the food.) and already-prepared meals.
  • Blue Apron $7.5-$12 per serving. Yummy looking recipes that are more affordable than the above options. Unlike Green Chef and Sunbasket, they don’t label themselves as organic but they do have options for different diets (although they may not be suitable for those with serious allergies). Options for easy-to-prep meals as well as ready-to-eat meals.  
  • Trifecta  $99-$177/week. The official food service of CrossFit is geared toward athletes but suitable for anyone, as their focus is on healthful options full of lean meat, veggies, and whole grains. You pick a meal plan that fits your dietary preferences (Keto, whole 30, meat lovers) and they deliver a week’s worth of food that’s already prepared.

#4 – Hire someone. Know a stay-at-home mom, dad, or someone who is looking for a side hustle to make a few bucks? Hire them to make meals for you! Meet and talk about what foods you like/don’t like/ are allergic to and have them send you a test menu and even a test meal to make sure they understood what your preferences were. I have even heard of someone who posted on Craigslist looking for someone to cook Indian vegetarian cuisine. This person also had them make a test meal (that he paid for) to make sure the home cook made quality food his family enjoyed. I love these options because they stem from your direct community instead of outsourcing.

Foods and nutrients that speed healing and replenishment during the fourth trimester.

Water– Arguably the most important nutrient of them all. Have water with you at all times and swig whenever you remember to. If breastfeeding, make sure you have water available wherever you are feeding your baby. Helps with healing your body, producing adequate milk, helps prevent constipation, and keeps your body functioning properly in every way.

Fat– For producing nutritious and satiating breast milk. Fatty acids (like DHA, an omega-3 fatty acid) are imperative for the visual and neural development of your baby, this is not a time to go on a low-fat diet, it’s time to go on a good-fat diet.  Found in foods like eggs, seafood, grass-fed animal fats (quality matters), nuts, avocados, grass-fed butter, olive oil (don’t heat) avocado and coconut oil (can heat), and cheeses.

Carbohydrates may help with milk production. Choose whole grains, sweet potatoes, oatmeal, roasted veggies, and fresh fruit.

Protein– Protein is an underappreciated nutrient unless you are a bodybuilder. But it happens to be extremely important for pregnant and postpartum moms. You are actively building a baby from amino acids (proteins) while pregnant as well as healing your own body and still growing a baby (although they are now outside of your body!) after you give birth. Foods that contain quality protein are grass-fed meats, and organic dairy like milk, cheese, yogurt, eggs, seafood, and nuts.

Iron– For restoring blood lost in childbirth. Found in foods like pot roasts, organ meats, seafood, dark leafy greens

Iodine– Important for your and your baby’s thyroid hormone synthesis and normal neurodevelopment in your baby. Iodized salt (salt liberally as salt is also an electrolyte), organ meats, seafood, seaweed, eggs, chicken, and dairy.

B Vitamins Thiamin (B1), riboflavin (B2), pyridoxine (B6), folate (B9), and cobalamin (B12)-B vitamins including folate the most well-known B vitamin in prenatal vitamins, are important for transporting nutrients and helping in brain function (in you and your baby) and development. Foods with B vitamins include Whole grains, meats including seafood, legumes, seeds and nuts, dairy, eggs, greens like broccoli, spinach, kale, and Brussels sprouts, and fruits such as avocados and citrus fruits.

Vitamin A– Helps with tissue repair, ocular development, immune function, and skeletal and organ development in babies. Found in leafy greens, liver, red bell peppers, yellow veggies, milk, eggs

Vitamin D– Believed to decrease postpartum depression, increase immune function, and maintain bone health, thyroid health, and blood sugar metabolism. Found in fish oils, seafood, fortified milk, and cereals

Vitamin K– Helps with blood clotting. Found in leafy greens, liver, chicken, pork, avocado, prunes, green beans

Choline– Just as important as folate in brain development and the brain and liver of mom. If breastfeeding one should be consuming at least 550mg (450mg during pregnancy). Found in red meat, egg yolks, liver, salmon, cod, legumes

Selenium– Can lessen postpartum depression and is important for the immune and nervous systems in babies. Found in meats, eggs, Brazil nuts, shellfish, and fish.

Lethicin–  Can lessen the chances of clogged ducts. Found in cooked green veggies, legumes, eggs, seafood, red meat, and organ meats.

Collagen-the most abundant protein in the body and used liberally to grow your pregnant body and your babies. It is also partly responsible for skin elasticity and is found in pot roast cuts, bone broth, eggs, fish, and spirulina. Eat vitamin C-containing foods along with collagen-rich foods to increase absorption!

This may feel like an intimidating list, but many of the foods listed above check at least a few nutrient boxes. Many of the nutrients are found in liver and organ meats. If you cannot stomach the strong flavor of an organ, there are capsulized liver supplements that can be taken instead, just make sure that the animal used is grass-fed.  Also, a prenatal vitamin is not a replacement for a good diet, but it can certainly be a wise accompaniment to a good diet. Continue taking a high-quality prenatal vitamin for 6 or more months after giving birth  (I took mine for a year after) to replace nutrients that were used during pregnancy. 

Sources

  1. Real Food For Pregnancy, by author Lily Nichols
  2. Leung, et al. Iodine Nutrition in Pregnancy and Lactation. Endocrinology & Metabolism Clinics of North America.  Retrieved 9/28/22 from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3266621/
  3. https://americanpregnancy.org/healthy-pregnancy/pregnancy-health-wellness/vitamin-b-pregnancy
  4. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6470929/
  5. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5946263/
  6. https://americanpregnancy.org/healthy-pregnancy/pregnancy-health-wellness/vitamin-d-and-pregnancy/
  7. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6722688/
  8. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20528216
  9. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0946672X14001345
  10. https://www.canadianbreastfeedingfoundation.org/basics/lecithin.shtml
  11. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30681787/

Kate Pettis is a pre and postnatal core corrective specialist and pregnancy safe coach living in Boise Idaho. Her main job is being a stay-at-home mom to Harriet and her dog Scout. She is also passionate about pre and postnatal fitness, nutrition, and many varied side hustles that feed her entrepreneurial spirit and leave her calendar just busy enough. She can be reached at kate.pettis@ymcatvidaho.org with any questions or comments.