Healthy foods to eat after labor include milk and dairy products, garlic, veggies, garlic, fruits, soups, eggs, lean meat, legumes, whole grains, and turmeric.
Labour and childbirth take a heavy toll on a woman physically and mentally. Holding your little one in your hands might wipe away all your difficulties. However, you need the right amount of rest and nourishment to make up for the wear and tear that your body would have gone through. Eating healthy food right after labor plays a major role in healing the physical trauma that your body has faced. Furthermore, the postpartum diet also plays a major role in enhancing breast milk supply.
Postpartum Diet Plan: Best Foods To Eat After Giving Birth
Healthy food after labor is extremely essential to heal and bounce back to normality. Here is a list of 11 healthy foods to eat right after labor.
Milk and Dairy Products Preferably Low-fat
Milk and dairy products like cheese and curd are loaded with calcium, B vitamins, and proteins that are highly essential for both mother and child. Proteins in them help in healing and calcium is passed from breast milk to the child. However, remember to consume low-fat dairy to avoid extra weight gain during your postpartum days.
Garlic
Garlic is a wonderful medicinal herb that is loaded with vitamins, minerals, and amino acids. It is also rich in sulfur compounds that give it its pungent smell. However, the sulfur compounds are the reason for goodness in garlic. Garlic has been used to treat infections and swelling since ancient times. When garlic is included in the postpartum diet, it is believed to enhance the breast milk supply. But eat it in moderation.
Vegetables
We all are familiar with the fact that veggies are a treasure house of most essential nutrients. They are rich in vitamins, minerals, fiber, antioxidants, and water. They not only boost breast milk supply but also help in healing. Furthermore, due to high water content and roughage, they also prevent weight gain after delivery. Make sure to include a variety of colorful vegetables like greens, carrots, broccoli, tomatoes, beetroot, etc, in your diet to gain maximum benefits.
Fruits
Fresh fruits are loaded with all essential nutrients like vitamins, minerals, carbohydrates, roughage, and water content highly essential to a lactating mother. Not just that they help in recovering from the physical trauma caused by labor and childbirth. The healthy carbohydrates from fruits help to keep the energy levels high and also prevent post-delivery weight gain.
Soups
Soups are wonderful restorative food that can potentially replenish all that has been lost during the course of labor and childbirth. Both vegetarian and meat soups are loaded with all the essential nutrients like vitamins, minerals, fats, and protein that a woman’s body craves for post-delivery. Meat soups high in protein have great healing properties and veggies soups are a powerhouse of micronutrients. Hence, it is essential to make soups an obligatory food in your post-labor diet.
Eggs
Eggs are apparently one of the most nutritious foods on earth. They are known to contain a little bit of every nutrient that our body needs. They are high in proteins which are crucial for the healing of a woman’s body after labor and childbirth. Furthermore, they are also rich in B vitamins, vitamin A, folate, selenium, phosphorous, and zinc. 1 whole egg supposedly consists of all nutrients needed to develop a chick, hence they are highly nutritious.
Nuts and Seeds
Different kinds of nuts and seeds like cashews, almonds, walnuts, peanuts, pumpkin seeds, etc are all nutrient-dense foods. Loaded with protein, iron and B vitamins, zinc, calcium, and also vitamins E and K, nuts are an essential staple in a woman’s diet post-labor. Additionally, they also increase the breast milk supply.
Lean meat and Meat Products
Meat and meat products are healthy foods that are a great source of high-quality protein which is very much essential post-labor to heal and also keep up the energy levels. Moreover, meat is rich in iron and B vitamins which help to make up for the lost blood during childbirth. But make sure you include lean meat like that of free-range chicken to avoid weight gain.
Legumes
Legumes are a great substitute for meat and meat products. The high amounts of non-animal protein present in them make them a wonderful blessing for vegan mothers who cannot eat meat.
Whole Grains
Carbs are highly essential to new mothers after labor and childbirth. Carbohydrates provide energy and ward off lethargy and sluggishness. However, it is important to consume healthy carbohydrates sourced from whole grains like brown rice, millets, and whole wheat. Whole grains also provide minerals and fiber apart from giving carbohydrates to the new mother.
Turmeric
Turmeric is not a food in itself but a spice that can be added to the food we consume. It is a wonder spice with a host of properties that are needed for physical healing. It is rich in vitamin B6, C, potassium, magnesium, manganese, and fiber. Turmeric also has antiseptic properties needed to treat inflammation, wounds, and also stomach disorders.
Conclusion
The time after labor and delivery is the time to heal, rejuvenate and recuperate for the new mommy. Adequate rest and nutritious food are two important elements that play a major role to bounce back to health. Include all the foods that we have mentioned above to help your body nurse back to health and nurse your baby as well.
References
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4736124/
https //www.healthline.com/health/postpartum-diet
https //www.webmd.com/parenting/baby/breast-feeding-diet
