16/06/2024
Who is nourishing the new born mother?
Some months ago now I signed up and delved into the Fourth Trimester Food Course - Nutrition and Nervous System Skills to Restore and Recover after Birth. And then I didn’t even tell you about it, because a working mother is a busy mother and there is chicken soup that won't make itself.
But it’s midwinter time now. I feel the unravelling of threads in my own life and in the lives of some others close to me. I feel the darkness asking us to linger in bed awhile longer and the cold nudging us closer to the home fires. All the while the patriarchal alarm still sounds and we attempt to keep up with business as usual. And I want to talk about it.
As a culture we have largely forgotten how to rest and how to be nourished. This has significant consequences for the postpartum woman.
Recently a wise woman said to me, Ko te Whaea, te takere o te waka. Mothers are like the hull of a canoe, they are the heart of a family. As you can imagine, and no doubt you have seen, the consequences on a mothers health, are consequences on the health of her whānau and the wider community.
As maternal mental health issues continue to rise in Aotearoa, I wonder how many in the health sector are asking, is someone feeding that māmā? How many of us are rich with the knowledge of our great grandmother's kitchen practices? How many of us really understand the relationship between gut health and the waves of food allergies that see us demonising traditional foods and turning to increasingly packaged alternatives?
The talks and food demos in this course were familiar and validating to me, as they mirrored the diet I had turned to, to recover from what I now realise was a negligent and abusive postpartum experience. It was also the diet that proved good health and immunity in the growing bodies of my toddlers and continues to nourish us today. At times, I feel a deep grief about my postpartum and I also see how it has fueled my passion to support others through the immense right of passage that is matrescence.
I dream of a time when, along with funded midwifery care, whānau (who do not have a live in Grandma or Aunty at home) can receive the funded care of a doula, to nourish them on all levels, as they find their own balance in the new landscape of their family. Until then, I take heart in those of us offering this service, in the community meal trains and the care of those who have walked this way before.
