The Nourished Beginnings

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The Nourished Beginnings

Providing doula and nutritional support, education and individualized care for mamas and their families throughout the entire motherhood transition.

18/01/2025

that golden hour ✨

Ingrid Lorraine Sterbentz joined us earthside at home on Dec. 11th at 10:51am. A pregnancy where I learned to listen to intuition and hold deep trust. A birth that was familiar and uniquely her own.

Photo from .expert.doula |

14/11/2024

The default in our society is NOT providing copious postpartum support.

‼️Just one check up at six weeks postpartum to give you BC, clear you for all activities and send you on your way

‼️No mandated paid maternity leave to allow for recovery.

‼️No standard of care that includes at least one visit with a pelvic floor pt.

‼️A massive diet culture industry that focuses on quick bounce-back without considering the mental, physical or emotional state a mother is in.

‼️ the general expectation that moms should be up and doing their regular things as quickly as possible

If you don’t take matters into your own hands, if you don’t tell everyone around you what matters to YOU postpartum, you aren’t going to get it.

Don’t wait around for others to save you without telling them you need help.

✨ request a meal train and tell EVERYONE. make requests based on postpartum nourishment needs (slow cooked meats, cooked veggies, no sugar, etc.)

✨ build your registry with things YOU need (see previous post for registry ideas)

✨ start a cash fund to support postpartum recovery — for lactation services, massage, acupuncture, chiropractic care, therapy, or postpartum doula care

✨ stay in bed. be clear—you are going to follow the 5-5-5 rule—5 days lying in bed, 5 days sitting in bed, 5 days staying around the bed.

✨ host a nesting party to have your community help you get ready. prep food for YOU (postpartum nourishment requires extra care), get your herbs for teas + sitz baths mixed up, organize your space, whatever is going to help you feel supported.

✨ take it slow returning to movement. focus on rehab, see a pelvic floor pt and fight the urge to look like you’re bouncing back quick and stay home from the gym for the first 2-3 months. there’s plenty of time for that later.

✨ eat WELL and stay away from dieting. you’re recovering from a massive feat, your body needs intense nourishment and if you’re lactating, you’re going to need even more fuel. this is just a season, it isn’t forever.

22/10/2024

to the one who can handle + love all of me — happy anniversary ❤️

—————————————————

every time I look at this photo I tear up.
what a beautiful life
what a safe space we’ve grown

I wouldn’t do this with anyone else.

photo by

02/10/2024

The baby we’ll never meet here on earth came for family photos.

I haven’t felt like talking about this being the “rainbow baby.”

I want her to have her own identity, without taking on the life of one that was here and gone before.

But on a beautiful sunny day with not a single raindrop until the moment we showed up, one cloud let loose on us, ruining our meticulously prepared look. A giant rainbow showed up and I realized what it meant.

A gentle reminder that we wouldn’t have her without them.

Life comes with death, and comes with life.

photo by

23/09/2024

If you're considering volunteering with the Warm Line, learn more about our next training November 16 & 17th: bit.ly/WarmLineVolunteer

We are looking for people with different lived experiences and backgrounds to walk alongside other parents who might be experiencing a perinatal mental health issue. Receiving and providing peer support is unique and powerful for both the volunteer and parent!

Volunteers offer support, find resources, share stories and just listen. But, you won't do it alone, we provide all the training and guidance needed to be a volunteer and part of a team.

31/07/2024

It’s been the summer of reflecting, thinking long and hard before I act.

The news that Beautycounter isn’t coming back for a w h i l e (if at all) hit so hard, and has taken some processing. If you haven’t been around here much, you wouldn’t know, but working with them was a big part of so many changes + growth in my life over the last 6 years. It took me where I am today.

I didn’t want to just jump in anywhere, and none of it felt right at the time. So I paused. I’ve thought a lot about if this is even important to me anymore, if it even aligns with my values to continue to share about product safety (and frankly, just sharing about products in general).

In the end, it does. Motherhood transition health + wellness along with the massive social change required to support that continues to be one of my deepest passions, and safer products is a piece of that. There’s a wild amount of greenwashing and misinformation out there, I can’t help myself but offset it all. What we put on + in our bodies matters.

Especially with people asking for replacements for their products, I dug, and I feel so good to be working with Crunchi. They have similar values, mission and product development safety. They’re really into sustainability, and so far I’ve loved what I’ve tried (the facial oil is AMAZING). They’re so well-known for their foundation, and there’s something NEW coming very soon that I can’t wait to share about because it’s the product so many people loved Beautycounter for.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart if you ever shopped with me, worked with me in any capacity, or cheered me along. It’s been a wild, fulfilling and resiliency-building six years, and I’m looking forward to what’s ahead

02/05/2024

FIVE THINGS I WISH I KNEW BEFORE I HAD A BABY

First 👉 save this post to remind yourself or send to a friend having a baby!

💗 You will be wearing the most giant pads you’ve ever seen in your life because the bleeding will be next level. I was verbal about it – THAT’S what I need?!

💗 You’re going to be open to everything and everything. Your brain changes postpartum so you will be hyper aware of your baby’s cues + needs – but that also means you’re hyper aware of everything going on around you. Protect your space and who/what you’re exposing yourself to. It’s ok to limit your visitors. Your emotional energy will be taxed very quickly – save it for your baby.

💗 A messy house means you’re taking care of yourself. We’re trained as postpartum doulas that a clean house signals something is amiss. Likely mom isn’t resting enough and sometimes the need to keep things that clean shows us there’s some underlying stress/anxiety. Let things lie. There’s plenty of time to keep a clean house, and the fourth trimester is not it. If it causes you that much stress (I get it – mess is not something I love), plan ahead of time to get housecleaning help, either from family/friends as a baby shower gift or save up for it.

💗 Everything you do is like doing it for the first time. I’ll never forget when it took me an hour to get out the door to take the dog for a walk the first time with just me + the baby. It was like I was running on a hamster wheel, never getting where I wanted to go. It drove me wild! But the thing is, I’d never done this before. I’d never been a mom getting a fresh baby who had a hard time eating out the door with a high-energy dog. Coming to it with compassion and understanding for myself would have led to a lot more resiliency instead of feeling like a failure.

💗 You will be more hungry than you’ve ever been in your life. And you’ll have less ability to prepare food and eat than you’ve likely ever had in your life. Plan accordingly. Anything one-handed, as many freezer meals as you can manage. Make eating easy, because you need the energy to heal and produce milk if you’re nursing.

Your turn – what do you wish you’d known?

27/04/2024

Foods in your fourth trimester do matter.

This is a period of great recovery. Your tissues have a lot of repair to do, your energy is being put into not only healing but also potentially making food for your new baby. Your hormones need all the support they can get (hello, fat and blood sugar regulating foods) AND your digestive system is dealing with some shifts and changes.

Think warming, nourishing foods like soups, stews, fish, whole milk yogurts, eggs, fats like avocados, coconut and olives, seed and nut oils, ghee, warm cooked grains and vegetables, and spices like ginger, cinnamon, cumin and turmeric.

You don’t have to limit a ton of things, but raw veggies, processed oils, alcohol, sweetened nonfat yogurts and super heavy meats won’t be as helpful for your healing body and digestive system.

Want to learn more about nourishing mothers in the fourth trimester? Check out the link in my bio for a FREE Supporting New Moms Guide.

Sources:

The First Forty Days by Heng Ou

10/04/2024

I get these messages all the time.

“My friend/sister/daughter had a baby. What are good foods I can take?”
“Do you have good recipes for postpartum?”
“Are there any teas or supplements you like for postpartum that I can gift someone?”
“What can I do to help my postpartum spouse/friend/sister since they’re having a hard time?”

And truly, I think a big gap in postpartum care is the lack of community support most of us experience. It’s not that people don’t WANT to help. It’s that they often don’t know HOW, or just how vital they truly are to the newly postpartum family.

So I put together a whole resource answering these questions so YOU can go postpartum doula your communities. And can you believe it – it’s FREE!

Go to the link in my bio or comment POSTPARTUM and I’ll send you the Supporting the New Mom Ebook!

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http://www.thenourishedbeginnings.com/

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