TIPS FOR AFTER THE BIRTH - VIDEO 4 (FINAL VIDEO IN THIS SERIES)

And welcome to the final video in this series of 4 with Dr. Ashish Paul, Ayurvedic practitioner, and I'm the Root Master Heather Prince. And in this video, we're going to be discussing after the birth.

Yes.

What's the best thing for What's the best for women to have to eat and drink once the birth is over?

Oh my gosh, that's such a big area, and women are not eating what they should be eating after birth. One thing to remember, always have light food which is easily digestible. Yeah, to have warm food, definitely nothing from the fridge. So even if you want cooling food, then it should be at room temperature, not straight out from the fridge.

Yes.

Because your digestion is at the weakest and you want food which is kind of semi-digested, you know, cooked that way, porridgey kind of food, which is easy to take in.

Yes. So even though they've given birth, they still have that stomach a bit pushed up and the uterus is not contracted yet and everything's still as it was. So an example of the kind of things that they should be choosing?

So for example, definitely not bread, which is generally given. Yes, and even a cup of tea. Okay, cup of tea I can get away with. Yes, you can get away with. But herbal tea is much nicer, any kind of herbal tea, herbal decoctions as well. If they can eat light and gentle soups, so not necessarily only tomato soup, but vegetable soups will be nicer.

Yes.

So light, start with the lightest, because depending from patient to patient, there will be patients who have given birth and they are hale and hearty, they hardly notice anything. But there will be others who might have gone through long labour and they are really tired.

Yes.

And they don't have that kind of energy, so you won't which is easily they can digest.

Yes.

Yeah, so soups, dal soup is really good as well. So pulses, really gentle dals, moong dal bean soup.

Yes.

Not the heavy beans, not kidney beans and all of that. You don't want those ones, but the orange beans, which—

Lentils.

Lentils, sorry, orange lentils.

Yeah.

And moong beans, which are very light. So you can have really light soup of that, not very heavy soup, light soup.

Made with like a vegetable stock?

You can add vegetable stock to it. You can, if you are non-vegetarian, you can eat, you can add chicken stock or something else also with that. But something which is more soupy consistency and nothing too heavy to chew. And then herbal tea with that as well.

Yeah, and something more substantial later on would be?

So we want to promote a lot of milk flow at that time, generally. That's the main idea, so that the young one can take in. So in Ayurveda, we recommend if you're having soup or dal, to add a bit of ghee to it.

Right.

Because ghee promotes more milk flow.

Right.

So these days you can also have the non-milk milks, Like rice milk and almond milk, all of those. Even in that, if you're totally vegan, you may not be able to make use of ghee, but you can have virgin coconut oil, which you can add to your soups, even to half a cup warm milk.

What about coconut milk? Adding that into the soup?

You can have— yes, absolutely.

If they make like sweet potato soup or butternut squash soup, and they can add in a can of coconut milk? To richen it up, yeah.

But making sure that you have some— you add some kind of spices. So there is very slight ginger is added, some cumin seeds are added, there is parsley, coriander fresh is added. So we add all these spices just to help with the digestion, and also it helps with to take away all that pain and aches that has happened. Especially ginger, for example, is anti-inflammatory, so it's really helpful.

And turmeric?

Turmeric as well. Yes, they can have turmeric added to the milk. Yeah, either cow's milk or non-cow's milk or any other type of milk. Yes, they can add to it, but making sure everything is warm. If it's, it's a really hot day, then making sure everything is at least room temperature.

And turmeric is anti-inflammatory for any inflammation that's going on within the body.

Yes, turmeric is anti-inflammatory. It helps to cleanse the blood.

Yeah, it's good to have food in the hospital if the person knows they're going in or has enough time beforehand to prepare something. But say somebody, it's happened quite quickly, they've gone in, they've given birth, and here comes the midwife, bless her, with her lovely sandwich and there isn't another option. Yeah, what do you suggest?

I normally suggest you can Yes, the last-minute thing can happen quite quickly sometimes, that you quickly go into hospital, or even if you're at home sometimes. But you know when you are approximately doing that, so you can also prepare something yourself and put it in the freezer.

Yes.

So for example, with the dals, you can make dals, make it quite concentrated, and make those cubes and freeze them. So that you can at least instruct somebody to just add warm water to it, give it one boil, and bring it for you, because that wouldn't be that difficult to do. And that's okay. Yes, we do not necessarily promote very frozen food or cold food, but as long as it has been taken out and straightaway eaten, it still is really good quality food as compared to at least sandwich.

And somebody can bring something warm in a flask up to the hospital.

Yes.

For their mum to have following the birth.

You can always ask.

Are there recipes on your website?

There are some recipes that we send to our patients.

Right.

So if they ask, we can do that. Because again, it changes. What changes is, for example, how much ginger to put in, how many cumin seeds to put in.

Yes.

You know, so it changes from patient to patient. If somebody's really hot temperament, then I wouldn't put in too much ginger. It will be less quantity.

It depends what type they are.

Yeah, but something nice and warming that they can pre-prepare a little bit. And then also, perhaps it's a good idea to, if you have family or friends around who are going to help you during birthing, to tell them, you know, how you would like it.

Yes.

So maybe if you have that kind of support around you, yes, for them to give you. If nothing else, you know, all the— I think supermarkets these days, they prepare some ready-made meals where they prepare nice soups. So that is still much better than a sandwich.

Yes, and do you find that most of the people that come to you want to breastfeed?

Breastfeeding, yes, most of the women are into breastfeeding. They would like to give that natural, and of course we encourage that as much as you can and have all that support, unless of course you have twins or more than 2, you know, when it gets a bit tricky.

Absolutely, or if somebody's got inverted nipples or another problem, again, it's important to be flexible and not to be rigid and then be upset if that doesn't happen. What's the Ayurvedic way of drying up the milk when the mother wants to stop the milk?

Drying up the milk. Wow. Okay. That I'll have to check again. You know, the best way is if mother can donate the milk. That would be my idea for that mum. If she can support, because there are so many other women who can't breastfeed.

Yes.

And if they can, if those lucky ones who have got so much milk, and if they're in a position, if they have that kind of time, because mother's milk can be frozen and can be given to those babies where there is a history of certain genetic conditions where people don't want to give bottled milk.

Yes.

You know, so they can always give it to milk bank, which would be my best advice, Yes. Rather than using any hormones or anything else to really, you know, kind of take nature's way back in a way, because you're producing milk and let it flow for a little longer and donate.

And is it right in Ayurveda you wrap the area afterwards? Yes, you do. Could you explain a little bit about that?

So we do that for natural birth and for C-section, for both, because the idea is if you really tightly wrap up around our abdominal muscles.

Yes.

They get back into shape really quickly.

Yes.

And also it helps with the internal, the uterus, to get into position really quickly as well.

Yes.

So generally it's done with, with the muslin cloth. So we use muslin cloth going around a few times.

Yes.

And you can actually have, if it's really cold weather, we can also have a shawl or something.

Yes.

On top of it to keep it warm.

And how many weeks after the birth would that be?

Oh, they can start straight away.

For how long would they wear that?

For about 6 to 8 weeks minimum.

6 to 8 weeks minimum after the birth. Oh, that's really interesting.

Depending also, you know, sorry, depending also if somebody was really— because some women can, when they're pregnant, they do put on a lot of weight, uh, just by the nature of it. Some women don't. So if you If you happen to be those which have got a lot of weight on, then make sure you do that even more to support your abdomen.

Yes. Okay, that's really interesting. Thank you for watching this series of 4 videos that we've put together to help women and through all the different stages of wanting to get pregnant to actually giving birth and what to do afterwards. And to celebrate International Women's Day, Ooh! Which will be on Wednesday the 8th of March. Ashish and I will be on Facebook Live at 2:30 PM until 3 PM to answer any of your questions, whether it's to do with Ayurveda, whether it's to do with energy and present life stuff or past life issues or negativity. I'm there to hopefully be able to answer your questions too. So we look forward to seeing you on Facebook Live.

Yes.

Under my page, which is @rootmaster1. So that's Wednesday the 8th of March to celebrate International Women's Day.

For the health of women.

For the health of women, absolutely, especially at a fantastic time of giving birth and the future generations.

Excellent. We look forward to seeing you and connecting with many of you. Thank you.

Yes, have a great day.

Thank you.