Ayurvedic Postpartum Recipes

What a new mother eats in her first weeks decides how she recovers.

After birth, a woman's digestion is at its weakest. Ayurveda calls digestive strength agni, the body's capacity to break food down and turn it into tissue. Birth leaves that capacity low, and the body cold, dry and depleted. Food in these weeks has one job: to be easy enough to digest that every bite becomes nourishment.

That is why every recipe here is warm, soft, cooked, oiled with ghee and spiced with digestive spices such as cumin, ginger, ajwain and cardamom. Cold and raw foods wait until her digestion has recovered.

Food is layered day by day. Early nourishment feeds the lymph first, then the blood, and breast milk is made from that blood. So the first days begin with the simplest foods: porridges, broths and warm teas such as the ten root Dashmula tea. Healthy fats are layered in for lubrication and hormonal rejuvenation. As digestion strengthens, meals build toward kitchari, dals, soups and stews.

Generic postpartum advice hands a mother a list of good foods. Ayurveda gives her an order: what to eat on day one, day ten and day twenty, and why.

Who these recipes are for: the mother herself, and the doula, partner, mother or friend who cooks for her.

Questions mothers ask

What should I eat right after giving birth? Warm, soft, cooked foods: porridges, broths, stewed fruit and warm teas. Avoid cold drinks, smoothies, raw vegetables, crackers and chips in the first weeks.

Why is ghee used in postpartum recipes? Ghee is warm and oily, which counters the dryness and depletion after birth. It lubricates the body and carries the spices it is cooked with.

Can my partner or doula cook these? Yes. The recipes are written for anyone cooking for a new mother

Read next: Black sesame seeds for postpartum recovery · What to eat during postpartum · Ayurvedic postpartum bars.