The first 6 weeks of recovery after a C-section are very different when compared to the recovery from a vaginal birth. The reality of healing from a major surgery with a newborn, while also adjusting to postpartum body changes is likely to be challenging for mothers.
We can feel less overwhelmed if we are able to prepare ourselves and connect to communities of personalised support.
Surgical Incision
Medications
Postpartum Hormones
Our postpartum hormones are magnificently orchestrated to support our body in its recovery and to establish an innate connection with our newborn.Due to medication received during surgery, there can be a delayed hormonal response within our body and it may need some time to ‘process’ that it has given birth. We can support our body to regulate by ensuring that we eat nutritional food, drink plenty of water and prioritise skin-to-skin with our newborn.
Microbiome (Mother and Baby)
Due to medications such as antibiotics, the microbiome within both our digestive system and our newborn baby’s, is likely to need some support in rebuilding healthy bacteria. This can be done by ensuring we are eating nutrient dense, warm foods, taking a probiotic and prioritising hydration with water and nourishing teas. It is common to experience bloating and swelling after a C-section and gas pains can be uncomfortable. This should pass within a week, once your bowels are moving normally again.
Breastfeeding
If you are planning to breastfeed, speak with your LMC about how medications may affect your milk supply.
Supportive feeding positions after your caesarean birth:
Movement
Mental & Emotional Recovery
You might feel fine about having a caesarean, or you might feel disappointed or sad that you weren’t able to give birth vaginally. If you had an unplanned (emergency) caesarean, the change in plan can sometimes be a shock. Birth is a huge time of transition for all women and it is important we talk through our birth story and find closure around our experience.
If you would like more support preparing for or recovering from you C-Section birth, Vanessa is available at Auckland Physiotherapy for appointments on Fridays and Saturdays.
'Click here' to book.
SERVES 12 | PREP TIME 10 MINUTES | COOK TIME 10 MINUTES | CHILLING TIME 20 MINUTES
INGREDIENTS
1 cup cream
3 tbsp butter
1/3 cup virgin coconut oil
175 g dark chocolate (85% or higher),
broken into 2 cm pieces
For the coating (optional), any of:
2 tbsp cocoa
2 tbsp chopped hazelnuts (or another nut you prefer)
2 tbsp shredded coconut
METHOD
Place the cream, butter and coconut oil in a small pot over a medium-low heat. Gently heat, stirring
occasionally, until melted and the mix begins to bubble. Remove from the heat and add the chocolate.
Whisk vigorously to combine the ingredients together – you want to form a nice stable emulsion
with no oily liquid escaping round the sides. This can also be done with a hand-held blender, by
placing the chocolate in a narrow jug, pouring the liquid over and blending until smooth.
At this point you can stir in some desiccated coconut or chopped nuts if you like.
Pour the mixture into individual moulds (an ice cube tray is good) or into a small container (about 10 cm x 15
cm).
Cover and place in the fridge to chill completely.
Once fully set, turn out of the ice cube tray or container onto a sheet of baking paper. If you used
a container, cut the mix into bite-sized pieces.
Roll the trufles in cocoa, nuts or coconut or cocoa if you like. Transfer to a container with a tight-fitting
lid and store them in the fridge for up to 2 weeks.
Recipe brought to you by Chef Craig Rodger and the NEW WTF? Recipe Book.
SERVES 4 | PREP TIME 15 MINUTES | COOK TIME 25 MINUTES
INGREDIENTS
For the quinoa:
1⁄2 cup quinoa
1 cup water
1 tbsp vinegar
1 tsp salt
For the sushi filling:
1 carrot, peeled
1–2 spring onions
1 avocado
200 g raw, smoked or
cooked salmon (or a
185 g can of tuna), or
cooked chicken, pork
or beef (optional)
For the sushi dressing:
1 tsp finely grated ginger
1 tbsp sesame seeds
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp rice wine vinegar
1⁄2 tsp wasabi paste (optional – or add more for a stronger wasabi hit!)
To assemble:
4 nori sheets
METHOD
Add the quinoa, vinegar, water and salt to a pot. Bring to the boil, cover with a tight-fitting lid and reduce the heat to low. Cook for about 15 minutes, then turn off the heat and allow to stand, still covered, for 5 minutes. Transfer the quinoa to a bowl and allow to cool slightly while you prepare the sushi filling.
Grate or cut the carrot into matchsticks, thinly slice the spring onion and thinly slice the avocado.
Mix all the sushi dressing ingredients together. Add half to the quinoa and toss to coat, reserving the rest for drizzling over the finished sushi.
To construct the sushi rolls, lay the nori sheets on a flat surface (use a bamboo rolling mat for an authentic touch), shiny side facing down. Spread the cooled quinoa 5 mm thick evenly over the nori, leaving 2 cm of nori exposed at the far end of the sheet. Arrange the filling (meat and vegetables) horizontally across the centre of the quinoa.
Dampen the exposed nori with a few finger-drops of water. Lift the front of the nori sheet (the side opposite the exposed nori) and begin to roll tightly over the filling. Continue to roll all the way up and then apply pressure to join the edge of exposed nori to the rest of the roll.
Recipe brought to you by Chef Craig Rodger and the NEW WTF? Recipe Book.
Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes (up to 3 days) before slicing into pieces with a nice sharp knife.
Drizzle the reserved sushi dressing on top and serve straight away.
Tip: For an even lower-carb option you can make it with cauliflower rice instead of quinoa, but the quinoa does give you that lovely nutty taste.
VEGETARIAN OPTION
To replace the fish/meat:
2 tbsp sesame oil
2 tbsp soy sauce
1-2 tsp finely grated ginger
300 g firm or medium tofu
Vegetarian option: The day before, mix the sesame oil, soy sauce and ginger together. Place the tofu in a suitable small container, pour over the marinade, cover and leave in the fridge overnight. Slice and use
in place of the fish or meat.
April is Caesarean Awareness Month, an annual observance around the world, which brings focus to all topics surrounding caesarean births including: reducing preventable c-sections, the experience of a caesarean delivery, and advocating for a vaginal birth after caesarean (VBAC).
Caesarean Awareness Month empowers parents with information and support to make informed decisions about childbirth, reduce unnecessary caesarean deliveries, and promote positive birth experiences for families.
For women who have experienced them, this month of awareness can be triggering or it can serve as a time of reflection.
How our babies are born can be very different to what we may expect, so it is important as parents to have access to educational and evidence based information to make the best decisions that are right for you and your baby. Whether planning for a physiological birth and then consenting to an abdominal birth at any point, or planning for an abdominal birth as your first preference.
Mental and emotional support is also a critical aspect of quality care throughout pregnancy and childbirth and different care providers should all ultimately serve to ensure a mother feels safe and validated throughout her journey.
Whether a caesarean birth was a choice or not, there needs to be stronger awareness and absolute acceptance within society of abdominal births alongside acknowledgement of the specialised quality and women-centred care needed for a healthy recovery. There can still be so much shame experienced by women who have birthed their babies by c-section and who have also not had the chance to find a sense of closure and an acceptance of their birth story.
As caesarean section rates continue to rise, we need to recognise our language and personal understanding around caesarean births and potentially the perspectives, resistance or judgments we may hold.
For a range of resources, programmes and personalised support to help you actively prepare for or to feel well in recovering from your birth, book a session with Vanessa.
What does “health” mean to you? Would you consider yourself “healthy”?
The World Health Organisation defines Health as
“a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being
and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.”
I don’t know about you, but I think modern society has lost its grip on that definition, even though there seems to be such a swell of interest in the topic of longevity when it comes to research and media. I certainly speak to many people who would describe their general health as “good” despite the fact that they take multiple regular medications for various health conditions. The reality is that if you’re an “average” adult in the developed world the chance that you are “healthy” according to that definition is low.
World Health Statistics in 2023 show that humans are chronically unwell with the four major chronic diseases (cardiovascular, cancer, chronic respiratory and diabetes) being responsible for 74% of global deaths in 2019. What’s more concerning is the disease burden that these conditions have on individuals whilst they are still alive. In New Zealand, the picture isn’t any prettier with one in four New Zealanders living with multiple chronic health conditions that are often experienced by several generations in the same whānau.
Modern medicine has had a profound effect on helping people to have a longer lifespan but what about our healthspan? Many might agree that “healthspan” can be defined as the period of one’s life that one is healthy. However, like I said moments ago, being “healthy” means different things to different people.
Lifespan is the number of years someone lives from birth until death, while healthspan is the number of years someone is healthy without chronic and debilitating disease, or some describe it as, “the maintenance of full function as nearly as possible to the end of life.” The image below depicts the average lifespan vs healthspan of an adult in the USA today. What do you notice?
According to this graph and other worldwide research we can live for one to two decades or 20% of our lives unhealthy (Mikhail, 2023). Needless to say, that is a long time.
I’m sure we can all agree that ageing is an inevitable fact of life, we know that as time passes most people grow and decline in predictable ways. But we don’t all age at the same rate, some people will die in their 50s or 60s whilst others will live well into their 90’s. We know that certain factors help people to live and stay in better health for longer.
Our metabolic health plays a large role in this answer. We have a set of cellular mechanisms that generate energy from our food and environment to power every cell in our body. When things are running smoothly, we have optimal health but when they don’t, conditions for disease set in. When we enhance our metabolic health, we not only live longer, we live healthier.
So how do you know if you’re metabolically healthy? Metabolic health is defined by optimal levels of five markers (without medication use):
If you have regular blood tests you might find these measures on your results and some of them you can measure yourself. Ideally you would be looking for:
Ready for another confronting stat? 93% of American adults have sub-optimal metabolic health, as measured by similar markers. About one in three American adults has at least three of these markers out of range, a condition known as metabolic syndrome. We’d be looking at similar rates in New Zealand too. Downright scary!
The great news is that metabolic health is largely under your control, as metabolic dysfunction is compounded by poor nutrition, too little exercise, chronic sleep loss and stress. All of which are things we can change and therefore we have the ability to improve and in some cases reverse metabolic dysfunction.
So what do those changes look like? What would you need to do to improve your metabolic health? It’s not rocket science, we’re always coming back to the basics:
Now whilst that might sound simple, I know from experience that it’s far from easy for people to change their lifestyle habits. We all have our own life situations, experiences, emotions and thought processes that can either help or hinder us when we’re trying to make change. Plus we live in a world that makes “a healthy” choice often more difficult to make than an “unhealthy” choice.
There’s a range of healthcare providers that could support you to change your health, depending on your needs and ultimately it’s up to you who you would like to work with. If you’re feeling a bit stuck, can I suggest giving Health Coaching a try?
Lengthening healthspan starts with thinking about aging well holistically, where we stop separating out our different health issues from each other and instead prioritise physical health, mental health, and daily lifestyle factors all in one. As a Health Coach it’s my role to provide clarity, inspiration and the latest science and evidence in lifestyle medicine to improve the overall health of an individual. Most importantly, I walk alongside someone to help them with long-term, sustainable behaviour change.
If you’re interested in how I could help you with your health goals book a complimentary call with myself HERE.
References
Mikhail, A. (2023, April 15). What is healthspan vs lifespan and how to lengthen it. Fortune. Retrieved March 21, 2024, from https://fortune.com/well/2023/04/15/healthspan-may-be-more-integral-to-your-well-being-than-lifespan-how-to-lengthen-it/World health statistics 2023 – Monitoring health for the SDGs. (2023, May 11). World Health Organization (WHO). Retrieved March 21, 2024, from https://cdn.who.int/media/docs/default-source/gho-documents/world-health-statistic-reports/2023/world-health-statistics-2023_20230519_.pdf
What happens in pregnancy, labour and birth all impact how a woman becomes a mother and cares for her babies. These are the years that are formative, creating ripples that can affect generations of family to come.
I’ve come to realise that women aren’t able to entirely "recover” from each chapter of motherhood. Instead, we only continue to build upon the many tiers of our journey.
Pregnancy, on into Birth, on into Postpartum. Each tier morphing and merging into the next.
Healing is a cyclical experience, as is the impact of trauma and what happens to us during the transformative trimesters of pregnancy, birth and postpartum (the changes of our bodies, the shifts in our identity), will ultimately shape HOW we mother and WHO we are as mothers.
We are transformed permanently, psychologically and physically.
There is a shift of our root perspective and a restructuring of our internal consciousness so that we are never going to be able to see life as we saw it before. We may outgrow friendships, reassess priorities and start to grieve the deep knowing that we are leaving behind a way of life that we so independently worked hard to create.
Once our babies are born, we view postpartum as the opportunity to heal, but there is no going back to who we were before birth, or even before pregnancy. Yes, who we were lives within us, stored in our nervous system and memories, even surfacing with emotional and behavioural patterns, but we cannot turn back the clock.
What can we do to bring a sense of closure to each chapter of your motherhood journey? (Pregnancy, birth and postpartum
By always playing a proactive part in our journey we can work to understand and to feel into the stages and layers of change, not only in our body but also the shifts in our thought patterns and experienced emotions.
To feel prepared for your birth and supported during your postpartum recovery, Vanessa is available at Auckland Physiotherapy for appointments on Fridays and Saturdays.
'Click here' to book.
SERVES 6 | PREP TIME 15 MINUTES | COOK TIME 2 MINUTES
INGREDIENTS
12 medium portobello mushrooms
150 g blue cheese or feta, at room temperature
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 tsp fresh or dried rosemary or thyme, finely
chopped (optional)
1⁄4 cup walnuts, chopped into small pieces
METHOD
Pre-heat your oven to 180°C for fan-assisted ovens
(200°C for regular bake ovens). Line an oven tray
with baking paper.
Trim or ‘pick’ the stem out of the mushrooms, lay
on the prepared tray and drizzle with olive oil.
Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper.
In a medium bowl, mix together the remaining
ingredients and season with salt and freshly
ground black pepper.
Spoon the mixture evenly into the mushrooms
and bake for 6–7 minutes before switching to high
grill and grilling for a further 2–3 minutes until
golden and the walnuts have toasted. Keep an eye
on the walnuts as they can burn easily.
Recipe brought to you by Chef Craig Rodger
and the NEW WTF? Recipe Book.
SERVES 4 | PREP TIME 15 MINS | COOK TIME 10 MINS | CARB COUNT (PER SERVE) 7 G
INGREDIENTS
For the lemon chicken:
500g chicken breasts, cut horizontally into 2 cm
thick steaks (check pack weight or ask your
butcher)
1 clove of garlic, sliced
Zest of 1⁄2 a lemon
1 tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil
1⁄2 teaspoon of salt
For the risotto:
1 head of cauliflower, in florets
1 leek
1 tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon of butter
2 cloves of garlic
4 rashers of smoked bacon (or Pancetta)
1⁄4 cup of white wine (optional)
1 cup of cream
1⁄2 cup of mascarpone (or sour cream in a pinch)
1⁄4 cup of grated Parmesan
1 tablespoon of parsley, chopped
1 tablespoon of chives, finely sliced
For the garnish:
1 tablespoon of grated Parmesan
METHOD
Place the chicken breasts in a medium bowl along with all other ingredients and mix well. Heat a large
fry-pan on a medium-high heat then place the chicken in the pan. Fry for 3-4 minutes each side
until cooked through, then place on a plate to rest and cover the plate with foil. While the chicken cooks and rests, make the risotto. Put the florets of cauliflower into a food processor and blitz the cauliflower until it resembles rice. Cut half of the green part from the leek and keep it for use in a soup or stew for another time. Slice the leek in half lengthways then finely slice across the leek to get fine semi-circles. Add the leek to a medium pot with the butter and olive oil. Slowly cook the leek over moderate heat until it softens.
Add to the leek the garlic and smoked bacon and increase the heat in the pan a little to allow the
bacon to colour slightly. Add the cauliflower to the pan and stir well. Cook for 3 minutes stirring often.
At this point, add in the wine (if using), then add in the cream, mascarpone, Parmesan and allow to
reduce for 1-2 minutes until it thickens. Fold the herbs through the risotto.
Serve the risotto with plenty of freshly milled pepper, some grated parmesan and a drizzle of
good quality extra virgin olive oil
Recipe brought to you by Chef Craig Rodger
and the best-selling book What The Fast!
We are yet to grasp that how we support ourselves to ensure good health through our ongoing postpartum period, requires just as much preparation that we would invest during pregnancy and that the health of us as mothers during the first 40 days of postpartum can determine our wellbeing for the next 40 years of life.
Throughout pregnancy, routine blood testing provides us with results to ensure we are in good health. If we have conceived through IVF, have experienced a loss or pregnancy complications (gestational diabetes, preeclampsia, platelet management etc), we may need to be even more attentive.
What is interesting is that once we have given birth, these standardised tests stop, however; this doesn't mean that postpartum blood work isn't also essential. Postpartum blood testing can provide us with vital insight into the wellness of our bodies after birth and throughout our postpartum recovery.
The desertion of postpartum testing can expose us to a variety of health risks and delay the treatment of chronic conditions. (The same can be said for other forms of standardised postpartum care which is usually concluded by 6-weeks postpartum).
We usually arrive in postpartum in a state of depletion and before we can begin to feel well and strong again, we are immediately caring and providing for our newborns. (Particularly if we choose to breastfeed, our bodies will prioritise passing its nutrients through breast milk for our newborns to receive).
It is believed that the postpartum hormone drop is the most significant hormone shift experienced by a human being in the shortest amount of time. Many postpartum symptoms connected to this shift are common but we need to be aware of the severity and longevity of these as they may signal an underlying condition that needs attention:
Hormone imbalances, thyroid issues, vitamin deficiencies, anemia, (and more) can all contribute to the above symptoms and are able to be identified through bloodwork.
*Hormones (including FSH, LH, estradiol, progesterone, and testosterone) are generally not ordered within the first year of birth due to natural hormonal fluctuations and whether you are breastfeeding.
It’s never too late to order bloodwork and gain insight into what’s happening in your body. Use your results to work with your maternal health care provider to help understand your symptoms and to ensure your postpartum heath and wellbeing is supported.
A certified Prenatal Educator, Birth Doula, Postpartum Practitioner and Neurosomatic Therapist, who has supported women through birth and in postpartum recovery in London, Canada and New Zealand.
SERVES 4 | PREP TIME 15 MINUTES | COOK TIME 20 MINUTES
INGREDIENTS
1⁄2 pumpkin (about 1 kg)
2 tsp curry powder
1⁄2 cup chopped cashews
1⁄2 cup natural yoghurt
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp salt
2 cups roughly chopped leafy greens (baby
spinach, baby kale, etc.)
Freshly ground black pepper
METHOD
Pre-heat the oven to 200°C fan (220°C regular).
Line an oven tray with baking paper.
Peel the pumpkin, remove the seeds and cut
the flesh into sticks for chips or into 2–3 cm dice.
Place on the tray. Sprinkle over the curry powder,
cashews, yoghurt, olive oil and salt and toss to
coat the pumpkin. Roast in the oven for 18–20
minutes, until tender and caramelized.
Remove from the oven, add the leafy greens and
toss briefly to combine. Spoon onto a serving
platter and season with a good dose of freshly
ground pepper. Serve straight away.
