A gentle guide to your first 40 days postpartum

As a Doula/Birthkeeper, I have been lucky enough to witness postpartum experienced with a myriad of different principles and practices applied… And as a woman who has now experienced the beautiful and raw season of being early postpartum twice, I felt it was time to share a gentle guide for those that seek it. Please note that this blog is non-prescriptive and is not intended to be medical advice; rather it is a soft outline of how one may wish to honour their First 40 Days after giving birth in a holistic way that prioritises rest - please use your discernment to utilise the information that serves you and leave what doesn’t.

(Pictured is myself and my 2 week old daughter, Mellody Love.)

Today, in our Western culture, many mothers feel the harmful and often subtle pressure to “bounce back” after birth. To welcome visitors, manage the home and return to daily life as if the most profound experience of growing and birthing life didn’t just occur... Yet across centuries, traditional Eastern healing modalities like Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and Ayurveda have preserved a very different understanding of what postpartum recovery can be.

It’s these cultures and traditions of honouring the first 40 days after birth as a sacred and irreplaceable healing window that recognises this time not only as a season for physical recovery, but as a deeply transformative rite of passage that requires supports for emotional integration, spiritual wellbeing, hormonal balance, and overall long-term maternal health. Believing that how we are tended to within these first 40 days, has the ability to impact our next 40 years of life as women.