Skip to main content

It’s Dehydration That Leads to Fatigue, Not the Baby!

The experience of exhaustion around expecting, birthing and nursing is more about dehydration than we suspected.  This is good news because it means it isn’t part of the natural process, but a deficit we can fix! Hydration can help new moms, here’s three  powerful ways.

1 – Hydration is Better Through Fresh Foods

The first powerful strategy is hydration through using more fresh fruit and veggies. Fresh food hydrates better than water alone because the water inside food is better absorbed and therefore stays in your system longer. Fresh food also carries minerals and other nutrition which charges the water, giving it energy. More energy in the water means more energy for  you!
Smoothies become the easy go-to for expecting and nursing moms, because you can consume far more fruit and veggies. This gets you more hydration and nutrition in one gulp.

If you’re too tired to make (or shop for) smoothies, here’s a short cut. Purchase good quality juices and add two tablespoons of ground chia seeds. It’s an instant smoothie of the very best kind of help to get both hydration in and to get out of the dreaded constipation. Those chia seeds are a wonder, you will find yourself using them your entire mothering life. An even shorter cut is buying a juice concentrate like pomegranate or blueberry because they don’t have to be refrigerated. Dilute with water, then add chia seeds. Vitamin Shoppe carries both at affordable prices.

2 – Dr. Christiane Northrup Recommends Hydration by Vapor
A second way to get good hydration is through breathing air saturated by humidity. Get diffusers or humidifiers and add essential oils.  

Dr. Christiane Northrup, the ultimate woman’s doctor, made a discovery recently that she was happy to share with the Hydration Foundation in our Doctors Talk series.

She noted that throughout her life she always kept her harp and piano well humidified using special measuring devices to maintain humidity in her music room. She got the advice to do the same in her bedroom and she noticed a profound increase in her energy and the beauty of her skin.  It was a shock to her that, even as a physician, she was taking better care of her musical instruments and she was of her own body.

Let’s go grab that wisdom for ourselves and make sure we practice hydration through water’s softest and most gentlest form: vapor.  And of course you will want it for the baby’s room. You can even take it to the hospital, and why not ask for one as a shower gift?

3 – Hydrate Through Micromovements in Bed
The third way to hydrate is also a surprise and that is gentle movement which distributes hydration into your tissues and actually makes energy through activation. A very easy and beautiful way to practice gentle movement is exactly when you wake up. Use your bed as if it were the floor where you can no longer get down (or up).  You’re already in that glorious laying down position when you awake and all your muscles are warmed and relaxed from sleeping.

It’s a perfect time to stretch and activate your fascia, the connective tissue which is your body’s widespread irrigation system. One useful and effective move is simply to bring the soles of your feet together, draw top your knees, froggy-like, as best you’re able, and let your knees fall open.  Your hip joints will be glad for the stretch. Other stretches are any kind of spinal movements , especially “S” shaped, even side to side, and our famous micromovement recommended in Quench, the Chin-Meets-Chest (simply lower your chin to your chest three or four times).

There it is…three new ways to think about hydration that will carry you through this special state of lifegiving. Water wants to help you!

The Hydration Foundation loves Dr. Angela Potter

We love finding good doctors.  Dr. Angela Potter has a smart online community for you to join for free.  She shares our vibe on hydration techniques too. She will bring you into a virtual women’s circle where you can learn so many ancient strategies for being a woman and a mother.   

Here’s just one of her recommendations:

Yoni steaming is an incredible way to help reduce tenderness, swelling and water retention after birth. It’s done around the world in many cultures to help moms heal after birth.  If you want to learn more about yoni steaming, head over HERE.  Sitz baths, padsicles and perineum herbal sprays are also wonderful ways to help your pelvis heal after birth.

Photo by Waldemar Brandt on Unsplash