Growing a Garden, Growing a Baby
As the ground softens for our city gardens, I wonder: what if we were to cultivate a garden that is solely focused on health for pregnancy, labor/birth, and postpartum? What would we plant and why?
First of all, let’s consider food for pregnancy. Your body is literally building a human being which includes bones, tissues, a blood supply, nerve cells, and organs. The components for all these bodily systems come directly from food - calcium, protein, vitamins A and B and C and D and E and K, iron, and natural fats. If you don’t consume the necessary quantity or quality, then fetal growth can be hindered and the pregnancy can have complications. If your body doesn’t get the ingredients it needs to build your baby, it often takes directly from your bones, tissues and organs to nourish the baby. This can lead to a variety of health issues down the road.
After your baby is born, good nutrition continues to be critical, especially if you are supplying milk for your infant through breastfeeding. In addition, food plays a significant role in replenishing your body’s kidneys and liver, which are somewhat depleted after pregnancy and birth. All of this is to say: What you eat is really important.
Traditional cultures throughout the world have given us models for healthy diets to follow during pregnancy, birth and postpartum periods. While prenatal vitamins can fill in some gaps, the foundation of good health is “real” minimally processed food. Natural meat (beef, pork, poultry and wild game) can be highly beneficial, especially when still on the bone. Bone broth, in particular, is a valuable source of minerals that are difficult to obtain in your diet. Liver, if you can stand it, is highly rich in iron and minerals specific to the demands of pregnancy. If you are a vegetarian, eggs are a superfood - providing protein, choline, Vit A & E and more. And then, there is the universe of vegetables.
So, what are we planting in our pregnancy garden? Green, leafy vegetables such as collard greens, kale, mustards, and spinach should be the main focus. Berries are highly nutritious and have a lower glycemic level than most fruits, keeping our blood sugar stable. Watermelon is hydrating and energizing and is commonly used for labor and birth. Now, let’s add in some roots to be ready for postpartum needs: beets, carrots, sweet potatoes, turnips. You might want to add a couple of butternut squashes for winter time soup. Don’t forget the value of herbs, which we’ve discussed in other columns: parsley, cilantro, red rasp leaf, nettle.
Interestingly, gardening itself is an activity that builds and repairs our bodies beyond the food it provides us. It gets us outside into the fresh spring, summer, and autumn air. It requires us to move from bed to bed, seeding and weeding and harvesting, getting our hearts beating and our circulatory system activated. It often gives us the opportunity to squat and build our pelvic floor muscles, strengthening the hammock of tissues that hold our babies in place, opening our pelvis in preparation for labor. And then, at the end of our garden chores, it prompts us to rest in the shade of the apple tree that was planted years ago by the eldery gentleman next door. Your neighbors might ask: “What are you doing? What are you growing?” And, of course, the simple answer will be that you are growing healthy food for your family. But, don’t forget to tell them that you are also growing a baby or recovering from doing so, because sharing that news allows them to take joy in a blessing that is not just yours, but the whole community’s.