Nourished By Kimberley

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what we’re actually taught to expect when we have a baby. In fact you might say I’m obsessed.

There’s so much preparation. There’s all the tiny clothes, the hospital bag, choosing the car seat, thinking about where the baby will sleep and how we’re going to feed them. We read about birth and breastfeeding and sleep and spend months trying to make sure we’re as prepared as we possibly can be for this tiny person who is about to arrive.

I did all of that myself and I thought I was super prepared and had everything covered.

But when I look back now, there’s one person I don’t think I prepared for nearly enough. Me.

I knew I was going to be tired. Everyone tells you that, literally “sleep now while you can” was thrown at me everytime I mentioned tired. I also knew having a baby would be hard and that life would change, but I don’t think I really understood what it would feel like to be recovering from birth while also suddenly being completely responsible for another brand new person.

Nobody really sat me down and explained what my body might need afterwards, or how hungry I might be, or what it would feel like to be exhausted and sore and possibly dealing with blood loss while a baby needed me every couple of hours.

Nobody showed me what looking after myself was actually supposed to look like when I had no time, no energy and (quite often) only one hand available.

I certainly didn’t realise how easy it would be to put myself at the very bottom of the list.

I think that experience has stayed with me and made me determined that no new mum should feel like that.

Because the more I’ve learned about nutrition, motherhood and matrescence, the more I’ve come to believe that we have a bit of a gap in the way we prepare women for motherhood.

We prepare so carefully for the arrival of the baby, but much less for the woman who is going to be recovering, adjusting, learning and becoming alongside them. This is really where my passion for postpartum nutrition comes from.

Not from wanting women to follow another perfect meal plan, or giving them another list of things they should be doing.

It’s almost the opposite.

I want women to understand that nourishing themselves after birth can be incredibly simple. Sometimes it’s a proper meal that someone has lovingly prepared for you. Maybe it’s yoghurt and a banana because that’s what you can manage. Or it could be eating yesterday’s leftovers straight from the fridge while the baby sleeps.

It doesn’t have to be perfect to be worthwhile.

And I think there’s something really important in that idea of being cared for, too.

I don’t believe women should have to become completely depleted before they’re allowed to need support or think asking someone to make you some food, hold the baby while you eat, or simply check that you’ve had something to drink should feel like an indulgence.

We are so often told that it takes a village to raise a child.

But I think we forget that the mother needs a village too.

That’s a big part of the vision behind The Nourished Village.

I want it to be a place where women don’t have to figure everything out alone. Somewhere they can come when they’re exhausted, overwhelmed or simply wondering whether what they’re experiencing is normal, and find practical help, reassurance and other women who understand.

I know now that becoming a mum isn’t just about having a baby.

It’s about becoming someone new yourself, and learning how to care for that woman too.

That’s what I wish someone had told me anda  big part of why I’ve been building something behind the scenes for the last few months.