Pregnancy Ayurveda and YouPregnancy Ayurveda Ayurveda is a health care system sensitive to women's special health needs. A woman’s body is wonderfully complex and delicate. Multiple roles as the mother, daughter, wife, homemaker, wage earner are physically and mentally taxing. In Ayurveda it is understood that pregnancy is a time when everything the pregnant mother tastes, sees, touches, hears, and smells should be nourishing to the mother and child. Pregnancy Ayurveda Preparation
When the mother is not happy and settled during pregnancy, the newborn child will experience more colic, crying, and sleep problems. In extreme Vata imbalance, the child might develop dry skin, hyperactivity, or muscular-skeletal problems while growing. A nutritious diet will calm the Dosha thereby strengthening the body and relaxing the mother. The mother must take care of herself, and in taking care of herself, she takes care of her unborn child.
Practicing meditation has proven beneficial effects during pregnancy. It reduces stress and brings about balance of all doshas. When the nervous system is balanced, the mother tends to be healthy and happy.
Moderate exercise should be taken in the months proceding conception to tone and prepare the mother physically. Yoga offers many different exercises that are excellent for this purpose. For those who practice Ayurveda, preparation for pregnancy is taken very seriously. During ovulation, the woman should be especially careful to avoid unbalancing activities or foods. Your food plan should be followed to insure your dosha is in balance. Your body should be pure of outside influences that could cause birth defects. Pregnancy Ayurveda Diet
Ayurveda suggests that a wholesome diet before and during pregnancy is a must.
Much of the diet should be in a liquid or semi-liquid form, moist, nourishing, enriched with all the six rasas (tastes) and supplemented with plant medicines and spices that are known to increase appetite and digestive power. Ayurveda also advises avoiding alcohol consumption, smoking, etc., to avoid fetal abnormalities.
Pregnancy Ayurveda Month by Month
During the first month sip cold milk or rice milk along with meals and eat only in the morning and evening. During the second month, the intake of warm milk decoctions medicated with sweet herbs, Honey and ghee are also recommended. During the third month Ayurveda recommends warm milk with added honey and ghee. Also, the ground rind of amalaki fruits with cold water. During the fourth month, the head, torso and extremities start to become differentiated, the motor and sensory nervous tissues start to develop, the heart takes its place, and the fetus makes known its needs and desires via the mother's physiology. This is the period when the woman craves for certain foods and tastes. Normally, the needs of both the fetus and the mother are the same. Therefore, Ayurveda recommends that the mother’s cravings be fulfilled as far as possible, as long as they are not unreasonable. From the fifth to the seventh months, plant preparations which give strength to the uterine muscles and nourishment to the embryo, are advised The diet should be one of rice, milk, butter and gee. Fruits which are orange or yellow in color are advocated such as mangoes, apples, carrots, amalakiLINK etc. Leafy vegetables are also advised.
During the seventh month, hairs form on the fetus and the abdominal skin begins to become stretched giving rise to itching and striations . From the eighth month forward, there should be less fat, less salt and less water in the diet. Ayurveda recommends rice kanji cooked in milk with a little ghee. As soon as the pregnant woman enters the ninth month, she is supposed to move to the delivery area, which is specially prepared for her. The door should be facing to the north or east. The mother’s complexion becomes rosy, her strength returns as she prepares for the final days of pregnancy. The nurse or birth attendant recommended by Ayurveda should have had children herself, should be experienced, friendly, alert, expert, affectionate by nature, and free from anxiety. Greater care must be taken during the first three months of pregnancy and during the eighth and ninth months Pregnancy Ayurveda Mother's Care
There is a recognition in Ayurvedic medicine that even the healthiest of mothers can experience enormous postpartum fatigue and stress. Ayurveda focuses on the revitalization of the mother through specific diet (Ayurvedic Cookbooks) , rejuvenation techniques, and rest. If you help the mother rejuvenate by "mothering the mother," then she can care for her newborn with joy and ease instead of feeling exhausted and overwhelmed. A calm and peaceful environment benefits mother and child. The mother needs lots of rest, so ideally other family members or neighbors should cook her meals and clean her home for the first six weeks. A daily ayurvedic oil massage is also a powerful way to rejuvenate the mother. There are trained technicians who will come to the home, massage the mother, give her some herbal tea to drink, and draw her a warm bath. After even a week of ayurvedic massage therapy, the mother will feel remarkably revitalized. The aches, pains, and imbalances start to subside. Instead, a feeling of relaxation and wholeness takes over.
Now is a special time to spend with your new born child. Enjoy the greatest gift of nature and teach your child to live in harmony with the world through Ayurveda.
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