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Here is what my mornings looked like for the first six weeks after my daughter was born:
First feed. Hand baby to my mother-in-law or husband. Disappear into the bathroom for ten minutes.
That handoff was everything. It was what made me feel human after the sleepless night.
In Indian tradition the first forty days after birth — the japa — are treated as a recovery window. Not a suggestion. A structure. My mother-in-law had done this for her own children, had watched it done for others, and she ran ours with quiet conviction. Every morning, before I’d even come out of the bedroom, the ajwain water was already steeped. The almonds were already soaked and peeled and sitting next to my water bottle.
I didn’t have to think. That was the whole point.
Looking back, I think that’s one of the greatest gifts a postpartum woman can receive — not having to think. Not having to decide. Just having things appear because someone who loves you already thought of them.
These five things happened every morning, in roughly this order, for the first forty days. Not perfectly. Not always before noon. But they happened. And they mattered.
1. Ajwain and fennel water — before anything else
This was the first thing that went into my body every morning. My mother-in-law steeped equal parts carom seeds (ajwain) and fennel seeds in hot water, strained it, and handed it to me warm. I didn’t have to make it. It was just there.
Ajwain settles the gut and supports digestion — genuinely important postpartum when everything is still tender and adjusting. Fennel contains a compound called anethole which may interact with prolactin pathways, and it passes digestive comfort through breast milk to the baby. I noticed a real difference in her fussiness after feeds in the first few weeks. Whether that was the fennel or just time, I can’t say for certain. But I wasn’t stopping.
This is one of the oldest traditions in Indian postpartum care. Turns out there’s a reason it stuck around.
Make it the night before if mornings are chaotic: steep in a flask before bed, strain in the morning. Still works.
2. Soaked almonds — ten, every morning, peeled
My mother-in-law soaked ten almonds in a small bowl of water every night before she went to sleep. By morning they were soft, she’d peel them, and they’d be sitting next to my water bottle when I came out of the bathroom.
This happened every single day for six weeks without me asking or reminding. I cannot tell you how much that kind of quiet, consistent care meant in those early weeks.
The soaking matters more than people realise. Raw almonds contain phytic acid which blocks the absorption of minerals — calcium, iron, zinc. Soaking and peeling removes it. Your morning almonds are genuinely more nutritious than a handful grabbed from the bag. Takes thirty seconds the night before.
As a vegetarian breastfeeding mama, calcium was one of my biggest concerns — your body will pull from your own bone density to keep breast milk calcium-rich. Soaked almonds, sesame, dairy, leafy greens — these were my daily calcium sources and I was deliberate about all of them.
I also kept a jar of almond butter on my nightstand for the 2am feeds. Breastfeeding burns roughly 500 extra calories a day and the hunger at night is real. Having something calorie-dense within arm’s reach without going to the kitchen — small mercy, big difference.
3. A warm shower or sitz bath — ten minutes for my head
After the baby was handed off I went straight to the bathroom. Some mornings it was a full shower. In the first two weeks, more often it was a sitz bath.
I want to be honest about what this was for. Yes, a sitz bath is physically restorative — warm water with Epsom salts did more for my recovery down there than almost anything else I tried. If you haven’t read my full postpartum recovery post, the sitz bath section is worth reading on its own.
But what those ten minutes were really for was my head.
There’s something about warm water and a closed door that resets something. The baby was safe. Someone I trusted had her. I didn’t have to listen for a cry. I could just be in my body for a few minutes without being needed by it.
On the days I skipped this I felt it for the rest of the morning. On the days I got it I came out softer. Less frayed. More able.
The Lansinoh sitz bath soak is the one I used — Epsom salt base, dissolves fast, no mess. In the basket next to the toilet from day one.
4. Oatmeal with ghee and flaxseed — the same bowl, almost every day
Steel-cut oats. Cardamom. A generous drizzle of ghee. Ground flaxseed stirred in. Sometimes stewed mango or soaked almonds on top. The same bowl, almost every morning, for six weeks.
I never got tired of it. I think my body was just grateful for something warm and familiar and filling.
Oats contain beta-glucan which may help stimulate prolactin — the hormone that signals your body to make milk. They’re also one of the best plant sources of iron, and low iron is a real reason some moms see supply dip postpartum. The ghee adds fat-soluble vitamins and helps with gut healing after birth. The ground flaxseed delivers omega-3s that go directly into breast milk and support the baby’s brain development.
It sounds like a lot happening in one bowl. In practice it just tasted like a warm, comforting breakfast. Which is also part of how it worked — a relaxed, nourished body makes milk more easily than a stressed, depleted one. That’s not spiritual, that’s physiology.
For everything I ate during this time and why, my full galactagogues guide for vegetarian and vegan mamas has the complete breakdown with a quick-reference table.
5. Postnatal supplements — with breakfast, every day
Taken with food so they actually absorb properly. This was the one item in my morning routine I was genuinely strict about even on the hardest days.
I’ll be honest — I underestimated how much a postpartum body needs supplementation, especially as a vegetarian. You’re healing from birth, producing milk, running on fragmented sleep, and your nutritional reserves have just spent nine months building a human. Food alone is not enough. It is just not enough, and I say this as someone who was eating very intentionally.
The Needed Postnatal Multi is the one I recommend most — third-party tested, specifically formulated for postpartum and nursing, clean ingredients. I also added a separate vitamin D3 + K2 because Indian moms are statistically more likely to be deficient and it directly affects bone density and mood.
These are listed in my full postpartum recovery post too alongside everything else that lived on my bedside cart. Worth a read if you’re building your postpartum kit.
The thing that made it work
I want to say something clearly: I could do this morning routine because my mother-in-law was there.
She held the baby. She made the water. She soaked the almonds the night before. She kept the kitchen running while I was in the bathroom for ten minutes feeling like a person again.
Not everyone has that. I know that. And if you’re doing this alone, or with a partner who’s also figuring it out, the routine looks different — maybe it’s two things instead of five, maybe it’s done at 11am, maybe some of it happens in a different order.
That’s okay. The structure isn’t the point. The point is: you matter in the recovery too. Not just the baby. You.
Even ten minutes. Even one warm thing in your body before anything else. Even just the almonds soaking in a bowl on the counter, waiting for you in the morning.
Start there.
– Lots of love, Mama Rooted. You have got this!
📌 Save this and send it to someone who’s about to have their first forty days. She needs to know her morning matters too.
Mama Rooted 
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