Caring for ourselves in the eary weeks postpartum can make a tremendous difference in how we feel and make the transition into motherhood. How we take care of ourselves teaches others how to treat us and gives the example to our children of what self-care looks like.

You probably have heard about the fight or flight response. In an ideal situation when we are eating, the parasympathetic nervous system is dormant, so the digestive and lymph systems are fully activated. As we're calmly chewing our food our stomach makes digestive juices that stimulate the intestinal tract and our lymph system can quickly deal with any viruses, yeast, fungi or bacteria. If we sense some danger our body makes a shift in energy. Instead of focusing on proper digestion, our adrenaline levels go up and energy goes towards our skeletal muscles, ready for a fight or flight. As soon as the danger is no longer there the energy goes back to digesting our food.

Our digestion can suffer if our stomach is not working optimally. Our digestive system can suffer a lot of abuse during our lifetime. Think about it, from morning till night, we put into our mouths whatever is in our arm’s reach: foods, liquids, stimulants, relaxants, and chemicals. We expect our system to somehow magically grind it all up, sort it out, use the good, eliminate the bad, all without any noise or complaint, and still have lots of energy. That the human system can withstand the abuse it does has to be one of the miracles of life. The apparent stamina of the digestive system is illusory.

It is reassuring to know that the body always wants to be in balance. And it wants to heal itself. Our cells thrive when given these two conditions: nutrients and elimination of toxins. Homeostasis is the ability of the body to regulate its cells together as a unit. The body knows just where it should be going and just how to get there. All who study the body closely must recognize it as living magic.