The #1 Thing that Will Improve Your Postpartum Experience with Holly Stein EP 162

Let’s dive deep into the transformative power of nourishing meals during the delicate postpartum period.

We explore the journey of Holly Stein, the visionary founder of Mama Meals, an organic postpartum meal delivery service revolutionizing how new moms replenish their bodies and souls.

Episode at a glance:

The Importance of Postpartum Nutrition (2:18 – 5:59)

Holly shares her personal journey into understanding the significance of postpartum nutrition. Despite being well-versed in wellness practices, she found herself unprepared for the postpartum period after her first child’s birth. Lacking proper nutrition guidance, she experienced challenges like chronic constipation and postpartum anxiety. This experience sparked her quest to discover traditional approaches to postpartum care, leading her to embrace the principles of traditional Chinese medicine and Ayurveda.

The First 40 Days Approach (6:38 – 9:28)

Inspired by the First 40 Days, a traditional Chinese medicine approach emphasizing warm, nourishing foods, Holly embarked on her redemption postpartum journey with her second child. Implementing a meticulously planned menu of nourishing meals, she experienced profound improvements in digestion, mood, and overall well-being, debunking the myth that postpartum discomforts are inevitable.

The Birth of Mama Meals (9:46 – 12:10)

Motivated by her own transformative postpartum experience, Holly felt compelled to share the gift of nourishment with other moms. With determination and passion for nutrition, she embarked on the entrepreneurial journey of founding Mama Meals, offering organic, nutrient-dense postpartum meals delivered straight to doorsteps nationwide. Despite initial doubts and lack of experience, her vision blossomed into a thriving business, driven by the desire to support and nourish new mothers.

Navigating Dietary Paradigms (13:18 – 15:50)

Holly reflects on her journey from relying on conventional medical approaches to embracing holistic nutrition principles. Disillusioned by the pill-centric mindset of mainstream medicine, she and her husband explored alternative dietary paths, ultimately finding healing and vitality through nourishing, whole foods. This shift in perspective laid the foundation for Mama Meals’ commitment to sourcing high-quality ingredients and honoring diverse dietary needs.

The Holistic Nature of Nourishment (17:57 – 18:41)

Postpartum nutrition transcends mere sustenance; it embodies a holistic approach to well-being encompassing sleep, mindset, and self-care. Holly and Maranda discuss the cultural disparities in postpartum care, highlighting the importance of honoring the body’s needs and fostering a supportive community for new mothers. By prioritizing rest, nourishment, and emotional well-being, women can cultivate resilience and lay the groundwork for lifelong health.

Through Mama Meals, Holly has not only revolutionized postpartum nutrition but also empowered countless mothers to embrace self-care and prioritize their well-being during this sacred period of transition.

I hope her story will inspire you to recognize the transformative potential of honoring our bodies with nourishing foods and holistic care.

Holly Stein is the founder of Mama Meals, an organic postpartum meal delivery service. Mama Meals blends principles of Traditional Chinese Medicine and Ayurveda to create nourishing meals that are exactly what a new mom needs are giving birth. They are thoughtfully prepared, frozen, and shipped straight to your door.

Please Rate, Review & Share the Podcast!

Your feedback not only helps us improve but also allows us to reach more listeners who could benefit from this valuable information. Please take a moment to leave us a review on your favorite podcast platform. Thank you for your support!

Leave a Review

Episode Transcript

Depression, anxiety, and autoimmune symptoms after birth is not how it’s supposed to be. There is a much better way, and I’m here to show you how to do just that. Hey, my friend, I’m Maranda Bower, a mother to four kids and a biology student turned scientist obsessed with changing the world through postpartum care. Join us as we talk to mothers and the providers who serve them and getting evidence-based information that actually supports the mind, body, and soul in the years after birth.

Holy Toledo, you guys. I am here with Holly Stein, the founder of Mama Meals, which is an organic postpartum meal delivery service, which you probably already know.

Mama Meals blends principles of traditional Chinese medicine and Ayurveda to create these nourishing, absolutely phenomenal meals that are exactly what a new mom needs after giving birth.

They are thoughtfully prepared, frozen and shipped straight to your door.

I have been following her forever.

We’ve been chatting back and forth.

Finally she’s here on the podcast and I’m freaking thrilled for this conversation.

Holly, welcome.

Holly Stein: 1:18

Oh my gosh, that was such a great welcome. You nailed it. I know I’m like seriously excited. I’m excited to be here. I

Maranda Bower: 1:28

I know I know we we both share such a love for postpartum nutrition and so much of our stories began with the birth of our children and we have like these stories of here’s what happened with my first, when I didn’t really understand or know about nourishment, nutrition and how important it was, and like the gut changes that happen in birth and all of this versus like the next kid and then legit changing our lives, creating businesses around supporting others and postpartum nutrition.

So I really want to hear your story and just share with everyone how this got started for you.

Holly Stein: 2:18

Yeah, I mean, we both have the classic like make your mess your message and really just like understood like the value and importance of postpartum.

So I got pregnant with my first in 2016. So he’s seven right now and I was already very well down the wellness rabbit hole at that point.

We were already eating really clean we were into grass fed meats already.

I switched out all of my skincare and cleaning products. I was making a lot of that stuff. So I felt like very knowledgeable and equipped and I read The Better Baby Book by Dave Asprey.

I ended up finishing it on vacation when I got pregnant.

So it was very fresh in my mind. So I felt very well-equipped.

I had the Nourishing Traditions book.

We settled on a birth center. So we had a midwife, we had a doula, I did hypno babies. So I felt like very well researched on my whole pregnancy, the nutrition, the fitness.

I was going to prenatal yoga, doing all those things very well prepared for the birth, and then zero, prepared for postpartum.

I didn’t know that I needed to prepare for it. So my midwife and doula were like you need to rest. You have, you know, the wound the size of a dinner plate inside of you. And I was like, got it, I will rest. And I did that.

But I feel like back then I mean that was not that long ago, but so much has changed in seven years they weren’t talking about nutrition the way that we are now. There’s like so many people that weren’t posting on Instagram with education on accounts.

No one was talking about it. So I had things that I thought were healthy, like cold smoothies, raw salads, well-intentioned junk food that people brought, like pizza and all kinds of stuff and I was chronically constipated for the first month, Like I was fearful to poop for a month.

Maranda Bower:
But wait, Holly isn’t that normal?

Holly Stein: 4:49

Common does not mean normal. Yes, very common, not normal.

Holly Stein: 4:56

My uterus shrank really fast, I stopped bleeding really fast, so I had all these signs like I’m recovering really well.

I remember telling my husband like around like maybe six to eight weeks if this is the very best that it gets I don’t think I want to have another baby.

I just thought, well, this is just postpartum, this is normal, like I thought it was normal and I was doing fine.

Holly Stein: 5:34

I developed postpartum anxiety which was not really talked about at the time.

Even postpartum depression was not talked about enough, but that was kind of like more on the forefront but like the anxiety and the rage were like not even discussed really at all. So I had postpartum anxiety which I did not know was postpartum anxiety because it had nothing to do with the baby.

Holly Stein: 5:59

It was like anxieties and other weird things.

I don’t want to get in an elevator.

So, fast forward, I meet this mom at this like drop-in mom’s group, at a doula’s office that I was going to, and her baby was a little bit younger and she’s like oh, I just finished my first 40 days and it’s my first time like out of the house and I was like, what’s the first 40 days?

And she told me about The First 40 days, the traditional Chinese medicine approach to postpartum and how you’re supposed to have warm soups and stews and bone broths, and I was like, well, gosh, that makes a lot of sense.

Holly Stein: 6:38

So my son was like maybe only six or seven months.

I want the redemption postpartum.

I feel like I have got the pregnancy and birth stuff covered.

So then I got pregnant with my daughter and she was born in 2020 and I got the First 40 days. I read it cover to cover, went on Pinterest, looked at their recipes and created a whole menu and I meal prepped over 60 meals, stored them all in my deep freezer.

I made a menu and I laminated it to be next to my bedside and I would every day be like, oh, I think I want the blueberry oat pancakes for breakfast this morning.

My recovery I had first of all, no digestion issues.

Holly Stein: 7:30

I was scared to poop because of the last postpartum. I pooped, it was easy, it was normal and it was great. It was a huge celebration in our house.

Maranda Bower: 7:41

Isn’t it funny how you have a baby and then we celebrate everybody pooping?

Holly Stein: 7:46

Then just my mood felt brighter.

Every time I ate, I felt like I was being wrapped in this warm hug.

I just felt like there’s like a weight off my shoulders, I can breathe.

I’m wearing a diaper, my boobs are leaking. I feel like a mess right now, but I know that everything’s going to be okay. So I got through that postpartum, even with a toddler.
My son was three. That was still a much easier postpartum, even with him around.

Holly Stein: 8:29

And then, I think around like seven or eight months, a friend reached out and she’s like I’m really struggling postpartum. Do you have like a doula recommendation?

So I was like, yeah, here’s, here’s someone, but let me cook some food for you.

I have these recipes.

I just was feeling so fulfilled at the opportunity to cook and give her this food because I know how much it helps me.

Now my daughter was about one. I was telling my husband, we got to start this business.

He was like that sounds like a lot of work and we don’t have any experience with like food businesses.

Holly Stein: 9:46

I was like, oh, we’ll just figure it out, it’s fine.

I went on Canva and I just made a PDF.

Then I bought a website on Squarespace and I just said, like, website coming soon, click here to see the menu. That was November/December of 2021.

Then within a month or two, I had to buy a second deep freezer and it just exploded from there and now we’ve been shipping nationwide for over a year and we’ve been in the commercial kitchen for over a year. It’s crazy.

Maranda Bower: 10:19

Yes, and like we’ve watched you grow and I get people all of the time, especially who come through the certification program. They were like are you going to partner with them? Because I would really like to use their meals for my work and what I do and that would just make my job easier, because not everybody, like I’m not the person who loves to cook.

So in my journey, like having my son he’s 14 now like nobody was talking about it. Actually, I remember specifically hearing, if you tell somebody that you have postpartum depression or anxiety, they’re not going to know what to do and you might lose your child.

That was the world that I was living in, which was crazy to think that’s only 14 years ago that that was happening. Yeah, and so I didn’t tell a soul.

Then the second one was like wait a second, I’m going to do something radically different.

Here’s the redemption postpartum that I didn’t plan for the first time. So very similar.

I had all the great foods and I felt so freaking amazing that I got so involved in life well before I should have, because I felt so good. I was pushing myself, cause I was like, no, I’m totally different, I can handle everything, and then I crashed really, really hard.

So it took me three.

Maranda Bower: 11:45

My third one I ended up with postpartum bipolar because I thought, oh, everybody else is going to plan the meals for me. I’m going to set up meal trains.

I had a freezer, but we were also in transition. We were building our property and our dream home here where we’re at now in Alaska, and I was in a transition.

I didn’t have the ability to do it. Anyway, fast forward.

Maranda Bower: 12:10

I was like I don’t even like to cook. It didn’t work out that way.

So I am actually in education and supporting people in education because of my stories, and I love that. You’re actually doing the groundwork, supporting people and I’m very curious because you mentioned like you’re on the forefront, in your personal life, and I always feel that has been my journey as well.

It’s so easy for me to decipher really quickly that’s not appropriate kind of foods, versus oh my gosh, why should really pay attention to this information?

How did that happen for you?

Because you’re all about traditional Chinese medicine, ayurvedic practices.

You mentioned nourishing foods. That is a gold standard.

How did you come to that without getting swooped into the current medical nutritional model, which is so opposite?

Holly Stein: 13:18

I had an experience when I was 18 to mid twenties, where I was having digestive issues, all these issues and constipation, stomach aches, acid reflux, and I was just so failed by that system of them being like here’s the pill for that.

Not one doctor ever asked me what do you eat? What is your diet like? How much water do you drink?

I was playing sports, I was very active, but I was doing endoscopies.

I did a colonoscopy.

We were well down the rabbit hole. It was just pill, pill, pill.

Holly Stein: 14:07

I took a ton of acid blockers for over a year and it actually turned out I had low stomach acid. So I was actually worsening the problem without knowing it.

I was really in that space of the doctor knows, almost like the doctor is god, they know everything, whatever they say.

Then when my husband and I were dating we watched the documentary Food Inc. and we’re like, oh my gosh, that’s so weird maybe we should buy organic eggs instead.

Holly Stein: 14:35

It was a very slow transition for us.

He had his whole story or two of allergies, stomach pains that turned out to be red bull, energy drinks, all those things and we went on this journey together of we both lost a bunch of weight, my digestion regulated, my skin was better, we had this huge transformation via nutrition.

Now we’re like well, that’s so weird.

Then we went on that whole that phase where we need to tell everyone about it.

Since around like 25 to 26, I started seeking like more alternative opinions and other ways and I just had such good success.

I learned about Ayurveda and the different doshas and I was like wow, I resonate with all of these things that are my dosha, which is like Vata, which is air and space.

When you’re out of balance, you tend to be constipated, you get anxiety, you get the dry skin. These things felt so validating.

Holly Stein: 15:50

We went through all the phases of keto, raw vegan, regular vegan, corn.

We’ve tried all these different things and I always come back to a Western diet, all foods, sourced well, properly prepared. If we’re eating oats, we do sprouted oats that are not sprayed with glyphosate. We do well-treated animals, regenerative meats.

So it was really just came back down to the quality.

I’m mostly gluten-free because my digestion was better, but now I discovered iron corn, or I can have a little bit of sourdough.

I don’t need to be eating six pieces of sourdough a day.

You can go overboard with all those things.

Just learning about the quality and it just made so much sense and I realized that we’re coming back to postpartum.

Holly Stein: 16:48

We’re the only culture who doesn’t do this.

I meet other people and I tell them about the business.

I was at ballet and there was a Mexican mom.

My mom made this and this and this.

They’re like oh yeah, we don’t do that what you guys do here.

Every culture has their own version of the warm, soft, easy to digest foods except for us, and they’re they’re all similar.

Maranda Bower: 17:11

They might use different ingredients, but all the principles are the exact same, and it’s the principles, and I talk to so many people about this, obviously.

But, like the way our bodies physiologically change in postpartum, we all know, our bodies change, but nobody’s talking about how, especially how we’re digesting our foods, and every other culture is like yeah, we nailed that down a long time ago.

You’re so far behind and here in the Western world they’re like no, that’s not true.

We don’t have evidence-based information for that.

It’s really frustrating and it’s really sad to see that that is the case.

Holly Stein: 17:57

Yeah, I like what you said.

On your second postpartum you ate well, but jumped back in too fast and that’s what I did too.

The first one, I ate poorly and jumped back in too fast.

Second one I ate well, jumped back too fast and I’m 20 weeks now with my third.

Holly Stein: 18:12

I am not jumping in too fast.

I’m eating right and I’m resting, and that’s the other thing.

Holly Stein: 18:19

It’s like these other moms were saying like in their culture was like oh yeah, the aunties came over.

They have the village and we just I don’t know, here we don’t.

I saw someone post recently she just had a C-section, I think less than two weeks ago, and posted all these screenshots of messages she’s been getting of like wow you’re, how are you back cooking?

We’re praising her for being active and going to the farmer’s market and doing all those things. I don’t judge people for making the decisions they make and doing what they feel is best for them, cause I don’t want people to judge me for that, but I also want there to be the praise for, the woman who stays, like I’m going to be like you guys two weeks and I have not gotten out of bed, like, and I’m proud of that Like I could get out of bed but I don’t. I’m choosing to stay in bed and I want that to also be celebrated.

Hey, I’m going to be 100% straight with you. The postpartum world is changing right now and I know you feel it. It’s in the politics, our community spaces. There is an urgent need to implement a different approach to postpartum health. If you’re an alternative provider or postpartum advocate, you need to be with us in the postpartum university membership. Get the method, the tools, the handouts, the advanced trainings and so much more to not only help your clients and your business grow but to help you grow too. Marketwatch says that the afterbirth services and nutrition and support is set for extraordinary growth by 2030. Don’t miss your opportunity to help women and families who desperately need your holistic support. Go to www.postpartumu.com/membership We’re accepting registrations right now and we can’t wait to see you there.

Maranda Bower: 19:14

It’s so true.

We have such interesting ideas about what it means to have a postpartum experience, get your body back, act like you didn’t even have a baby in the first place. You’re back to normal. Is your baby sleeping?

All of these standards and what we consider normal in our society, which are so not true, and the pressure that we feel to have those things.

Maranda Bower: 19:43

And I remember hearing the exact same thing. Actually, I remember after my my first, I couldn’t walk for like two weeks. I was hunched over, and I remember my mom looking at me like, stop being such a baby. And I, what ended up happening is I, I ended up passing a massive blood clot and then, all of a sudden, I was able to walk again, like I was just carrying around something I shouldn’t have. And but you know those, that language and that you know stop being a baby.

Maranda Bower: 20:17

Like, what’s your problem? Why aren’t you cooking? Why aren’t you back in the kitchen? Why aren’t you moving around? It’s so detrimental to your health. You can’t just sit around being lonely all day. These are not normal things.

Maranda Bower: 20:31

And I look, I have four kids. I have seen like all of the different things and I have a lot of people in my life who are having babies. I have three friends right now who have babies and I don’t know how to support them all because they don’t have the time. Like I know how to support them. I’m like doing my best to show up with a meal and, like you know, text here and there where I can. But I’m so freaking busy in this world, in this life, and I get why, like, it’s so hard for us to just show up. Right, one lives 30 minutes away and I’m like I don’t know how to manage. And I think that’s where we are in this life. We’ve forgotten how to make community. I know, yeah, we’ve forgotten and I am guilty of that.

Maranda Bower: 21:20

I’m stepping back looking at my life, like, wow, wait a second, I can’t even show up where I need to show up. And this is, this is crazy Cause my daughter was just in the hospital. We had rotavirus y’all, which is like freaking awful and it was. It was painful and we had my family and community who were here for us and we would not be able to, like somebody else, had to stay and watch my other children while in the middle of the night, easter morning, while we’re in the ER. You know what I mean Like and and bringing us supplies once we got home and like all of the things, all of the things Right, and without that community support we wouldn’t have had anything. Like I am in a whole revamping my life right now, like I have to look at how to do something different because I want to serve better, because my life is too busy that I can’t do that in the way in which I.

Holly Stein: 22:16

I need to. That resonates. I actually I was dropping off my son at a his like nature group yesterday and another mom that I’ve known her for years and her um, we all went to preschool together and so she has three boys and she um broke her toe like right before I dried, like on the almost, like on the way.

Maranda Bower: 22:35

And her husband is out of town right now on a work trip.

Holly Stein: 22:38

And so I was like well, are you going to go to the doctor? She’s like I don’t know. Whatever. I’m like, well, if you go to the doctor tomorrow, which would be today, I was like well, let me know if you want to drop off at least like you know your two bigger ones.

Holly Stein: 22:47

I know her little one is like two and wouldn’t stay with me, but like to go at the expense of me and my stress levels too, because I’m like, oh, we have swim lessons and then we have my daughter has soccer later. So I’m like I could watch the kids from this time to this time, I guess. But it like felt like a lot of stress on me and I’m like, well, am I like overexerting?

Maranda Bower: 23:15

myself I’m pregnant.

Holly Stein: 23:16

Should I not be like it’s hard Cause you like I wanted to build a community, but it feels stressful.

Maranda Bower: 23:22

Yeah, you’re like is it okay if your kid stays in the car for a couple hours while I drive back and forth? Like what are you going to do? You know it’s hard, it is, it’s so hard. And I look at our lifestyles and that’s really what has gotten us in this place in the in the first place, especially when it comes to nutrition and my journey. My, my daughter would tell you she’s eight and she would say, mom, you’re twinsies, like you and I would be twinsies right now because our, our, our journeys are so similar.

Maranda Bower: 23:53

Getting into, you know, I was vegan for a while. That couldn’t. That almost killed me. All that was awful. And and I’ve done all of the vegetarian diets and the keto and everything because my health was so awful and nothing was helping and I was just getting pills and colonoscopies, all the things. I had a mass in my stomach at one point. Like all of the things, right, I have been hospitalized since I was a child, repeatedly for bleeding intestines. So that’s super fun.

But, like, I have my stories and what has worked for me and what hasn’t, and I feel like that busy lifestyle. Even looking at how I grew up, it was like we got to do this, we got to do that. You know, go, go, go, go go. And here’s how we’re going to fit meals in between. Here’s how we’re going to. You know, do the easy thing, and I see it so much in our culture right now, especially when it comes to like, oh, I need electrolyte drinks, here’s all my powder that’s going to go in my drink and here’s all my supplements that I’m going to rely on. Right, and it’s like no y’all. These are some of the worst things that you can do for your body, and we’re just supporting that over and over again so that we can continue living these really crazy busy lifestyles that are not serving us.

Holly Stein: 25:19

Yeah, I used to drink. I used to eat fast food on the way home from soccer practice in the car, eating dinner from we would drive through after soccer practice so I could get home and start my homework. Yeah, supplements I used to be that person who I came from the very Western mindset of like pills, so I kind of just thought, well, these are natural, I’m going to out supplement my way out of my problems. And that does. That never works and I feel like it was the food. But then also tackling like, yeah, the sleep, the mindset, the sun, the grounding, like nutrition is not just the food, it’s like a whole holistic picture of your life, a whole holistic picture of your life.

Maranda Bower: 27:06

This is what I had found before I started even working with professionals. I was working directly with moms and, and nutrition and and all of the things as a doula and it was like and I experienced this too when you start having and introducing nourishment into your body and you’re like, wow, I’ve never been so nourished in my life and all of that stuff that brings up the emotional aspects of it, like I have been holding back from myself, I’m not nourishing myself because I had this X Y Z trauma. I feel like I don’t deserve to feel good in my body like all of these traumas, but also like I deserve better. And I’m going to take a moment to not only just nourish myself but honor myself and you start getting into like this whole different mindset and like of of caring and nurturing for you in a way that you’ve never done or recognized before, like that’s something that I experienced and I see over and over and over again with my clients.

Holly Stein: 28:08

Yeah, yeah, I mean like the deserving and the worthiness I mean that’s such like, that’s like a lifelong thing for I know many of us until I hands down a thousand percent, yeah. And I wonder if there’s any like with postpartum feeling people like, oh, do I deserve to take all this time to rest, Am I like worthy of that, like I need to be, like I don’t know. And I feel, like a lot of us I’m sure with you like it’s hard to sit still, it’s hard to sit down and do nothing, but really like deserving and honoring yourself of knowing like, yeah, I’m worthy.

Maranda Bower: 28:42

I have like a giant wound in my uterus, like I just ran a marathon, like I deserve to like legit, did the hardest work in the entire world of creating a human being and then pushing it out of your body and then sustaining its life with your own body.

Holly Stein: 29:01

Yeah, like pushed out of your body or it got cut out of, like the bowl.

Maranda Bower: 29:06

Yeah, it doesn’t matter how it came out of your body, the fact that it came out.

Holly Stein: 29:11

I know I have a friend. I always get so mad at her and she actually works with us. Now she’s like her baby was breached. So she actually never even like experienced any contractions or labor. So she’s like, oh, I just took the easy way out.

Maranda Bower: 29:28

I’m like you had major abdominal surgery. That is not while you were awake. That is not the easy way out. Don’t ever say that again. That’s the hard right way out. Right like that’s. It takes longer to recover and there’s so much more nuance to to the recovery process like, yeah, it’s hands down not we, as women do rest like we deserve that.

Maranda Bower: 29:47

We so do, and I think this is my journey again into nutrition, and what I see so often with the women that I work with is like the introduction to wait a second, there’s more here. Yeah, I do deserve this, and I am going to take a moment to nourish myself and, like you said, it’s not just about nourish myself with food, it’s like nourish myself with sun, it’s nourish myself with a moment of rest and solitude or prayer or whatever it is Like just honoring those things, like the honoring the fact that you have to go pee, and actually going to right, like it doesn’t have to be like this big sacred moment, it could just be like no, I gotta go and this is what I’m doing Right. Like there’s so much beauty in that too, and I love the fact that food is kind of like the entry point for so many people in postpartum to that life and to that lifestyle.

Holly Stein: 30:56

Yeah, and I like and even letting go of something that I’ve been working on this pregnancy that my husband has really been good at. He’s been like a very healthy masculine energy and helping me with this. I’m like the as many women we’re all so controlling, like I’m so controlling and really like he’s like you’re pregnant, like this is our last pregnancy, like just you don’t need to work. So like I got this, like Stacy’s got that, like whatever, like, and so I’ve stepped back a lot of like the doing tasks and have just been focusing more on like some of like the social media and like the vision and he’s like I’ll make it happen. Like and it’s hard to let go of those things. So like for postpartum, like let somebody wash, do the laundry and wash the towel that’s not going to be folded exactly the way that you fold it, but like for a period, done is better than perfect in so many things, like letting go of I don’t know, like the cleaning and just knowing like yeah, it’s maybe not your way, but it’s going to be okay.

Maranda Bower: 32:06

Yeah.

Maranda Bower: 32:06

And and childcare and animal care. I mean, I’m on 40 acres in Alaska like animal care is huge, right. So having somebody else do that and know that they’re going to do it perfect in their own way is huge. I think to your point, like I.

Maranda Bower: 32:16

Just I remember so many times with my husband like well, can he really, like handle my toddler at night, like you know what I mean, like those kinds of things that you have to really let go of. And the answer was yes. Till this day, my, my, one of my daughters, who’s four still prefers daddy and calls for daddy at night. It’s like a huge blessing, right, but it’s because I allowed them to have that relationship and I took a step back and say, and rather than saying that’s not, you’re not doing it right, which I, I’m guilty of, right, I think we all have been yeah, we’re type a right, you and I, we, we’ve got a business where we’re like we gotta go, we’ve got things to do. You know, save the world, like, um, it’s, yeah, it’s, it’s a hard thing to do, but it’s so worth it, it’s so worth it.

Holly Stein: 33:08

Yeah, I know, I mean in postpartum. For me, and I’m sure you too, I feel like this is the place to start. I’m like if you can take care of a mom from like the very beginning days of her journey of motherhood, whether it’s the first or second or third or whatever, like that’s how you change the world. Like if you want to change the world, you got to start with the mothers, and if you can get them right in the beginning. I’ve had so many people and I’m sure that it’s been the same with you where they’re like they had our meals and they’re like I’m so glad you introduced like I never tried organ meats before, but I’ve been buying that like force of nature meat ever since I had your meals. I’ve been cooking it in my like tacos now. Like kids can’t taste it, we can’t taste it. Like you’ve inspired me to like eat healthier and, like you know, do other things.

Maranda Bower: 33:52

Yeah, like you’re, you’re legit changing lives with the work that you’re doing. Yes, yes, yes, absolutely. I hear that from people who have used your meals. I have seen it over and over again. Like, nutrition is just one of those things. Like, yeah, it’s so great when we can get some sleep and I see people focus on sleep and I think that’s amazing. Like, we all need sleep. Right, I get it. It’s a huge deal. I’ve seen people focus on like other things, like our cycles as women are like so necessary, so needed, such an important thing.

Maranda Bower: 34:30

But there’s something about nourishment and nutrition that hits on every single one of those points and more. It’s so life-changing when that happens, like, and it’s not just like, oh, this postpartum experience is going to be absolutely amazing and I’m going to heal so deeply. It’s like all of the wounds before, like we’ve talked about, you know, having that redemption. Postpartum experience like it becomes that redemption for everything. Like all of your experiences, all of your traumas I like watched, like melt away because people are able to focus and do things. I share stories all the time of like, wow, I didn’t, you know. I remember the rape that happened to me when I was 16 in my postpartum experience and I realized that I have been trying really hard not to be healthy because I didn’t want to get raped again. Or if I don’t, you know, if I, if I get healthy, then my husband’s no longer going to give me the attention that I really need from him.

Holly Stein: 35:42

Yeah.

Maranda Bower: 35:44

Like crazy deep, hard wounds that get to come through because nourishment is so foundational. It’s like it’s one of the big roots. Okay, I can go on and on.

Holly Stein: 35:57

I know traditional Chinese medicine and Ayurveda both say that how you heal in your postpartum can like, yes, like heal all those things from the past and affect the next 40 years of your life. And it’s like I don’t. We’ll never have like true evidence-based, like studies of that probably. But I’m into like all the, the woo and the spiritual stuff and I’m like, yeah, like that makes sense, Like you’re opening this giant portal to new life, Like this is a window of time that can affect, that can heal, Like you said, all those things and affect the next 40 years of your life. Like why would you, even if you’re a little skeptical, why would you not try?

Maranda Bower: 36:38

I know. You know what the crazy thing too is that I think we have so much anecdotal evidence and and and today’s world and the Western world anecdotal is is its own you know, kind of section of science that it doesn’t really count and it’s really frustrating because it’s just adds to the dismissiveness of women and our stories. You know, I, I’m back in school. I tell people all the time for neurobiology, um, and I know I decided to do this crazy thing. I’m a full-time student. I’m taking this course right now about the history of medicine. It’s legit, it’s an upper division class on the history of medicine, y’all. It started with Hippocrates, right? Yeah, that’s where it all started. And I’m fuming piss and I’m actually I have written this multiple times in our discussion groups like where’s?

Maranda Bower: 37:32

the women Y’all, because it did not start with Hippocrates, it did not start with him. Medicine started so long ago with our women, with our planet, with herbs, the healers, midwives. That is where it started, and still like. We’re up in the 1960s and there’s still not a single woman mentioned in the history of medicine class oh my gosh not a single woman, and I’m like I am so freaking sad for this that’s the Howard train.

Holly Stein: 38:06

Yeah, do you follow Joe Dispenza? Uh, yeah, of course. I just um finished. You are the placebo and I’m like like I’ve known that. But like, wow, tangent, you guys got to read this book.

Maranda Bower: 38:23

It’s. It’s absolutely incredible. I highly recommend love it and so much, so much truth. And going back to that, like when we start changing the way we nourish our bodies, like we’re literally rewiring our brain, which is already happening in postpartum right, you want to get into the science of it? Like your brain is rewiring for two plus years.

Maranda Bower: 38:43

Nourish that baby, yes, yes oh my goodness, yeah, okay, holly, I feel like I can talk to you forever. It’s probably one of the longer conversations here on the podcast, I know, but you have something very special for everybody who’s listening in you offer a discount code.

Holly Stein: 39:01

Yes yes, yes, did I create it yet, or did I?

Maranda Bower: 39:04

Yeah, yeah, I have it Posted on you, the letter U.

Holly Stein: 39:07

Okay, yeah, Posted on you $20 off the first purchase of $200 or more.

Maranda Bower: 39:18

And yeah, you can just go to the website and they are mama dash mealscom, and we have, of course, all of that information in our show notes, and so grateful for you for doing that Y’all. If you’re struggling with meal prep, if that feels stupid, overwhelming which I get because we all live those crazy busy lives this is a route that you can take and be rest assured You’re going to get the full nourishment that you so need and so deserve in your postpartum experience. I don’t care if you’re expecting a baby right now, I don’t care if you’re six weeks postpartum, I don’t care if you’re four years postpartum and you need some support. This is a huge contributing, helpful, supportive tool that you could use, so please take advantage of it.

Holly Stein: 40:02

Yeah, I mean we always try to, like, empower people to, you know, teach them how to fish and cook their own food, but we are I mean, you’re not cooking really during postpartum and we are here. But we have people we started almost two and a half years ago and we have some customers who are our very first customers, who, like, still order to this day.

Maranda Bower: 40:21

Cause it’s so good. Yeah, it’s so nourishing, it just feels so amazing so easy.

Holly Stein: 40:29

I know I read, I’m pregnant and I’ve been heating up for me else all the time so. I can see it’s easy yeah.

Maranda Bower: 40:36

Yeah, I talk to people all the time about that. Right, like, start your postpartum stuff in pregnancy, because so many of us go through morning sickness and like food aversions, like we’re nutrient deprived.

Holly Stein: 40:51

Yeah, and it’s not.

Holly Stein: 40:52

I don’t feel guilty, it’s not like oh, this is like a better option of that. I mean, there’s no gum, there’s no preservatives, there’s no seed oil. It’s things that I would cook in my own kitchen, like it’s Redmond salt and sprouted oats and regenerative meat. It’s like if I was going to go to the grocery store and buy groceries for my family. This is like what would be in it. And we don’t ever put anything in there outside of that because I just I don’t know. I have a guilty conscience. I wouldn’t want to. I just wouldn’t want to do that Like yeah, yeah, it’s amazing.

Maranda Bower: 41:20

Y’all know how picky I am about my nourishment and nutrition and if you’ve been following me for a long time, I’m telling you Holly is the real deal. Yay Thank you Take a look.

Holly Stein: 41:30

Yeah, okay.

Maranda Bower: 41:31

Holly, thank you so glad you’re here. It’s been such a pleasure. I know we’ll have to do it again soon. Amazing.

I am so grateful you turned into the Postpartum University podcast. We hope you enjoyed this episode enough to leave us a quick review and, more importantly, I hope more than ever that you take what you’ve learned here, apply it to your own life, and consider joining us in the Postpartum University membership. It’s a private space where mothers and providers learn the real truth and the real tools needed to heal in the years to come and the real tools needed to heal in the years Postpartum. You can learn more at www.postpartumu. That’s the letter U.com. We’ll see you next week.

Welcome to Postpartum University!

Where leaders, pioneers, and professionals deliver transformative, root-cause postpartum care that heals mothers and redefines maternal health globally.

Explore Our Content Categories

Subscribe to The Postpartum University® Podcast

Your trusted source for postpartum expertise. Tune in to actionable insights, expert interviews, and cutting-edge education to revolutionize your practice.



GET ACCESS TO

The Postpartum Restoration Method™ Assessment Tool

Go beyond standard screenings with the free Postpartum Restoration Method™ Assessment Tool, a comprehensive assessment targeting the five interconnected components of postpartum healing for your postpartum clients.

Download Now



Read Through Our

Original Research on Postpartum Physiology & Recovery

This collection houses original research synthesis and long-form analysis developed through Postpartum University®, informing professional education and postpartum care worldwide.

Read Now



Perinatal Mental Health Training

A 5-hour intensive online training to help you deepen your understanding of Perinatal Mental Health, and advance your practice with root cause healing for your clients & patients.