Warmth in Postpartum

In this episode, we’re talking about:

• Grab your FREE Provider’s Postpartum Nutrition Toolkit
  18 pages of PDF handouts that serve as your comprehensive resource for delivering whole-body nutrition care and achieving better health outcomes for the families you support.
• Learn what your symptoms really mean with our Postpartum Health Assessment
  Postpartum depression, anxiety, depletion, and autoimmune issues have become a new normal.
  Take the most comprehensive postpartum assessment to discover what your symptoms are telling you and even more importantly, what you can do to fix it for good.
• Get started on the path to holistic recovery with the Postpartum Nutrition Repletion Plan
• Come hang out with us on Instagram!

Feeling inspired and ready to learn more about how you can actively revolutionize postpartum care? 

• Learn about the Postpartum University Professional Membership
• Stay in the loop about the Postpartum Nutrition Certification Program
• Check out our courses in Postpartum Mental Health, Postpartum Nutrition, and Herbal Care

Read a summary of this episode:

 

The concept of warmth as medicine revolves around the idea that heat and warmth have this innate capacity to heal.

When we discuss warmth and postpartum care, we’re not only referring to the physical feeling of warmth, whether it be through the foods that we’re ingesting, a warm blanket that just got out of the dryer, a heat pack, or a warm bath but also the emotional aspects of healing in the way that it changes serotonin levels and support oxytocin.

 

In the realm of postpartum care, warmth is more than just that sensation of comfort.
It’s truly a powerful healing tool that encompasses physical, emotional, and cultural dimensions. 

 

Cultural Perceptions Of Warmth and Traditional Practices

The debate revolves around the perceived relevance of some of these age-old customs in the modern context.

They were derived in practices that are no longer necessary because we have the technology in today’s world because we have warm water that comes from clean faucets and we have air conditioners or we have heating units and we have clothes and all of these things and we don’t necessarily need that anymore.

We don’t need warming practices that were maybe necessary long ago and why they were developed in the cultural sense.

This challenge to their relevance highlights the need to critically assess and adapt to warming practices to align with these unique periods of the postpartum woman in the present day, and I think that speaks volumes in and of itself.

The human experience within the postpartum period has connected women from every corner of the world and shared a basic understanding that warmth holds the power to heal and nurture, no matter why these healing practices emerged.

There is a truth here that we can’t just negate or throw off to the side because we think it’s no longer relevant.

It’s still an important part of the postpartum experience and healing overall. So that’s a huge controversy.

Scientific Evidence of Warmth as a Healing Tool

The other controversy is that the healing power of warmth doesn’t have any scientific validation whatsoever.

We have this wealth of anecdotal evidence and cultural practices, but scientific research on the direct effects of warmth on postpartum healing is nonexistent.

Here’s where I’m going to come in and just rip that to shreds.

In the medical world, we apply heat therapy all the time, but we never apply it to postpartum because postpartum is just a different thing and nobody wants to talk about it or address it or use common sense to apply it.

We already understand this in terms of human physiology, particularly our unique endothermic nature.

We have the ability to regulate our internal body temperature. It’s a biological necessity for optimal cell processes, physiological functions and all of these things.

For our bodies to work very well as humans, we need a consistent body temperature, which hovers right around 98.6.
It varies slightly, but that is the average temperature.

During the postpartum period, the body is in a state of recovery and high energy expenditure.

It is exerting a lot of energy to heal our body and the nervous system and the metabolic rate slow so it can focus on healing and that all of the changes that are taking place stop the blood flow, hormone release, breastfeeding there’s so much happening.

When you are providing warmth, you are essentially helping the postpartum mom not have to put so much energy toward keeping her body warm so her body can focus on the critical healing that’s necessary.

Heat therapy in postpartum is truly a physiological necessity.

We are helping preserve our body’s energy, what it’s going to use, what it’s going to do to continue keeping our body at a consistent temperature.

If we’re able to provide that for our bodies, our bodies don’t have to work so hard.

That energy that is so necessary in the postpartum period can go into healing so that you can heal faster. 

 

Become a postpartum university professional. Our evidence-based trainings, guides, downloads, tools and community membership is now open for applications. Join us as we learn, connect and implement better care practices for ourselves and for our clients we serve. You can learn more at postpartumU, the letter U dot com slash membership.

 

Physiological Benefits of Warmth in Postpartum

Then there’s this topic of blood flow, the body’s natural transportation system.

It is central to postpartum recovery and it includes the healing of the uterus and the perineum.

For cesarean moms, it’s extensively more.

Warmth induces vasodilation.

It’s the expanding of blood vessels that leads to increased circulation that efficiently delivers essential components needed for tissue regeneration and recovery so that improved blood flow supports the body’s defense against infections.

It acts as a natural pain reliever, and all of that is contributing to better healing. Vasodilation is crucial to stop bleeding.

Not only with uterine contractions but in general wound healing and inflammatory processes. It is a necessary component. You cannot heal without it.

So if you don’t have vasodilation, if you have vasoconstriction, you’re going to take a lot longer to heal, if at all. You just continue to bleed.

You need blood flow, significant blood flow, to stop bleeding.

So the idea that we’re just going to bleed out more if we apply heat because we’re opening up the blood vessels is so far from the truth. It’s the opposite. Unless you’re hemorrhaging which this does not apply to because that becomes a medical emergency.

Healing with vasodilation, ie heat therapy helps expand the veins within your body to help bring more blood flow, bring clotting properties, help with inflammation and fighting bacteria, and deliver nutrients and oxygen.

 

So when we provide warmth, we support a faster healing process as well as help the body conserve energy or use that energy to support additional healing.

We all know the one thing postpartum mamas need more of is energy, and you certainly don’t want to waste energy trying to keep your body warm or even trying to digest foods.

Warming foods and spices and teas are also provided in postpartum because they keep the core temperature of your body up to a healthy range and support digestion, which in turn helps with getting mamas more nutrients in our body, which translates to you guessed it more energy.

So there’s so much more that I could cover and I do cover in the special training called Warmth as Medicine for Postpartum Healing in my professional membership.

If this is something that you want to cover even more deeply. We get into inflammation, we get into hormone release, breastfeeding what supports this we get into pain reduction and the overall feeling good and so many different other components.

If you’d like to do that, I highly recommend come join us in the postpartum university pro membership.

 

Postpartum care, postpartum warming practices, and heat therapy is firmly grounded in scientific principle and the dynamics of human physiology.

It enhances blood flow, promotes nutrient delivery, mitigates inflammation, and relaxes muscles and these physiological effects synergistically support the body’s natural mechanisms for tissue repair, and overall recuperation, making warmth a fundamental aspect of postpartum healing and an integral part of modern medical practices.

We see it being used all the time in hospital settings for wound care and for the reduction of pain and pain management.

Postpartum warming practices are one of the few universal practices that are practiced across the world.

I think that needs to speak volumes for itself, just in itself, and then the recognition of that. There is a lot of modernness in here as well.

I also see some other controversial issues coming up. There are safety concerns, that we can’t use heat therapy because what if it harms us?

And maybe if there’s an electric blanket that’s being used on mom and baby and mom and baby fall asleep and that heat just keeps generating and causing problems? Yeah, that could be a big deal.

If there’s hemorrhaging, obviously we shouldn’t use it. If it’s 100 degrees outside and there’s no AC and mom is struggling with keeping her temperature in a decent spot, providing heat is not going to be beneficial in the least bit. So of course common sense is to be used here.

But to say that it’s harmful in any way is just hogwash.

 

 

Now that we have that now you have some of the basics I want to give you a little bit on the application of this as a provider or as a mom.

How to Use Warmth in Postpartum as a Care Practice

We have both internal and external heat therapies.

They have been used complimentary throughout cultures and traditions around the world and it’s really a choice between them depending on the individual’s needs and preferences.

The internal heat is derived from warm foods and beverages and that helps raise the core body temperature, which can be especially comforting and nourishing and aids in digestion. It supports the body and maintains natural warmth.

External heat practices, such as warm rooms or heat packs, baths, localized comfort, and relaxation kind of pieces.

They help alleviate muscle tension, promote better sleep, relieve discomfort in specific areas like the lower back or the perineum, and so those are some techniques that you could use.

Some other ones that are just amazing are massage oils, steam inhalation, and infrared heat therapy.

Moxibustion is a really common practice.

 

So, in closing, postpartum care, we know, is the sacred time of healing and transformation for mothers, and the utilization of heat therapy, which is rooted in ancient traditions and supported by science, physiology, metabolism and healing, it holds an immense promise to enhancing postpartum well-being.

Embrace warmth as medicine.

Not only does it align with these cultural practices that have transcended centuries, but it truly does draw from the depths of scientific understanding of the human body and its remarkable capacity to heal, conserve energy, and nurture itself.

I know science does not always have the immediate answers for every aspect of these practices, but it does offer insights into the underlying principles that support the effectiveness of heat and postpartum, and I think that in and of itself is significant.

Everything that I’ve shared with you here there truly is a synergy between tradition and science and postpartum care.

It is a testament to the power of holistic wellness that we could use both and support our bodies immensely.

I would love to hear your stories.

How has heat therapy supported you and your, or maybe even your clients in healing?

Come to us on Instagram, if you’re not already following us there, and let’s have a conversation there.

We’re going to have a post and I want to hear your stories of what has supported you.

Have you noticed the difference in heat therapy, or maybe you’ve noticed it in your clients?

We’d love to hear from you.

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.