Lately I’ve been thinking about the sheer amount of preparation that goes into bringing a baby home. You’ve got the nursery (mostly) ready, the hospital bag checklist marked off, and you have more tiny baby clothes than you’ll need in a lifetime. But what about YOU, mama? Are you ready to take care of yourself once you return home?
As a community of moms and people who want to support them, we know that your body will be sore and nutritionally depleted after birth. In fact, you’re going to need specialized nutrition postpartum. Unfortunately, the casseroles your Aunt Gladys brings over probably won’t help with that.
You know what will? Meal delivery services. We’re all pretty familiar with delivery services where you have to cook your own meals (um, no thank you!), but the great thing about our current cultural moment is that there are several services that are actually designed by moms to nourish your postpartum body. As a team who deeply values services designed by moms to help moms, we love to see it!
If you’re thinking about using a postpartum meal delivery service, we’ve scoured the ends of the internet for meal delivery services that are not only nourishing, but also EASY to use and eat.
Let’s get into it, shall we?
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Our Favorite Postpartum Meal Delivery Companies for New Parents
With a market flooded with meal delivery service companies, which ones are the best for postpartum mamas and their support folks? We’ve compiled a list of our favorite meal delivery services that cater to parents after delivery. Enjoy!
1. Ritual Meals
The team behind Ritual Meals understands that our bodies require different nutrients after having a baby. With backgrounds in Chinese medicine, co-founders Helen Merlin and Jessica Phan are well versed in how particular ingredients benefit us during the recovery and hormonal shifts of the postpartum period.
Ritual’s postpartum meal plan includes three meals, two snacks, and two cups of tea daily. The ingredients chosen for each recipe are meant to increase energy, improve our mental well-being, and support milk supply.
Some popular options include blueberry quinoa cookies, jujube goji ginger tea, and chai-spiced walnut and pear oatmeal. Yum!
2. Mama Meals
We’re super excited to tell you about this one. Mama Meals, created by Holly Stein, has an entire advisory board of doulas, lactation consultants, and doctors who have helped her create her vision of supporting mamas during the fourth trimester.
Mama Meals draws on Chinese medicine and principles of Ayurveda to deliver frozen meals to your door nation-wide. Stein is committed to the philosophy that soft, warm, easy-to-digest foods are best for recovering moms.
Their menu is delightful–from no-bean chili (easier to digest) to lactaction brownies, there are lots of great options to support your body as you heal.
Plus, we have a surprise for you: you can get $20 off your first order of $200+ by using our link!
3. Factor
So Factor isn’t actually a postpartum meal delivery service, but we’re including it here because it’s SUPER healthy, SUPER convenient, and they have a ton of options designed by dieticians. If you do a little research about what your body needs nutritionally after you’ve given birth, you can customize your meals to best support your body.
I’ve personally used Factor in the past and was blown away by the quality of their meals! They use fresh ingredients to create a broad range of unique and delicious recipes.
Each week, you’ll have access to around 35 recipes. From those, you’ll get to curate your ideal meal plan. Once you pick, the pre-made (fresh, never frozen) dishes are shipped directly to your door. There’s no long-term commitment with Factor either; you can skip weeks as often as you’d like.
The cost is the one downfall and why I didn’t use Factor long-term. While the company provides excellent offers in the beginning to let you try out the meals and system, the regular pricing is quite high.
4. Splendid Spoon
Splendid Spoon is another meal delivery service that isn’t necessarily targeted for the postpartum period, but it’s so jam packed with nutrients that we can’t help but mention it.
This vegan company aims to create meat and dairy-free versions of popular dishes and recipes. They’re also famous for their wide selection of smoothies that are packed with organic fruits, vegetables, and other nutrients.
Splendid Spoon also focuses on various dietary requirements. You can choose smoothies and meals based on factors like low sodium, high fiber, or low sugar.
Some reviews state the foods can be a bit bland, and the portion sizes sometimes could be better. That’s something to keep in mind when picking out your weekly menu.
The Benefits of Meal Delivery Services After Childbirth
We understand that a meal delivery service might be a hard sell when you’re already planning for a baby on a budget. Here are a few things to consider when deciding if a meal delivery service will benefit you:
1. Convenience
You know those memes that say that marriage is simply asking your partner over and over again what they want for dinner? Okay, now add a screaming newborn whose witching hour starts at exactly the time you both start to get hungry.
Then starts the whole cycle: you have to decide what you’ll cook; figure out what ingredients you need; send your partner out to shop for said ingredients; put them away, and that’s before the cooking even starts! Then, you have to prep everything, cook, serve, and clean up afterward. Even writing this makes me shiver a little and automatically think, “hell, I’d probably just order from Door Dash and call it a day.”
But friend, Door Dashing from your favorite restaurant for the third time this week likely won’t help your replenish the vitamins and nutrients you lost during labor. Postpartum meal delivery services that actually provide easy-to-heat, nutrient-dense foods? Now that’s where it’s at.
2. Nutrition
I know that it can be easy to rely on meal trains and delivery when you’re postpartum and not getting enough sleep, but we can’t stress enough how important taking care of your nutritional needs postpartum is. Good nutrition actually helps support your health and recovery after baby is born.
Taking care of your nutritional needs is crucial because pregnancy and breastfeeding, according to scientists, are major stressors on the body, and you’ll need to make sure you’re doing everything you can to eat well and support your body during recovery.
Many cultures have believed in the importance of the “lying in” period far before scientists ever suggested that nutrition was a key component of postpartum recovery, too. The lying in period places critical emphasis on warm, nourishing foods to support replenishing the loss of vitamins and minerals (especially iron) and increasing milk supply.
Avoiding Nutritional Deficiency
The ingredients in healthy postpartum meals can actually target the vitamins and minerals you need to support your recovery and keep you out of “vitamin deficient” territory.
No one wants to have a nutritional deficiency after just giving birth, as this can lead to super low energy levels, low milk supply, and it can even affect your mental health. But how do you avoid nutritional deficiency?
Let’s define what it means to be nutrient deficient first. Basically, “nutrient deficient” is an umbrella term that means you’re lacking in micronutrients (vitamins and minerals). Nutrient deficiency can cause hair loss, low energy levels, lack of mental clarity, and low immune response. You can see why any of these symptoms would be problematic during the postpartum period!
This is exactly why it’s super important to NOT go on a fad diet while postpartum and/or breastfeeding. If you’re breastfeeding, you need to keep up your milk supply and provide your baby with key micronutrients. If you aren’t breastfeeding, you still need energy and to support your mental health!
3. Healthy Post-Pregnancy Ingredients
Whether you’re interested in foods to increase your milk supply or ingredients that will boost your recovery after childbirth, postpartum meal delivery services ensure you receive healthy options that benefit your postpartum body. Let’s talk about what these ingredients actually are!
Registered Dietician Melissa Mitri suggests that postpartum women need five key nutrients. Let’s dive into each of the these micronutrients and discuss why they are crucial for postpartum moms during the recovery period:
- Iron to replenish what you lost during birth
- B12 for energy production
- DHA to support mental focus and reduce the risk of postpartum depression if taken long-term
- Choline if you’re breastfeeding to support baby’s brain development
- Vitamin D to support the immune system
Can You Add Meal Delivery Options to Your Baby Registry Checklist?
One of my favorite things about modern baby registry checklists is how versatile they’ve become. Most people understand that, yes, you are going to need diapers and diaper rash cream, but there are also helpful ways to support new parents that don’t involve directly taking care of baby’s needs.
These include services like:
- housekeeping
- laundry services (we love Poplin, and no, this isn’t sponsored!)
- yard mowing services
- and yes, meal delivery services!
Instead of focusing only on diapers, strollers, and onesies, we really recommend including services and gift certificates to simplify your lives during those early postpartum days. You won’t regret it when the laundry starts piling up and your yard looks like a jungle.
Which Postpartum Meal Delivery Company Would You Like to Try?
There’s certainly no shortage of meal delivery options to support YOU after baby is born, and we’re really excited about that! The tricky part is deciding which company is right for you. Here’s the cool thing, though: there’s no reason you can’t experiment with several of them throughout the first month or two after baby comes.
Many of these subscription services make it easy to cancel or pause delivery. So, if you’re interested in trying another company, that’s easy to do. If you have the budget, you could consider a combination–something like Splendid Spoon for smoothie bowls and Mama Meals for lunches and dinner would be amazing.
Play around with the different meals, options, and delivery solutions until you figure out which one you love the most!
So, which of these postpartum meal delivery services do you think you would try first?
