From Bouillon to McDonald's: Feeding the Postpartum Mother
Looking back at French postpartum food - and what Ayurveda made me notice
As a postpartum doula, I've become increasingly curious about something very simple: What did women in France actually eat after giving birth?
I grew up in France, but I realised I knew surprisingly little about the postpartum traditions of my own culture. So I've started digging into French sources from the 17th to 19th centuries, looking at what doctors, midwives and writers recommended for women after birth.
And one thing surprised me.
Some of the principles sound remarkably familiar to anyone who has explored Ayurvedic postpartum care.
Not because traditional French medicine was based on Ayurveda - it wasn't. The two traditions have completely different histories and philosophies.
But they share some practical ideas: warmth, cooked food, gentle digestion, nourishment and rest.
Warm, cooked and easy to digest
In traditional Ayurvedic postpartum care, the mother's digestion is considered particularly vulnerable after birth. Warm, cooked, soft foods are therefore favoured over cold or raw foods, with the intention of supporting digestion and rebuilding strength.
Looking at French postpartum recommendations from earlier centuries, I keep finding a similar preference for soups, broths, porridges, cooked grains and soft foods.
French medical texts from the 17th and 18th centuries devoted considerable attention to the diet of the newly delivered woman. Mauriceau's Traité des maladies des femmes grosses, et de celles qui sont nouvellement accouchées, first published in the 17th century and still circulating in 18th-century editions, contains a specific section on the diet a woman should follow during her couches.
The food was not complicated.
Think bouillon, potage, farineux and bouillies — nourishing broths, soups and soft cereal preparations.
Cooked vegetables. Eggs. Milk and dairy preparations. Bread and grains.
And, interestingly, cooked fruit and compotes appear in later French-language recommendations for nursing mothers.
That last one immediately made me think of Ayurveda.
Cook the fruit.
It's such a small detail, but it illustrates the bigger similarity perfectly: rather than asking a recovering mother to digest lots of cold, raw food, transform the ingredients through cooking first.
The food becomes softer, warmer and easier to eat.
And then there was the bouillon
The French bouillon feels particularly symbolic to me.
A slow-cooked broth (often associated with poultry) was a classic restorative food. It was warm, nourishing and easy to consume when someone was tired or recovering.
And I love what this says about the role of food after birth.
The mother wasn't necessarily supposed to demonstrate how quickly she could get back to normal.
Someone made the food for her.
That is perhaps the most important part.
And then I think about my clients today...
Many of my clients want McDonald's after giving birth.
I'm not joking.
After labour, a woman might be craving a burger and fries more than anything else in the world. And honestly, I understand it.
Sometimes you have spent hours in a hospital, you've eaten very little, you've been through an enormous physical experience, and suddenly what you want is something salty, familiar, filling and comforting.
I'm not going to tell a new mother that her fries are "wrong".
But it does make me wonder what has changed.
Historically, there was a much stronger cultural idea that the mother herself needed to be fed and cared for after birth.
There were relevailles — a term documented in French from the Middle Ages and later used both for the woman's return after her couches and for the celebration associated with it.
There were periods of rest. Warmth. Women visiting and caring for the new mother. And food prepared specifically for her.
Today, the new mother may simply open an app and order McDonald's.
And maybe that's not actually the problem. Maybe the problem is that we have lost the ritual of feeding the mother.
What I find beautiful in looking back
I'm not interested in recreating an idealised version of the past.
Women in 17th- or 19th-century France did not all eat the same food, and postpartum practices varied enormously according to region, class and period. Historical medicine also contained plenty of ideas we would absolutely not reproduce today.
But underneath all of that, I find a principle worth remembering: After birth, the mother needs tending too.
Warm food. Soft food. Cooked food. Broth. Soup. Porridge. Cooked fruit.
Something nourishing brought to her while she rests.
And perhaps, after all these centuries, that is still one of the simplest forms of postpartum care.
Sometimes it might be a bowl of bouillon. And sometimes it might be McDonald's.
The point is not to prescribe the perfect postpartum diet.
The point is to remember to ask:
