The First 40 Days: Postpartum Healing as Sacred Rest

Written By Andrea Bukiewicz

The first forty days after birth are a sacred window, a time to rest, heal, and be reborn alongside your baby. This ancient practice of postpartum confinement, sometimes called the golden month, honors the deep transformation happening in your body and spirit.

Here are a few of my favorite ways to tend to your healing: a nourishing womb-healing soup, a DIY herbal sitz bath, and a bathing ritual to share with your newborn.

Let’s return to the art of postpartum care, slow, tender, and sacred.

Why the First 40 Days Matter

In many traditional cultures, the first forty days are seen as a vital reset, a time when a birthing person’s body, blood, and spirit reweave themselves into balance.

When you slow down and honor your recovery, you:

  • Support womb healing and hormonal balance

  • Strengthen milk supply

  • Protect long-term pelvic health

  • Deepen emotional bonding with your baby

  • Rebuild vitality for years to come

This time is sacred. Rest is medicine. Nourishment is ritual.

🍲 Nourishing Womb-Healing Soup

Warm, mineral-rich foods help your womb contract, rebuild blood, and restore your strength. This soup is simple, grounding, and deeply restorative.

Ingredients:

  • 1 tbsp ghee or coconut oil

  • 1 small onion, chopped

  • 2 cloves garlic, minced

  • 1 inch fresh ginger, sliced

  • 1 tsp turmeric powder

  • 1 cup red lentils (rinsed)

  • 6 cups bone broth or vegetable broth

  • 1 cup chopped carrots

  • 1 cup leafy greens (spinach or kale)

  • Sea salt to taste

  • Optional: squeeze of lemon or drizzle of sesame oil

Directions:

  1. Warm ghee in a large pot and sauté onion, garlic, and ginger until fragrant.

  2. Stir in turmeric and lentils. Add broth and bring to a simmer.

  3. Cook 20–25 minutes until lentils are soft. Add carrots and greens.

  4. Season and finish with lemon or sesame oil.

Sip slowly, wrapped in blankets. Let this soup remind your womb that she is safe to rest and repair.

🌿 DIY Herbal Sitz Bath for Soothing + Healing

A sitz bath offers gentle support for perineal healing, reducing swelling and inflammation while infusing your tissues with plant medicine.

Herbal Blend:

  • 1 cup calendula

  • 1 cup comfrey leaf

  • ½ cup lavender

  • ½ cup yarrow

  • ½ cup rose petals

To prepare:

  1. Boil 2 quarts of water and pour over 1 cup of your herb blend.

  2. Cover and steep for 20–30 minutes. Strain before use.

  3. Pour into a shallow basin or bath.

How to use:

Sit in the infusion for 10–15 minutes. Repeat daily or as needed.

As you soak, imagine your womb drawing in healing energy from the plants and water, closing, toning, and returning to rhythm.

🛁 Bathing Ritual for Mother + Baby

Once you feel ready and baby’s cord has fallen off, you can share a gentle herbal bath, a ritual of bonding, cleansing, and rebirth.

You’ll need:

  • Warm bath water

  • A handful of rose petals or sitz herbs

  • Quiet music or silence

Ritual Steps:

  1. Add herbs and petals to the bath.

  2. Hold your baby skin-to-skin against your chest.

  3. Breathe together, letting the water carry away exhaustion.

  4. Whisper blessings: “We are whole. We are healing. We are home.”

  5. Wrap in towels and rest together.

This ritual reminds your body and spirit that birth is not an ending — it’s a beginning.

Closing Words

The first forty days are not meant for rushing or “bouncing back.” They are for becoming.

Let others care for you.
Feed yourself warm foods.
Keep your womb warm.
And remember, the way you mother yourself now becomes the soil from which you mother your baby.

Honor your rest. Tend your womb. Trust the rhythm of renewal.

Andrea Bukiewicz
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