October 28, 2025
Postpartum Traditions through an Ayurvedic Lens: Podcast Episode #314
In this enlightening episode of Ask the Doulas podcast, we explore postpartum traditions through an Ayurvedic lens with Christine Eck, Founder and Director of the Center for Sacred Window Studies. Christine shares why the sacred window—the first 42 days after birth—is such a vital time for healing, bonding, and transformation. We discuss how ancient Ayurvedic wisdom aligns beautifully with modern postpartum care, and how simple practices around nourishment, rest, and support can create lasting wellness for both parents and babies. Whether you’re a new parent or a birth professional, you’ll leave inspired to honor this sacred period with more intention and care.
Hello, hello! This is Kristin Revere with Ask the Doulas, and I am so excited to chat with my new friend, Christine Eck. She is the director of Sacred Window Studies. And our topic today is postpartum traditions and why the sacred window of the first 42 days is so vital.
To share a bit about Christine: as I mentioned earlier, she’s the founder and director of the Center for Sacred Window Studies where they train and inspire practitioners, birth workers, and caregivers in the art and science of Ayurvedic postpartum care. As an Ayurvedic health consultant and a birth and postpartum doula, she’s guided hundreds of students through their programs and has collaborated with birth workers and holistic health practitioners worldwide.
So amazing! Welcome, Christine!
Thank you! It’s such a pleasure to be here with you.
So much to cover in this topic, and I’m thrilled that you have such an extensive background in supporting families in those first 42 days, that sacred time of healing and being surrounded by both professionals as well as family and friends.
Yeah, I think that my journey into this world began as a new mom who didn’t really have any idea what to expect. I thought I knew what to expect, but what I discovered was that there was so much I didn’t know and I wasn’t prepared for. And when I began studying the science of Ayurveda, which is this very ancient, thousands-year old system of medicine from what we now know as India – what I discovered is that there are traditions out there, in fact traditions all around the world, that really had very specific guidance on how to recover our strength after birth. And I just noticed how our culture didn’t really have any of that knowledge as just general understanding that we all kind of know, that it takes time, that it takes treating the body in careful and specific ways to help balance what’s happened during birth. None of that was evident, and I just feel really like I don’t ever get tired of being involved in this type of work, and I think you probably can feel some of that, too. There’s just such a need for families to be surrounded with care and resources and support during these tender weeks. And there’s a lot that we can do.
Exactly. We aren’t meant to do this alone, and cultures over time, whether it is Chinese culture, Malaysian, different Indian cultures – do focus on caring for the mother and the entire family. So the profession of a postpartum doula always existing. It just wasn’t a paid role.
Yeah, exactly. Now in our Western society, we’re faced with this reality that the biology has not changed. We need the help and the support, and yet it’s not something that many of us have as part of our family’s traditions and structures. How can we create more access and resources for families to be able to gain the awareness that they need of how specific – how we can actually heal in very applicable and specific ways. It’s also really unique and can honor each person’s unique background. It doesn’t mean that we’re eating one type of cuisine. It doesn’t mean that we’re doing a strict set of practices or rules. It’s actually quite flexible in terms of how you can meet each person where they are. But I think the main thing here, Kristin, is that we are really looking at the baby and the birth parent as this synchronous unit, and they both require really specific care and gradual entry into this new phase of being. The baby on the outside world, and the mom on the other side of birth. These are both a birth of sorts.
When we look at those two as this synchronous, beautiful unit together, it really becomes imperative that they’re both receiving the same type of care. And then we’re looking at their nutrition. We’re looking at the rest. We’re looking at, are they kept warm and safe and almost protected, because it’s a vulnerable time. We’re looking at their elimination. We’re looking at bottom care, incision care. A lot of the things we don’t necessarily realize, but yeah, they’re so synchronous. So I loved that about this whole body of knowledge. And of course, the impact it has is exceptional.
Exactly. It’s the whole mind-body connection that your program focuses on. And of course, nutrition and recovery from birth is a big component of that. You mentioned individualized care. Yes, there are recommendations after birth and healing, but everyone’s got different energies or doshas and so on, so to be able to customize what minerals might be lacking, what each individual client might need for their care plan, would be different than reading The First 40 Days or a book like that, that will give you more than just recipes.
Yeah, I love that book. I think it really helps to highlight in an accessible way how potent this time is. When we talk about the first six weeks postpartum and why that is – it’s not just this random number that the medical system says, okay, see you in six weeks – it’s actually a very specific window of time. Both as you said in the beginning, in traditional Chinese medicine and also Ayurveda and a lot of other places, too; indigenous medical systems.
What we see here from an Ayurvedic lens, which is the framework that we look through, is that it takes about 42 days for the tissues to reset and the nourishment that we take in to be transferred into new tissue. When we are in a unique window of time like postpartum, we have this opportunity for a complete reset in the body, the subtle body, the emotional body, all of the levels of who we are as beings. It’s ready, and it’s in a unique, subtle place where what we receive in terms of care during that time is experienced on this elevated level. So it’s very exciting, really, and what I find so satisfying about it is that you know what a trippy place it feels like to be in the postpartum window where our senses are kind of supercharged and we’re sort of fragile and we’re also, like, trying to navigate and digest so many transitions at the same time. To operate through this window with the understanding that this is a potent time, on purpose – there is understanding in most traditional cultures that I know of, that this is important. And in our Western model where we don’t get that message, we can often feel like we’re struggling and maybe feeling. Why is this? It doesn’t seem like it’s hard for everybody; why is it hard for me? Or the narrative starts to be like, well, it’s going to just be hard, so we just have to try to get through it. Or gosh, I hope nothing difficult happens. I hope I don’t become depressed. I hope nursing is okay. We kind of feel like we’re a bit at the mercy of circumstance. And with this other lens, we understand, wow, this is a sacred window, and this is a time where everything is reconfiguring. And I can actually have so much more compassion for myself and motivation to really give it the time and the care and the resources that I deserve in this time. Or my client deserves, or my loved one deserves. It really changes things when we actually look at, what does this window of time mean, and why is it important.
Right, and I believe having these discussions in pregnancy and planning for the postnatal time is important. In my book, Supported: Your Guide to Birth and Baby, I talk about the importance of budgeting, setting goals and priorities, looking at the postnatal time, not just the birth, and treating it like you would another major life occurrence, like a wedding or building a home or graduating from college, whatever it might be, and setting that intentional time and talking with your partner and family and gifting services like Ayurvedic consulting, or having a postpartum doula. Or I know there are some customized meal plans for postpartum recovery. Really figuring out what your priorities are. If sleep is a priority, then obviously, some overnight care could be the thing to focus the budget on.
You’re so right, and I love having this conversation with our student community and families, as well. If we think about the amount of time and resources that are spent on weddings, that are spent on important life transitions and celebrations, and then we look at the standard of how much is actually spent on postpartum care, which many may view as a luxury – to me, that feels like a punch to the gut. When I really think about it, I’m like, oh, my gosh. This is probably – I mean, hands down, for me, becoming the parent was the most life-altering thing that’s ever happened to me ever. And why wouldn’t we prepare and create a support circle and create all those resources to help during that time? But I think the thing is, we just aren’t fully aware how monumental it actually feels in terms of the time it takes to navigate that transition and feel we have our footing again. Because even if it’s a smooth birth, even if we think we have enough support, I’ve never met anyone who wasn’t just rocked to their heart center by this experience and discovered that they needed just time or attention or there was an unexpected challenge or overwhelm or different things. The nature of it is so monumental. It really blows my mind that we haven’t all as a society collectively acknowledged this. And yet I have never met a parent or a provider that doesn’t agree with that, as well. So I think we all do agree. It’s just that we’re slowly now starting to see how Western culture can really embrace postpartum healing, and it is exciting to see that trend.
Exactly. I do feel like because of the recent books, like The First 40 Days, and some documentaries on postpartum healing, and even in cities like San Francisco, for example, that have these postpartum recovery centers that the mother can go to for nourishment and healing and have the baby with them and be cared for – there’s so many different options. And even with benefits – some of the fertility benefits and health savings and flex spending covering postpartum support – it makes it more accessible. It makes it more talked about. So for our listeners who do work in holistic health or are a birth or postpartum doula or in similar professions, tell us more about Sacred Window Studies and how they can pursue a career in Ayurvedic health consulting.
We are within a doula scope of practice, so our program trains people to be postpartum doulas with a background and perspective on the Ayurvedic tradition and foundations of Ayurvedic postpartum healing – so it’s lovely because I think we have the ability to really fill in the gaps of where care may be missing for the birth parent and how can moms really get off on a good footing with their digestion and ensuring that parents are really cared for. It’s so clear that when a new mom is receiving the support that she needs, her nursing, her milk supply, is more robust. She’s more stabilized in her nervous system because the mind and the gut are so connected. So if there are digestive disturbances, what I think is really ignored in our culture is that birth reduces the capacity of the digestive fire. So the way that we’re able to digest food before we give birth is really different than how we can digest our food right after birth. So when we’re not able to sort of start with foods that we can actually process and slowly build up our digestive capacity, that can then lead to a number of challenges, including, of course, difficulty with elimination and digestion of food, but also can create things like increased anxiety or mood or feelings of sluggishness, definitely impacting our milk supply, if our digestion is off; impacting our sleep, impacting the baby’s digestion. You know, really understanding how we as doulas have the opportunity to help the mom in her healing journey is really an honor.
We’ve been training students since 2018 in our online certification, and we have offered an in-person training week in the summer out here in Massachusetts where I’m from. We’ve been doing that for four years now. So it’s really an honor to work with birth doulas, postpartum doulas, Ayurvedic professionals, yoga professionals, expecting parents. Lots of people come to this work from different backgrounds, but all with that understanding that they want to support the new parents as we see so many people struggling in ways that really can be avoided if they are given the awareness and given some resources and given some access to care providers who can help them when things get challenging.
And also, as you said, that planning piece of it is so key. A lot of what we talk about is really educating and helping families to prepare as well as being able to offer some key support during that sacred window.
And so getting back into the client lens, for our listeners who are either pre-conception, expecting, or in the early postnatal recovery phase, what tips do you have for them to really be intentional about this time and focus on bonding and healing?
Well, I think some of these, we’ve touched on a little bit. But I think in the last few minutes we have, I really want to encourage people to prioritize their support systems. I know that sometimes it can feel scary to hire help in any of the different ways we might feel we need it, but this is a time that is so deserving of your resources and your time to really make sure that you’re cared for and that you have the resiliency and the support you need to fully heal.
I did mention how important it is to start off really simple with your food. There’s a lot of great postpartum cookbooks out there, and in general, you want to think about starting out with warm foods, well-cooked foods, foods that are familiar to you but maybe tweaked a little bit to be more digestible. Warm drinks and teas and lots of fluid. There’s actually a tremendous amount of really wonderful things to nerd out on if you are a food person and curious about postpartum cooking. So I’ll kind of leave it at that, and I’ll make sure you all have a link to our favorite postpartum recipes.
But also really prioritizing rest. And this is something that will impact you in all of the ways of how you feel and how you heal. So making sure that you have the ability to really, really rest and expect to take it easy throughout that first six to eight weeks.
And finally, if you are curious about warm oil massage, this is a practice that’s done daily for good health but particularly in the postpartum window. Just doing a self-massage of some warm sesame oil or a favorite massage oil that you have, ideally one that would be safe to eat, because that’s what’s safe to put on your skin. But what warm oil does is impact all of the tissue systems in one application, and it will help, most importantly, to create a feeling of ability to rest. Sometimes in postpartum when we know we should be resting, it’s a little hard to actually get to that place where we’re fully able to relax. So putting the warm oil on your skin gives you the opportunity to kind of sink into that feeling of nervous system rebalancing and give you the opportunity to really experience rest and many more benefits from that.
But those would be my key suggestions for preparing and also just giving yourself some conscious support during this window.
Excellent. And how can our listeners connect with you, Christine?
Please do! Please reach out! If this is something that is calling you, we can be found in all the places. Sacred Window Studies is our website. We’re at Sacred Window Studies on Instagram and Facebook. We’ve got a beautiful, robust Facebook group. Sacred Window Professionals is the name. But most importantly, I talk to doulas all the time and really help by just checking in and helping you meet your goals on what it is that you’d like to be able to offer new families. I’m always available. Schedule a quick chat. I’d love to hear about you and your work and how we can support that.
Thank you so much! What beautiful and important work you’re doing. We’ll have to chat again – so much to talk about!
I know, Kristin! This has been such a pleasure. Thank you.
IMPORTANT LINKS
Birth and postpartum support from Gold Coast Doulas
