Self-care for life after pregnancy is a growing market as mothers, caregivers, and parents are searching for better ways to recover and care for their own bodies, not only their baby’s.
Millennial parents have often translated their own consumption values into the products they choose for their children, from wellness and mental health services to clean baby food. Now, young mothers are turning the attention back to themselves in search of goods and services that support the life stage that is often shadowed by the beginning of motherhood or parenting.
In New York City, a post-partum doula makes and delivers soup for customers after they have given birth or given their newborn up for adoption. Marisa Mendez Marthaller, a post-partum doula by career, is also known as the popular Soup Doula. “The Soup Doula is a project that came out of the pandemic. I do a lot of cooking in my client’s homes, so the Soup Doula is a project to provide health and nutritious and restorative soups to people in the post-partum period and in recovery,” she tells VML Intelligence.
Marthaller emphasizes that her career as a post-partum doula, which began in 2017 goes far beyond helpful, nutritious soup. “After my son was born, I realized post-partum period after birth is very challenging because of a lack of cultural and institutional support.” In recent years, Marthaller says she’s seen “more and more [new mothers] are looking for doula services across communities.”
Ultimately, Marthaller says a doula defines work as care work: “I’m really there to support client’s immediate needs as they transition to become parents, whatever that is: mental and emotional health, physical support for the baby and parent, lactation support, and aid in general to help the family get rested.”
Gen Zers entering the parenting phase of their lives are harping on mental health and embracing self-nourishing, post-birth habits. Kylie Jenner, a gen Zer herself, spoke out about the postpartum
depression she suffered from after giving birth to both of her children. In a February feature for Vanity Fair Italy, Jenner reflected on the difficult emotions she faced after both pregnancies, and advised fellow mothers and caregivers to embrace those difficult emotions “even if it is painful.”
