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Post-Abortion Diet Tips For A Proper Recovery
Regardless of your reason, it must have been tough for you to be where you are right now. You might feel like you’re alone, but abortion in Singapore is actually more common than you think. In our country, there were over 6,500 abortions made every year from the year 2010 to 2017. As difficult as it may feel, your main priority now should be recovering.
While abortions performed by licensed medical professionals are generally safe, most women experience some side effects after the surgery. These discomforts include nausea, sore breasts, fatigue, abdominal cramps and light vaginal bleeding.
Following your doctor’s advice and prescriptions is important now. On top of that, you can support your recovery by nourishing and resting well.
Good nutritious food plays a crucial role in healing your body after the taxing procedure you’ve been through.
Why Is Diet Important?
After you have an abortion, your body will be working hard to heal itself. You need good nutrition to help your body do this. This includes eating plenty of food and taking in extra energy, just like you would during your period. Your body will also be feeling the effects of pregnancy hormones, so it is important to make sure you get enough vitamins and minerals to stay healthy.
It is important to eat well after an abortion. This is because it will help you feel better. Food can have a powerful effect on our mental well-being, just as it does on our physical health. Eating some good meals will boost your energy levels and mood while you are taking time off to recover physically and mentally.
What To Drink After Abortion For Fast Recovery?
Yes, we’ll start off this topic with a drinking consumable as opposed to a munching one, taking into account those who have no to little appetite for physically ingesting food at this point in time.
Black Chicken Soup
We’ve seen this unique-looking chicken on shelves of shopping centres before. At some point, we’ve all thought – “Blimey, someone’s left that chicken on the grill a smidge too long”…no? Just us? Alright then.
Nevertheless, let’s get down to the drink portion of this segment – Black Chicken Soup. This particular hearty soup made our recommendation easier as it’s a good source of protein and iron, and, in general, chicken soup has a certain anti-inflammatory quality about it.
As if that’s not enough, there are herbs which you can put into this soup to bolster its effectiveness, like the following:
He Shou Wu, Polygonum Multiflorum herb
The traditional properties of this particular herb include:
- Slightly warming
- Improves premature greying of hair due to blood deficiency
- Reduces lower back pain due to Yin deficiency
Hei Dou, Black Beans
The traditional properties of this herb are as follows:
- Removes wind and stops tremors
- Good source of folate
What About Food Tips?
Drinking nutritious and tasty soups are all nice and well, but what about when you’ve got your appetite back?
Let’s start off with what you should have before we get into exactly what dishes we recommend you should be eating.
Iron-rich & Vitamin C-rich Foods
Examples: Pork Kidney, Spinach, Red Dates, Pumpkin, wolfberries, chicken, pork
Foods that are rich in iron and vitamin C help to replenish the blood lost in your body, and this is important due to the fact that blood loss and abortions go hand-in-hand.
In particular, iron-rich foods (which are also a good place to find heme iron, a compound that aids in increasing iron levels and supports blood replenishment) also help you to rebuild red blood cells and supply oxygen throughout your body. Meanwhile, both iron and vitamin C helps to improve your collagen formation to promote wound healing after the surgery.
Some of our Tian Wei Signature dishes which include iron & vitamin C, are – Stir Fried Pork and Kidney with Ginger and Sesame Oil (there’s pork kidney and wolfberries) & Eucommia Kidney Nourishing Soup (red dates, chicken).
Calcium-rich Foods
Examples: Tofu, Okra, Broccoli, Dairy Foods
If there was an inadequate intake of calcium-rich foods during pregnancy, a mother’s calcium stores could have been depleted. Therefore, it is wise to restore calcium stores during this recovery for healthy bone and muscle functioning.
Tian Wei dishes wherein you can find this component: Stir Fried Okra With Scallops & Tofu and Abalone with Celtuce.
Folate-rich Foods
Examples: Red Beans, Black Beans, Chayote, Kailan
Foods that are rich in folate help you to build healthy red blood cells and prevent anaemia. Also, folate-rich food is an essential food to eat after abortion to maintain healthy cell growth and function.
Once more, this can be found in our following dishes: King Oyster Mushrooms Stew with Chayote, Red Bean Puree with Orange Peel Dessert & Pork Rib Soup with Black Bean.
Healthy Fats
Examples: Salmon, Threadfin, Sesame Oil
Foods that are high in healthy fats help speed up your recovery due to their anti-inflammatory properties. In fact, healthy fats benefit your body beyond what is visible to the eyes. As abortion and miscarriage can lead to hormonal imbalances, foods rich in healthy fats help support a good hormonal balance.
Some of the best snacks and fruits to eat after abortion are also great sources of healthy fats. For instance, avocados, almonds, walnuts and olives.
Some of our Tian Wei Signature dishes, on the other hand: Seared Salmon with Cauliflower Cream, Steamed threadfin with ginger in Superior Soy Sauce, and Braised Sesame Oil Chicken.
Whole Grains
Examples: Brown Rice, Quinoa, Barley Millet Rice
Whole grains help with your digestion and support good gut health and the immune system as they contain a rich amount of fibre.
Also, whole grains help to promote good hormonal balance by regulating blood sugar levels. This indirectly helps to speed up post-surgery recovery.
Speaking of Quinoa and Barley Millet Rice, we have those on our menu as well: Tri Colour Rice (Red, Brown and White rice), Barley Millet Rice, and Quinoa Mixed Rice.
Protein-rich Foods
Examples: Chicken, Fish, Lentils, Egg
Protein forms the building blocks of the tissues and organs in your body. Hence, consuming foods that are high in protein during your recovery stage helps with wound healing.
Most of us know protein helps increase muscle mass and strength. Meanwhile, it’s also a great source of vitamin B12, which is essential for your body to produce healthy red blood cells. Last but not least, your body also needs protein to develop antibodies to support a good immune system.
Oh, and one question we do get quite often is whether eating eggs after an abortion is alright. Well, the short answer is yes. Eggs are a good source of protein, and there seems to be a general misunderstanding that eggs would disrupt recovery after surgery, which is why many may think twice about having eggs after an abortion.
It should also be noted, however, that there is no scientific evidence to show that eggs would disrupt this recovery process. To that end, eggs also provide minerals like zinc and copper, which are essential in promoting wound healing.
Other Tian Wei dishes where protein can be found: Braised pork trotter in black vinegar (yes, we do serve it with an Egg), Lemongrass Fenugreek Braised Fish Fillet, and Hakka Yellow Wine Chicken.
Additional Dietary Tips
1. It is well-balanced
The whole idea behind confinement diets, regardless of whether it’s Chinese or otherwise, is that you get all the nutrition that your body requires after giving birth.
A complete Chinese confinement meal plan should contain a wholesome balance of ingredients like grains, proteins, and greens. Some examples of which we have already covered in the paragraph before but will quickly run through again – offals, meat, and tofu.
Why is this important? Well, the importance of a well-balanced diet can not be overstated, nor can we stress enough just how necessary a well-balanced diet is for your recovery to ensure that you cover all different vitamins and minerals. A green juice diet or a keto diet during this time is not advisable.
2. Old is gold!
The added benefit of having a Chinese confinement diet is that it contains Chinese herbs that are well-known to be beneficial for your recovery too! This is speaking from a traditional Chinese medicine standpoint. The usage of herbs in recovery has been a long-established practice. Some of the common traditional Chinese herbs recommended are dang shen, dang gui, red dates, longan and wolfberries. Traditional Chinese Medicine teaches that, in general, a mother after labour would be cold in nature and experience a lack of blood, blood stagnation, lack of Qi, and Qi stagnation. Many of the herbs recommended are to fix these issues and help mothers on their recovery journey back to good health. Therefore, there has to logically be some reason as to why such practices have survived through the ages. We can only conclude that they are, indeed, beneficial for recovery.
3. That’s some healthy cooking
While we aren’t TCM practitioners and may not understand the finer inner workings of their sciences, we can, however, attest to the cooking methodology of these traditional forms of confinement meals. When cooking our meals, we tend to make them healthier by adopting healthier cooking methods such as steaming, light stir fry, stewing and roasting, especially for fusion dishes. Understanding the importance of maintaining traditional meals for confinement mothers, like Braised pork trotter with black vinegar, leaner cuts of the pork are provided instead of fatty ones. This is to reduce intake of saturated fat, especially when, in excess, would not only contribute to excessive calorie intake, it may also increase cholesterol levels.
Speed Up Your Post-Abortion Recovery with Confinement Food
Need more ideas on what to eat after abortion for fast recovery? Confinement food is actually a great choice for the healing vitamins and minerals they contain.
Confinement food is generally suitable as food after abortion or miscarriage — with minimal alteration like removing the lactogenic ingredients.
As your body has previously adapted to pregnancy, your post-abortion symptoms can be similar to that of postpartum ones. Hence, a nourishing confinement diet, in general, can help to improve your healing process.
At Tian Wei Signature, we serve confinement food that contains all of the nourishing ingredients listed above. We offer a healing menu that is carefully reviewed by our in-house dietitian to promote your physical and mental recovery.
With over 90 fusion and traditional dishes, we nourish you with a huge variety of well-balanced and interesting dishes.
Meanwhile, you can also choose to leave out lactogenic ingredients, herbs, chicken, eggs or any other ingredients based on your preference.
With our convenient confinement food catering service, your daily meals will be delivered right to your door during lunch and dinner. To keep your meals warm and fresh, we also pack them in thermal flasks, biodegradable packaging and a thermal bag.
Interested to learn more about our confinement food service? Click the chat button at the bottom right corner of this webpage to chat with our friendly customer service officers.
