We can’t not talk about “care” in the fourth trimester—the postpartum experience is all about it and tending to the needs of your baby. You’re caring for a new life, while also focused on the well-being of your entire family. But we also need to talk about postpartum care for ourselves. Wherever we are in our diastasis recti journey, we need to focus on our own healing—whether that be physical postpartum recovery or focusing on ourselves internally. Many moms lose themselves in the ongoing care of others, and all too often, don’t adopt their own practice until it’s too late and the burnout becomes overwhelming.
There’s a lot of discussion around self-care in the motherhood space, but it shouldn’t be a clichéd topic. We asked Brieghl Robbins, founder of Ebi, a plant-based and eco-conscious postpartum-care brand that focuses on supporting healthy postpartum experiences, about the vitalness of self-care in motherhood.
Creating a Healthy Postpartum Experience: Q&A
1. What inspired you to create Ebi? Were there trends you saw with other moms that influenced your decision?
My daughter was born moderately premature—she was tiny. When she came home, I thought giving 110% to her was the absolute best thing to do as any mom would. It wasn’t until about a year and half down the line that I realized ignoring myself led to me giving less than my best to my daughter.
When I started talking with other moms about Ebi, the immediate reaction was overwhelmingly, “If someone had given me something like this in postpartum, it would’ve communicated how important it was to take care of me, too." There wasn’t a brand out there making a strong stand for moms to pour into themselves first. It’s not a luxury or nice-to-have, it’s essential. It’s also selfless. Everything we give to ourselves we give to our children, so why wouldn’t we give ourselves the best?
2. What does self-care in the postpartum look like to you, and how does the Ebi product line support that?
Holistic self-care looks like acknowledging all aspects of the experience of postpartum. It’s heavy. You’re mourning the person you once were, celebrating the new life you’ve brought into the world, and figuring out your own brand new identity, as well. Then there’s the physical healing.
Ebi is a medium for reconnecting with yourself during postpartum, and it’s accessible to everyone. Taking even just a moment to make yourself a nourishing and warming drink, such as The Tisane, or giving yourself a belly or scalp massage with The Oil makes so much of a difference. Caring for yourself doesn’t need to be some long, time-consuming affair. Every bit counts. Even if you can’t do it everyday, running a weekly bath filled with healing ingredients, like The Bath, just for you (or for you and baby) works too.
3. Are there reasons that you’ve seen that mothers, new moms especially, may shy away from or not turn to their own self-care in the postpartum period?
I think society communicates to women pretty loudly that motherhood is something that they’re just supposed to get on with. It’s one of the most pivotal moments in a birthing person’s life, and the message we’re receiving from all sides is to “bounce back” and rejoin your former life as soon as possible. You saw it with my mother’s generation in the 1980s and with my generation now.
We need to reclaim our human right to rest in the fourth trimester—to silence, to stillness. If we were to stop and sit, and heal, and just be during postpartum, what might we realize about ourselves? About our world? There’s also internal resistance. It can be scary for people to have to meet themselves where they are. That’s what postpartum forces you to do.
4. What are a few top suggestions you can offer to moms, seasoned and new, to jumpstart or reinvigorate their self-care routines? What are the things you do for yourself?
Acknowledge your own needs, and find a way to meet them. Start small and find ways that fit into your life. Ebi makes taking care of yourself easy and straightforward. This could look like making yourself a big batch of The Tisane and sipping it throughout the day, or squeezing in a two minute massage at the beginning and end of each day. It all counts. Postpartum is a great time to start a balanced self-care practice, but this is something that should follow you throughout life and, therefore, can be picked up at any time. We are dynamic, our needs change as we change. Balanced self-care is a commitment to stay in tune with yourself, acknowledging and meeting your needs first for the benefit of those around you.
5. What advice would you give new mothers embarking on the journey of motherhood? Is there anything you wish that someone had told you?
If you allow it to, motherhood will and can transform you into a more fully evolved version of yourself. This narrative we’ve been sold of motherhood taking everything you have and more is a lie. Motherhood is about expansion, increase, becoming more and not less. Grow, evolve, expand.
Breighl Robbins is the founder of Ebi, a plant-based, eco-conscious wellness brand. Ebi's holistic postpartum kits make finding balance in the fourth trimester easy and straightforward. Her background in public health and integrative medicine combine to form a wellness line that is comprehensive, measured, and singular.
.png)
