Realistic Nourishment During Pregnancy and Postpartum Recovery with Nina Spears

What does it really look like to nourish yourself during pregnancy when you’re tired, busy, dealing with food aversions, or simply trying to make it through the day? In this episode of Ask the Doulas, Kristin Revere sits down with Nina Spears, founder and CEO of Baby Chick®, to talk about realistic, practical nourishment during pregnancy and the postpartum recovery period.

Nina shares some of the key nutrients that are especially important during pregnancy, why they matter for both mom and baby, and simple foods that can help support those nutritional needs without making meals feel overwhelming. They also talk about the often-overlooked importance of postpartum nourishment and how eating well after birth can help mothers feel more replenished, supported, and cared for during recovery.

Nina Spears is a certified baby planner, birth doula, postpartum doula, childbirth educator, newborn care specialist, infant massage instructor, and perinatal nutrition expert with more than 15 years of experience supporting families. She is the founder and CEO of Baby Chick®, host of Chick Chat: The Baby Chick Podcast, and author of The Baby Chick Guide to Positive Pregnancy.

Whether you’re pregnant, newly postpartum, or supporting someone through this season, this conversation offers approachable ideas for making nourishment feel a little more realistic and a lot more supportive.

This episode is sponsored by Cozy Earth. Use the code GOLDCOAST to receive a discount of up to 20 percent off.

Subscribe to our newsletter, check out our birth and baby book, and see more about our doula services & online courses below:

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Ask the Doulas is a pregnancy, birth, postpartum, and parenting podcast for expecting families, new parents, and birth and baby professionals. Hosted by Kristin Revere and Alyssa Veneklase of Gold Coast Doulas, the podcast features conversations with doulas, childbirth educators, lactation consultants, sleep consultants, newborn care specialists, fertility experts, and perinatal mental health professionals. Ask the Doulas is designed for both parents and professionals looking for trusted guidance, continuing education, and real-world strategies.

Transcript

Episode #352 | August 11, 2026

What does it really look like to nourish yourself during pregnancy when you’re tired, busy, dealing with food aversions, or simply trying to make it through the day?  In this episode of Ask the Doulas, Kristin Revere sits down with Nina Spears, founder and CEO of Baby Chick®, to talk about realistic, practical nourishment during pregnancy and the postpartum recovery period.

Nina shares some of the key nutrients that are especially important during pregnancy, why they matter for both mom and baby, and simple foods that can help support those nutritional needs without making meals feel overwhelming.  They also talk about the often-overlooked importance of postpartum nourishment and how eating well after birth can help mothers feel more replenished, supported, and cared for during recovery.

Nina Spears is a certified baby planner, birth doula, postpartum doula, childbirth educator, newborn care specialist, infant massage instructor, and perinatal nutrition expert with more than 15 years of experience supporting families.  She is the founder and CEO of Baby Chick®, host of Chick Chat: The Baby Chick Podcast, and author of The Baby Chick Guide to Positive Pregnancy.

Whether you’re pregnant, newly postpartum, or supporting someone through this season, this conversation offers approachable ideas for making nourishment feel a little more realistic and a lot more supportive.

This episode is sponsored by Cozy Earth.  Use the code GOLDCOAST to receive a discount of up to 20 percent off.

Hello, hello!  This is Kristin Revere with Ask the Doulas, and I am thrilled to chat with my new friend, Nina Spears.  She is the founder and CEO of Baby Chick, a pregnancy and motherhood platform for helping modern moms feel more informed, supported, and prepared through pregnancy, birth, postpartum, and motherhood.  Nina is a certified baby planner, birth doula, postpartum doula, childbirth educator, newborn care specialist, infant massage instructor, and perinatal nutrition expert with more than 15 years of experience supporting over 800 families in person, thousands virtually, and has attended 350-plus births.  

Nina is also the host of Chick Chat, the Baby Chick Podcast, and the author of the new book, The Baby Chick Guide to Positive Pregnancy. 

Welcome, Nina!

Oh, my goodness, thank you so much, Kristin!  It is just a pleasure, a true joy to finally get to chat with you! 

I am excited about what’s to come!  And with your background in perinatal nutrition, I would love to focus our conversation today on realistic nourishment during pregnancy and touch on postnatal recovery as well.  Let’s get into it!  What are your first thoughts on preparation? 

When it comes to nutrition, women are just so excited that they’re pregnant, and either you are so sick and you cannot handle anything and you’re feeling guilty that literally all you can keep down is some applesauce and crackers, or you are like, oh, I’m pregnant, I’m going to just enjoy this time and eat.  And I don’t want to say that either of those are wrong.  You sometimes just have to get through and do what you gotta do, because both of those can lead to a healthy pregnancy.  But I do want to say that the whole idea that you’re eating for two is definitely a myth.  The whole eating for two is really about doubling our nutrients.  Your body is doing an incredible amount of work, but what matters most isn’t necessarily eating more food.  It’s really just eating the foods that provide the protein, the healthy fats, the vitamins, minerals.  Hydration is so important!  And that both you and baby are getting what you need.  I’m constantly telling moms that pregnancy is less about eating for two and more about nourishing for two.  That’s, I think, a very different mindset that I try to remind mamas of.  Instead of how much can I eat, let’s start asking how can I better support my body and my baby.  So I think again it’s not about being perfect.  I think so many women also focus on what they can’t eat.  I think we need to focus more on what we can eat.  It’s all about addition rather than focusing on the subtraction. 

Exactly.  And pointing out hydration, especially coming into the summer months, is so important in pregnancy and that postnatal phase.  As you mentioned earlier, that thought process that you can fulfil any craving – but oftentimes, it could mean that you’re deficient in particular minerals and vitamins.  So thinking about your overall health and preventative measures for some issues that can creep up later in pregnancy. 

But yeah, postpartum – oh, my gosh, I was way more ravenous postpartum than I was during pregnancy!  How were you? 

Absolutely, especially with pumping and breastfeeding!  I felt like I was constantly hungry and snacking.  I was trying to focus on hydration.  But in pregnancy, I had some nausea and did not have much of an appetite.  I felt like I forced myself to get the nourishment that I needed and had the education to focus on being conscious about what my body needed, even with the nausea and discomfort. 

I’m just reminding moms that we have to just do the best that we can and really try to eat small meals throughout the day so that we can kind of stay on top of it with our blood sugar, so that way we’re not dipping too low.  Especially first thing in the morning – that’s why people do call it morning sickness – but my goodness, that sickness can last all day long!  It is not just the morning time!  And making sure that, if we can, we really pair a protein with that carbohydrate whenever you are feeling some morning sickness.  That’s going to really help you get through.  And oh, my goodness, yes, hydration.  Our blood volume doubles when we’re pregnant, so hydration is so much more important than people realize.  I think magnesium can really help with that, as well, but hydration totally helps with your energy.  It helps reduce experiencing early Braxton Hicks.  So I’m definitely super big on it.  The requirement with ACOG is around 86 to 96 ounces of water a day.  I’m more of like, if you get a gallon or 100 ounces, or if you use liters, 2 to 3 liters of water a day – that is the goal.  But really combining it with electrolytes because we don’t want just water going in and out.  We really want to absorb as much of that water as possible on the cellular level, so making sure that we have enough of those salts.  Electrolytes are super important.  And that’s why I’m also such a big fan of coconut water because that has those natural electrolytes.  And broths!  Bone broth is amazing.  And I just think that many pregnancy symptoms just get worse when moms are underhydrated. 

Right.  And with electrolytes, they’re not the same.  I talk to my birth doula clients and my students in the childbirth education classes about the differences.  There are all of these things, like Gatorade and Powerade, but there are healthy alternatives to those things.  If you don’t tend to love coconut water, there are some other options.  What would you suggest with your background? 

Oh, yeah, absolutely.  Needed is one of my favorites that I recommend to my clients all the time.  It’s kind of my go-to one.  They also have just a really great prenatal line.  I do like Needed.  Also, Parallel has a good electrolyte drink, as well.  Usually Needed is the one that I refer to the most because you’re right, not everyone likes the coconut water, and also, yes, I’m so glad that you brought up the Gatorades and Powerades.  One, all of those synthetic dyes are not good for you, and the extra sugars are not that great for you, either.  I know that it’s advertised like, oh, these athletes are drinking this!  But I’d rather focus on cleaner nutrition for you and your baby and removing those synthetic dyes and sugars is definitely something that we want to be mindful of.  Finding a cleaner electrolyte is my go-to.  Do you have a favorite, Kristin?  I’m curious. 

I tend to go with the natural options and packets, so your recommendations are right on!  I don’t have a favorite, but I do talk about researching brands and looking at what will work.  We have some health food stores that are excellent with picking out whether it’s a whole foods prenatal or electrolytes that are healthy and specific to everyone’s needs, so I tend to just send them to our local stores and have the experts who work there help out.  So yeah, nourishment is key, and some of our listeners work in the birth and baby field, and others are pre-conception, and there’s so much conversation lately – which I love – focused on how to nourish your body in order to begin the pregnancy planning journey.  Do you ever work with clients pre-conception, Nina? 

I have on occasion.  Most people come to me once they are pregnant because now they’re like, oh, now for real, I need to be on my best behavior.  But I have worked with a couple of people who are like, I am on this health journey, and I really want to have a baby, and I love that because you should be taking a good quality prenatal vitamin before you’re pregnant.  And if we’re encouraging women to take prenatals before they’re pregnant, because folic acid or folate is so critically important, along with other nutrients – I’m so glad that there are women who are like, you know what, actually, I want to make these choices and changes to my lifestyle now so that I’m not essentially trying to play catch-up and learn all of this when I’m pregnant, because there’s so much that you have to learn when you’re pregnant. 

My first pregnancy, I developed preeclampsia.  My daughter was in the NICU and had feeding struggles.  So all of my type A planning with taking a childbirth class, prenatal yoga, focusing on a healthy diet and mindfulness – sort of went out the window.  But the second time around, I focused more on trying to avoid preeclampsia.  As a planner, I began to understand more options in my community.  I met doulas through breastfeeding advocacy.  I hired doulas.  They were the first call I made when I was pregnant.  And then they led me to a naturopath and a dietician.  I wanted to make sure I wasn’t depleted in minerals, especially because I was breastfeeding, and focused on my overall nutrition and health.  I tried to increase my energy with having an infant, too, because my kids are 21 months apart.  So chasing a young toddler around, and then not having that energy.  I wanted to bring the energy up.  And so I worked with experts to be able to try to prevent, and I was successful in preventing preeclampsia, and I think a lot of it was nourishment and trying to reduce the anxiety of what might come, like a surgical birth, for example, or a NICU stay again. 

Food is medicine.  It can either be poison or it can be medicine. 

Yeah, I credit building that team and investing in my, not only pregnancy and birth journey, but that postnatal time.  And as important as nutrition and nourishment is in pregnancy, it’s equally as important in the postnatal phase. 

Oh, absolutely, if not more, sometimes, because it really can affect not only just your breastfeeding journey, but your recovery, your mental health.  It’s all intertwined with nourishment and rest and hydration, all of that. 

Exactly.  I am a huge fan of a lot of the traditional models of care, healing foods, warming foods.  I’ve done some trainings on Malaysian cultural traditions, and I did a Zulu training.  Those cultural components of warming foods, and the community and family taking care of women in that postnatal phase, not only with nourishment but also some of the help they give, in a way that is very much like a postpartum doula, in the recovery and newborn care process. 

Absolutely.  I know, it’s so beautiful to learn about all these other cultures and their traditions, especially when it comes to supporting the mother postpartum because, oh, my gosh, I feel like we have it backwards here.  It’s all about getting back to as small as you possibly can.  Don’t look like you had a baby.  Get back to work.  Essentially, erase that you were pregnant and had a child now that you’re a mom.  It’s just so backwards.  But I do think that we’re making strides, and people are recognizing that we need to take care of mothers.  If we have healthier mothers, we will have healthier babies, healthier homes, and that means healthier communities and a healthier world.  I really think that everything starts with the mother, and if we can just give them the support that they need from pregnancy and beyond – oh, my gosh, what a different world we’d live in. 

What are your top tips for favorite easy to snack on foods?  You mentioned bone broth.  That’s great in pregnancy but also in the postnatal time and other warming soups. 

During pregnancy, I think women are definitely undereating protein.  We need to be eating about a gram for every pound that you weigh.  I know that some women are like, 200 pounds – okay, maybe it’s not necessarily that.  Maybe it’s 0.7.  Again, I would talk to someone that can really work with you and understand exactly your needs and goals for a healthy pregnancy.  The thing that I constantly see is that women are definitely undereating protein during pregnancy.  And just to explain why this is so important – it really is the building block for your baby’s growth.  Protein is essential.  It also is good for your maternal tissue growth.  It’s good for blood volume expansion and satiety and stable energy.  There’s so many reasons why protein is important, and I know that a lot of people are talking more about protein, which is great, because we have been undereating it for a very long time.  So a lot of my things that I’m telling my clients to eat, even for snacks, like hardboiled eggs.  Greek yogurt, making like a parfait.  Having some cottage cheese.  Protein smoothies.  There are some things you can do to get your protein in, rather than just eating chicken and beef and salmon and all of that kind of stuff.  But also, we need some healthy fats.  We need some good carbohydrates.  So I’m constantly adding in lots of greens, some avocado, which is so good, seeds and nuts for those healthy fats.  The good trail mix.  I have tons of lists, but again, I think my biggest thing is to first focus on your protein.  Then add everything else to it.  If we start with, what is the thing that contains protein, and then you can add extras – you’re good from there. 

And then also just recognizing that not all forms of protein are the same.  Yes, I love peanut butter, but there is also a lot of fat with that, so maybe not having so much peanut butter.  Having that maybe in the morning with some toast if you’re not feeling so great – that’s where I’m like, oh, great.  If you’re having some morning sickness, rather than just having crackers, have some peanut butter too so that you have some healthy fat with some protein with that carbohydrate.  So there are some great, easy ways that you can do these things that are so much more manageable than I think people realize.  I think that we just need to keep our eyes open.  What is something else that I can substitute this pre-packaged whatnot into a more whole food item?  

And I love that you include a lot of this information in your book.  It’s so helpful.  And with your background being so comprehensive in the pregnancy and postpartum and perinatal journey – you have so much to offer!  I’m excited to read your book! 

Oh, thank you!  Yes, again, being able to connect with amazing women like yourself and all the other women who are writing these books and sharing their knowledge – it’s just so amazing to be able to share this knowledge with this next generation of mothers.  And it makes me excited because I can’t wait for my daughter - she’s only five, but when she gets to the age, she’s going to be surrounded by so many empowering women and their words of wisdom, and I just feel like we’re on the right track for supporting moms in a better way than we have in generations past. 

Exactly.  I agree.  So Nina, tell us a bit more about your book, The Baby Chick Guide to Positive Pregnancy. 

My book is launching June 30th, 2026.  It’s a doula and a baby planner in book form.  Not everybody can hire a doula, or not everybody can hire a baby planner, and I just wish that the people who can’t hire me still had the step by step – basically, a road map of what I talk to my clients about, so then that way they understand what’s available to them throughout their journey, as well.  Because I think that you only know what you know, and if you don’t start really doing some research – and I also say be careful on the internet.  You never know what type of information you’re getting, if it’s factual, if it’s evidence-based, if it came from professional experience.  

There are partner tips for each week, because I’m really big on the idea that pregnancy shouldn't just be carried by the mother.  It needs to be a partnership, and so I make sure that each week, partners are given a tip or something to do so then that way mamas aren’t carrying this alone.  Also, we’re talking about nutrition in there, movements.  I also link it to my app so people can watch the videos of how to do each movement.  There’s meditations.  So it’s really just a holistic guide of having a more positive pregnancy because once we have more positive pregnancies, we can have more positive births, more positive postpartum, and just again a more positive world. 

Exactly.  I believe it all starts there.  It’s such important work.  So your book will be available in bookstores, online?  Tell us how we can find it. 

On my site, baby-chick.com.  It’s on Amazon, Target, Walmart, Barnes & Nobles, and we have some amazing preorder bonuses.  I can’t wait for you guys to check it out! 

Amazing!  Any final tips for our listeners around realistic nourishment during pregnancy and the postnatal phase? 

Sure, yes.  I think I want women to remember that nutrition is not another way to judge themselves.  It’s a way to support yourselves.  Food is support.  And pregnancy asks a lot of your body, and postpartum asks a ton from your body, too.  Nourishment isn’t about chasing this perfect diet.  It really isn’t about that.  It’s about giving your body just the tools it needs to do something incredible because it already is, and you’re going to feel so much better when we give it the proper nourishment.  You’re going to realize, wow, I have more energy.  You’re doing the best that you can, and that is absolutely more than enough.  You’re doing great.  Just focus on addition rather than subtraction.  Focus on the nutrients rather than calories.  You got this, mama! 

Exactly!  I love it.  So you mentioned how our listeners and doula clients can find your book.  How can we find your business, not only your website, but all of the social media channels? 

I am most known on Instagram, so you can find me @thebabychick, but I’m also on Facebook, on YouTube, on TikTok, all the places.  You know how it goes, Kristin.  And then like you said, my podcast, as well – Chick Chat, The Baby Chick Podcast.  And you can find all these easily by going to my website because we have links to all of those, as well. 

Amazing.  Well, we will have to have another conversation, but congrats again on your new book!  I can’t wait to read it and review it! 

Thank you so much, Kristin, and I cannot wait to have you on my podcast and chat and pick your brain!  I’m just so grateful to have had the opportunity to chat with you guys.  Thank you so much for your time! 

Thank you for sharing all of your wisdom!  We will talk soon! 

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