This got past me entirely, but that’s not really surprising. I’m old enough to be a great grandmother (just!) and I don’t know any young mothers. But it seems that calling for take-out treats has become a new tradition for just-post-partum mothers. The question is, what are they ordering?
Pizza… Probably the top choice of post-partum moms in the 20-teens.
Delivery company Doordash has the answer. They’ve compiled their data for past years – measured Mother’s Day to Mother’s Day – and the stats are staggering! Delivery room requests to Doordash jumped 1,500 percent since 2014, and doubled in the past year, alone.
What they ordered…
The things new Moms had delivered to the hospital were predominantly menu items they had craved during pregnancy but had been admonished to go easy on. The most popular (in no particular order) included:
- Pizza
- Wings / Fried Chicken
- French Fries
- Cheesecake
- Asian Food
But that’s not all…
Doordash reported that their Dashers were also asked to deliver some oddball things to new moms.
In one case, the mom ordered a case of beer! She was obviously not planning to breast feed. I hope.
Truth is, new moms asked for just about anything you could imagine as their ‘push present’.
My take…
It’s no surprise that new moms would want to indulge themselves in treats they had to steer clear on during pregnancy. But I wonder if they’re aware of their responsibility as new parents, to maintain responsible eating habits and setting a good example for their kids.
Sure, infants aren’t aware of where their nourishment comes from, nor do they have much of a say as to how much they get to consume at a sitting (cuddling?). But new moms who are breast feeding are directly responsible for what their babies are getting in their milk, and they should know it’s just as important to avoid alcohol, tobacco drugs, super-fatty foods, super-sugary foods and other unhealthful menu items after delivery as it was before. There’s a host of scientific studies tying mothers’ eating habits to future outcomes, for their kids, for obesity, heart disease, diabetes and other afflictions. (Just Google ‘breast feeding studies’.)
When kids get older, the foods moms (and dads) feed their kids can set patterns for the youngsters’ future eating habits, which will affect their health their whole lives.
If you consider that obesity, heart disease and diabetes are among the biggest burdens on the health case system, as well as being among the most-preventable afflictions, it’s easy to see what new parents – and moms in particular – can make a huge difference in what their kids grow up eating and how healthy they are simply by giving a little extra thought to what they eat and to the example they are setting.
~ Maggie J.