About Ameya
I am so glad you found your way here. Nothing makes me happier than to know that another new or expecting mother has a real chance at avoiding all the complications that (all too often) go along with postpartum recovery and instead (dare I say) feel even better than before you were pregnant.
Yes, it’s entirely possible. And you could be the next success story.
Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Ameya Duprey and I’m the Founder of ShaktiCare. I’m a board certified Ayurvedic practitioner, AyurDoula, CMT, author, teacher, and course creator, who has been helping postpartum mamas fully heal from birth for the last decade.
It is my mission to help postpartum mamas to fully heal from birth, so you can stop feeling exhausted all the time. I want nothing more than to empower you (and the countless other mamas out there) with the tools you need to not just “put yourself back together”, but completely recover from birth, so you can feel amazing again, and have all the energy you need to not only be present with your children and your partner, but also with yourself.
Being a mother is by nature being a giver. We give our bodies in order to create and sustain life. We give our hearts. We sacrifice…A LOT. Often too much for our own good.
One of the biggest mistakes we can make as new mamas is to ignore our own needs after birth. They are very real. Our bodies were just pushed to the max and have gone through a major transformation. Postpartum recovery is no small thing. We need time to heal, and above all, we need support.
Unfortunately for us mothers here in the West, postpartum care is virtually non-existent. Prenatal care and the birth are the focus, and once the baby is born, it’s all about the baby. Us mamas are expected to just “bounce back”, and when we don’t meet that horribly unrealistic expectation, we feel like there is something wrong with us.
The truth is, there is nothing wrong with you. What is wrong, is the lack of postpartum care resources and support available to us mamas.
I am here to change that.
Although many of us don’t have the luxury of having a lineage of ancestral knowledge passed down to us from our grandmothers and our mothers of how to heal from birth, there is an intact body of traditional postpartum care wisdom that has been helping mamas fully recover from birth for thousands of years.
Ayurveda, the traditional holistic healing system from India, has a beautiful system of postpartum care that utilizes the elements of nature, healing diet and natural self- care practices to rejuvenate your body, give you a strong milk supply and help you fully recover from birth.
Now let me share with you my story of how I became inspired to help mamas like you.
My Story
It all started when I was 19 years old. I was on a spiritual quest and was living on the Big Island of Hawaii. One day, I pulled a book of Ayurveda off the shelf in my friend’s house. It was then that I was introduced to the concept of healing with food and using the spices in your kitchen as healing tools to achieve balance. I loved this concept and my interest in Ayurveda was piqued.
Less than a year later, I was living in Boulder, CO, and was introduced to who would become my Ayurveda teacher, as well as my first spiritual guide, Alakananda Ma (and her husband Sadananda). They operated a humble Ayurvedic Ashram, of which I quickly became an integral part. I was living at the ashram and studying Ayurveda. Alakananda taught me many things, including Ayurvedic cooking.
While I was in the middle of my training, at 21 years old,I became pregnant. Although I was quite young (I didn’t think so at the time, lol), I was excited to enter the next chapter of my life, motherhood. Most of my friends knew nothing of birth and beyond, including myself, so I was blissfully unaware of the struggles that awaited me during birth and postpartum. I just focused on prenatal care, the birth, and acquiring stuff for the baby (sound familiar?).
I ended up in labor for 72 hours, and to keep it short, it was hell. She was born at home and luckily, she was fine. Me on the other hand, was a different story. I lost a lot of blood, and I was totally drained. I didn’t even get out of bed for 3 weeks, except to go to the bathroom and try not to freak out from the pain, stitches, hemorrhoids and constipation.
Then at 3 weeks, the baby colic started.
I thought I knew a thing or two about digestion and eating well after birth…I was eating kitchari after all! But it turns out, I knew very little. And for the next 3 months, my baby was either eating, sleeping or screaming. I had entered into the second level of hell, and this time, me and my newborn were in it together.
The lesson I learned was that even if you know some Ayurveda, it doesn’t mean you know the intricacies of postpartum rejuvenation. And that, my friend, is something worth knowing.
When I was struggling with my recovery, a friend, who was an Ayurvedic postpartum doula, came over and offered me an Ayurvedic postpartum massage. It was absolutely heavenly. After the massage, she encouraged me to become an AyurDoula myself. At the time, I was too overwhelmed to seriously consider it, but I filed the suggestion in my brain for a later date. After taking a year off of Ayurveda school to bond with my baby, I graduated as a Pancha Karma Therapist and started helping people cleanse their bodies through Ayurvedic bodywork and detoxification practices. I became a certified massage therapist in 2005, in order to complement my Ayurvedic bodywork practice.
It wasn’t until 2011, after I had made my home in Nevada City, CA, that I shifted my focus to Ayurvedic postpartum care.
All around me there were new mamas struggling to feel good again after birth. I felt their pain. I knew it wasn’t natural for so many mamas to suffer from anxiety, postpartum depression, low milk supply, crazy mood swings, and be exhausted all the time. I had friends confiding in me that their relationships were falling apart, and they were worried that they would never feel like themselves again.
I knew how they felt and I knew that it wasn’t natural. I wanted to be part of the solution and I knew where I could find it.
Back then, there was only one woman who was really teaching the secrets of Ayurvedic postpartum care in America (as far as I knew). That woman was Ysha Oakes. She was a sweet, compassionate, humble woman, holding a wealth of wisdom on the topic. I had the honor of studying directly with her and had her as my mentor.
So from 2011 and beyond, I transitioned away from Pancha Karma therapy and became an Ayurvedic postpartum doula, also known as an AyurDoula. I would go into the new parents homes, and focus on the new mama’s healing and help create a banging milk supply for the baby.
Oftentimes, I would be the first one allowed in the nest of the new parents. What a sacred space and privilege to be witness to! I would talk with her everyday and be present with her experience, and uncover any issues that needed healing. I would cook deeply nourishing food that rekindles her digestion, rejuvenates her body, while building a strong breast milk supply for the baby. I would also make her healing teas and herbal food supplements, teach belly binding, and self massage, for the days that I wasn’t there to give her daily nourishing oil massage. I would also teach both parents how to massage their baby everyday.
I have witnessed the incredible transformation first hand of just how impactful and life-changing this kind of care can be. Not just on a mother’s postpartum recovery, it can go much deeper than that. I have seen it deepen relationships, empower a mama to take better care of herself, significantly improve family dynamics, and bring a new level of joy and contentment that one only wishes to attain with a new baby.
After years of helping new mamas in this way, I realized that it was only a very fortunate few who were benefiting from this kind of care. I wanted to help many more mamas have access to this wisdom. In 2017, I decided to start an Ayurvedic postpartum care blog. That’s when ShaktiCare was born. Since then, I have shared many posts to help more mamas understand what they can do to heal from birth naturally.
Throughout my time practicing as an AyurDoula, I compiled recipes with the intention of publishing a postpartum cookbook someday. It wasn’t until 2020, during the Covid-19 lockdown (when I had the extra time, lol), instead of binging out on Netflix, I hunkered down in my kitchen and in front of my computer, and wrote my Ayurvedic postpartum cookbook Mama’s Menu: Ayurvedic Recipes for Postpartum Healing. It was published in July of 2020 and has been helping postpartum mamas rejuvenate their bodies through eating a healing postpartum diet ever since.
Although eating a rejuvenating postpartum diet is indeed very important, it’s not the whole picture. I wanted to create an online program that was the complete picture, so mamas from all over the world could have access to all the resources necessary to fully heal from birth.
In 2021 I developed my Natural Recovery Method, which is a system of postpartum self-healing based on my years of experience as an AyurDoula. In my program Fully Healed Mama, I give new and expecting mamas the tools they need to fully heal from birth using my Natural Recovery Method, along with special bonus content and community and personalized daily support.
Along with my book and my Fully Healed Mama program, I also help new and expecting mamas with 1-on-1 coaching for postpartum planning, nutrition and issues with recovery.
Many mamas don’t realize how much they’re going to need postpartum recovery support until after your baby was born. Or if you’re lucky, you are one of the few who realize that you need to plan in advance, and are looking for help with planning for a blissful postpartum. Whatever the case, I’m here for you, and I’d love to help you on your postpartum journey to feel amazing again.
This brings us up to the present moment. If you would like to know more about my personal interests, read on.
Personal Interests
I really started to learn how to cook for myself when I was a teenager. I became a vegetarian when I was 15 and my parents told me I needed to cook for myself. Granted, I really didn’t know how to be a healthy vegetarian until I started learning Ayurvedic cooking 5 years later (I ate way too much tofu!), but my love for vegetarian cooking started early.
I’ve always been drawn to Indian arts and spirituality since I first learned about yoga in my teens. Not only did I learn yoga and Ayurveda, but over the last 20+ years, I’ve immersed myself in meditation, mantra, puja, and most significantly Odissi Indian Classical dance.
I LOVE Odissi dance. It makes my soul so happy. Dancing for the Divine is my jam. I feel like we all need something in our lives that is our THING. Something that feeds our spirit and lights up our internal world. That is what Odissi does for me. It’s also a bonus that because it is an international dance form from India, I’ve gotten to travel around the world. I’ve studied and performed in India, Greece, France, Italy, and at various temples in the United States, including Hawaii. When I’m not helping mamas recover from birth, I’m dancing!
Speaking of travel, that is another thing that I love to do. I get so antsy if I’m home for more than a few months. And most of all, I love traveling to the tropics, especially tropical islands. I LOVE the ocean, and never get tired of it. The sea is my happy place. The place where I feel like everything is how it should be, and my soul is at peace.
I love nature and rural living. I love plants and animals. I love my family. And most of all, I am grateful for the gift of life.
Connect with Ameya using the form below!
Get In Touch
Copyright © 2024 ShaktiCare. All rights reserved