Postpartum Meal Trains

You may have heard the term meal train floating around and wondered, what is that? A meal train is a pre-organized meal service that friends, family, and your local community can sign up for to help provide meals. Postpartum meal trains are, you guessed it, a meal train that is pre-set for the postpartum period. Today we will talk about postpartum meal trains and give expert tips on using this service in your postpartum journey.

Benefits of a postpartum meal train

There are many benefits to postpartum meal trains. Meal trains can be a massive benefit to the entire family postpartum. Having your meals pre-determined will help to ensure that you will know the food arriving each night. You can also preset preferences, likes, and dislikes ahead of time. Nourishment is essential postpartum. Having food in your home that is easily accessible and ready to eat can help ensure you get the nutrients needed while busy taking care of your newborn baby.

How do meal trains work

There are many different ways that meal trains work. Usually, there are online sign-up forms where contributors can sign up for a day and time, write in the dish they’ll deliver, then drop off your meal. There is typically an option to choose from a few restaurants for those less enthusiastic about cooking but would still like to contribute!

Are there any downfalls of meal trains

Meal trains are great, but without communication with visitors, they can very quickly feel like you’ve got a new dinner guest dining with you each night; a dinner guest every night in general sounds overwhelming, but guests every night postpartum? No, thank you! Try setting up a meal drop station outside of the house with a kind note saying something along the lines of, “thank you for bringing us a meal!” Mom and baby are currently resting; please leave food here.

Another downfall to meal trains is, of course, receiving food that you don’t like. To help ensure this doesn’t happen, you can preselect meals that you like, then your family and friends can decide which meal they would like to bring based on your pre-determined preferences. It is important to note if there are any food allergies in the home, they should be announced on your meal train.

Where can we find postpartum meal trains

There are many different websites that you can use as your meal train platform. Here are some of our favorites!

Meal Train– is a highly user-friendly platform and is free for people looking for a meal train service. To learn more, click here.

Give InKind – Is a more complex meal train platform than the website meal train. With added features like requests for childcare, gift cards, and more in-depth meal train preferences. Give InKind can be used as a one-stop shop for postpartum care needs. For more information, click here.

We love postpartum meal trains

Overall, we love the idea of postpartum meal trains, and when executed correctly, they are a great help postpartum. Having the nourishment and outside support from your family and friends can make families feel very supported postpartum.

Thank you for reading this week’s blog, “postpartum meal trains.” Visit our other weekly blogs for more helpful tips and tricks on pregnancy, postpartum, and parenthood.