One of the biggest things new moms often fail to plan for is what and how they will eat after giving birth. Thankfully, some excellent meal delivery services can nourish you in your postpartum recovery to help you feel your best.
Between changing diapers, feeding your baby, sneaking in some rest time, and learning how to parent, nourishing yourself can quickly fall down your priority list.
While you may have had every intention to batch-cook and freeze meals and snacks, the reality is that it often isn’t enough. Having a meal service deliver ready-to-eat, pre-made meals right to your door can be a life-saver for your sanity and stomach.
They’ll help you (ideally, your partner) find a nourishing, nutrient-dense, and satisfying meal in no time. Keep reading to discover which delivery services we love and how they stack up.
Our picks for postpartum meal delivery at-a-glance:
- Postpartum-Focused: Mama Meals
- Eastern Traditions: Chiyo
- Custom Menu: Splendid Spoon
- Organic Ingredients: Daily Harvest
- Ready-to-eat: Sakara
- Family-Friendly: Gobble
- Ritual Meals (no longer in operation)
This post contains affiliate links. Hello Postpartum may receive a small commission – at no extra cost – should you purchase through a link on this page.
Which meal delivery service is the best?
The word “best” is a pretty subjective term, so while reading through our round-up, it’s essential to consider your and your family’s needs.
- Allotted budget
- Number of people to feed
- Dietary restrictions
- Meal preferences
- Delivery area
- Customizable menu
- Duration of program
The above list isn’t exhaustive, but it will give you an excellent place to start to find the best meal delivery service for your postpartum recovery. Keep these points in mind as you read through our picks.
It’s also important to consider that some meal delivery services deliver only the ingredients plus recipes while others offer the meals cooked and ready to eat. We’ve denoted which is which throughout the post.
1. Mama Meals
Average cost/meal: varies based on portion size
Mama Meals was created to help feed pregnant and postpartum parents with food made from organic, pasture-raised, and clean ingredients. Many of their recipes include organ meat – the most nutrient-dense food on the planet – and are focused on promoting healing through nourishment and warmth.
Meals include banana chia oatmeal, lentil stew, creamy chicken and rice congee, hearty sausage stew, primal chili, lactation cookies, and brownies, creamy sweet potato curry soup, healing postpartum tea, and more.
What’s unique about Mama Meals is their meals come in multiple servings. For example, each container in the package is 32 oz. (about two pounds of cooked food), which could feed a few meals for one person or an entire family of four with extra toppings added.
Exclusive Mama Meals savings for our readers.
When you order through our exclusive link, you can save $20 on your $200+ order from Mama Meals. Order and save now.
Additional Mama Meals details
Plans: You can choose from a gift box, a postpartum starter package, an essentials package, or a hungry mama package.
Menu selection: The menu is pre-set (but everything sounds delicious!)
Dietary options: Unfortunately, Mama Meals cannot accommodate nutritional requests now. Their meals are gluten-free, but the kitchen is not certified gluten-free (a potential issue for those with celiac or similar).
Assembly required: Food will arrive frozen. When ready to eat, thaw, reheat on low, and serve.
2. Chiyo
Average cost/meal: about $25 (also includes daily snacks, broth, and tea)
Rooted in ancient Eastern principles, Chiyo focuses on blood replenishment, tissue repair, hormone balance, and more throughout a new mom’s postpartum period. It was founded by a team of clinical nutritionists and private chefs that “combine the best of Eastern food therapy with Western nutritional standards.”
In our modern culture that doesn’t emphasize how critical it is to rest after birth, Chiyo is designed to help fuel your body and encourage recovery during a delicate and transformational time.
Their meals are focused on healing and are available to ship nationwide so you can keep yourself fed and focus on resting and bonding during this time. Everything is gluten and dairy-free, plant-forward, and looks absolutely delicious.
If you hope to feed more than yourself or the person who gave birth, family-sized add-ons are available at a discounted rate.
Some example meals include: baked apples and dukkah granola over coconut yogurt, Thai basil tofu with brown rice and miso cod, squash pad Thai with almond butter dressing and curry chicken, strawberry rose chia pudding, ginger kimchi scallion noodle soup. Check out next week’s menu.
Exclusive Chiyo discount code for our readers
You can use HELLOPOSTPARTUM30 to save $30 on your Chiyo postpartum meal delivery order. Order and save now.
Additional Chiyo details
Plans: Under their “Restore” Postpartum program, Chiyo offers 3, 5, and 7-day programs for any combination of breakfast/lunch/dinner. They also offer the First Forty Days Postpartum Program at a 10% discount and weekly delivery at a 5% discount.
Menu selection: Chiyo will suggest the best meal plans based on your needs and preferences after answering a short questionnaire.
Dietary options: Chiyo can accommodate requests for dairy-free, gluten-free pescatarian, vegan, vegetarian, kosher, and more. Their baseline is gluten-free, dairy-free, and plant-forward, though.
Assembly required: Food will arrive in individual-sized containers ready to eat. Some require minimal prep (like heating it up quickly).
3. Splendid Spoon
Average cost/meal: $9-$13 a meal
If ready-to-eat, healthy, mostly organic meals are your thing, check out Splendid Spoon. Their menu focuses primarily on smoothies and nourishing bowls – soups, noodles, grains, and more – all designed to fuel you with delicious, high-quality ingredients.
Your food box will arrive chilled and ready for the fridge or freezer.
Splendid Spoon is great for postpartum recovery because minimal work is required from the fridge to your bowl. The most work you’ll have to do is toss it in the microwave or saucepan. The meals do well in the refrigerator or freezer if you want to save them later.
Additional Splendid Spoon details
Plans: five different plans are available, ranging from breakfast only to breakfast, lunch, dinner, and reset
Menu selection: your menu is fully customizable with each delivery
Dietary options: customization of ingredients is not available at this time, but all meals are gluten-free and plant-based
Assembly required: smoothies are ready-to-eat; heating is only needed for bowls
4. Daily Harvest
Average cost/meal: $6.99-$7.75 a meal
If you’re digging the ease that Splendid Spoon provides, you’ll love what Daily Harvest offers because they have an even greater variety of meals.
While Splendid Spoon’s smoothies are ready-to-eat, the smoothie cups from Daily Harvest require you to dump the frozen ingredients and a liquid of your choice into a high-speed blender. Easy enough, though.
You’ll also find many meals – such as flatbreads, soups, forager bowls, oat bowls, chia bowls, and even superfood ice cream – ready for easy eating during your postpartum period. Everything is done for you other than heating or blending regarding prep work.
Additional Daily Harvest details
Plans: available in small (9 items), medium (14 items), or large (24 items)
Menu selection: your menu is fully customizable with each delivery
Dietary options: customization of ingredients is not available at this time, but all meals are gluten-free and dairy-free
Assembly required: almost ready-to-eat; only heating or blending required for most meals
5. Sakara
Average cost/meal: $19-$23 per meal
While Sakara is undoubtedly a more significant investment than Daily Harvest or Splendid Spoon, there’s no denying the quality of ingredients (locally sourced and organic) and creativity that goes into every meal. Check out this excellent Sakara review, and see what we mean.
With Sakara, it’s like having chef-created, nutritionist-approved meals sent to your door. From superfood waffles to beetroot veggie burgers to avocado cacao pudding, the meals from Sakara feel truly nourishing and divine.
Exclusive Sakara savings for our readers
Save 20% on your first Sakara meal delivery with code XOHELLOPP at checkout. Check out next week’s menu.
Along with your meals, you’ll receive a menu for the week, a sample of their Detox Tea, five days of their Complete Probiotic, and concentrated Beauty and Detox Water Drops.
Due to the higher price point, a meal delivery from Sakara would make a great gift to add to your registry for friends or family to split.
Additional Sakara details
Plans: two, three, and five-day meal plans of a minimum of two meals per day
Menu selection: the menu is pre-set and cannot be changed
Dietary options: depending on your program, Sakara may accommodate severe allergies. All meals are gluten and dairy-free.
Assembly required: ready-to-eat, only heating required on some meals
6. Gobble
Average cost/meal: $11.99 per meal
Unlike the meal delivery services listed above, Gobble does require some meal prep work on your end. Thankfully, all meals are designed to be ready within 15 minutes or less, so you won’t be dedicating too much time to the kitchen.
When you open your meal delivery box from Gobble, you’ll see that they do a lot of the prep work for you, including par-cooking (partially cooked) grains, sauces, and pasta, as well as slicing and dicing the required vegetables and meat.
If you check out their menu, you’ll find they offer plenty of dinner and lunch options and have soups, salads, breakfast, and dessert options. Check out their upcoming weekly menus to get an idea of their offerings.
Additional Gobble details
Plans: select from three or four nights/meals per week
Menu selection: your menu is fully customizable with each delivery
Dietary options: your meals can be prepared dairy-free, nut-free, or gluten-free by withholding certain ingredients in your meals
Assembly required: meals are not ready-to-eat, but a large portion of the cooking (slicing, dicing, and par-cooking) has been done for you
7. Ritual Meals
Average cost/meal: about $30 per meal
Oct. 2021 update: we’ve heard that Ritual has paused its postpartum meal delivery services and will update the post with any updates.
Ritual Meals is explicitly designed for postpartum mothers and offers organic meals, snacks, and teas delivered to your door. All meals are fully cooked, ready to eat, and made with high-quality, nutrient-dense ingredients to encourage postpartum recovery.
The meals are nutritionally designed to encourage a healthy recovery, promote hormonal balance, encourage energy levels, and support a healthy milk supply if the mom is nursing.
Ritual Meals was founded by two moms who discovered the power of Chinese Medicine and healing herbs during their postpartum recovery. Many of these principles can be found in the Ritual Meals meal delivery programs.
Additional Ritual Meals details
Plans: available in two, three, and five-day programs
Menu selection: your menu is fully customizable with each delivery
Dietary options: customization of ingredients is not available at this time
Assembly required: ready-to-eat, only heating required on some meals
A side-by-side meal delivery program comparison
| Budget-friendly? | Custom menu? | Ready-to-eat? | Organic? | |
| Mama Meals | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Chiyo | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Splendid Spoon | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓* |
| Daily Harvest | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Sakara | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| Gobble | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| Ritual Meals | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
*Note: While most of Splendid Spoon’s ingredients are organic, there are a few exceptions in some bowls and smoothies. Make sure to check each label for the most up-to-date ingredient list.
Our pick: the best postpartum meal delivery service
Winner: Mama Meals
The ingredients and care that go into every Mama Meals meal are unparalleled, and you can genuinely taste the difference. This small, family-owned and operated business truly cares about the postpartum meals they serve, and it shows.
We love how delicious and nutrient-dense the meals are, plus they are inspired by traditional Ayurvedic and Chinese Medicine practices that encourage warm, cooked meals after birth.
A company entirely founded on serving postpartum parents and encouraging recovery and wellness makes them a clear winner in our book.
Order Mama Meals and save $20 on your $200+ order.
Runner up: Chiyo
Our second postpartum meal delivery service pick is Chiyo for its focus on postpartum healing and nourishment, flexibility, menu options, ingredient quality, etc.
We love how dedicated they are to serving postpartum parents and the integrity of their ingredients. We also love the optional family-sized adds ons and the daily morning tonic, broth, and snack.
We do recognize, however, that the cost of this program is significant, and we kept that consideration in mind while choosing our favorite postpartum meal delivery program.
Order Chiyo now and save $30 on your postpartum meal delivery
Local postpartum meal delivery services
While many national meal delivery services help you recover postpartum, there are plenty of local options in larger cities if you’d like to support your local community.
If you’d like to check out the local options in your area, a quick Google search for “postpartum meal delivery service + your city name” can help you get started. We’ve rounded up several major cities and their leading postpartum meal delivery services. Check them out below.
1. Seattle, Washington
Maven Meals
Westerly
2. New York City, New York
Nouri Kitchen
Modern Love
Chen Mommy
3. Los Angeles, California
Mama Glow
Milk + Seed
Motherbees
Additional postpartum nutrition resources
To learn more about the importance of postpartum nutrition, check out some expert-created nutrition resources below.
The prices of these are much higher than listed in the article.
Hey, Joanne –
Thanks for letting us know! We will update our article to reflect current pricing changes, but as our economy is rapidly changing, it’s always best to visit each website for the most up-to-date pricing. Thanks!