Healing South Asian Perinatal Food & Body Struggles
Author: Ruby Prasad, LPC-Associate
Pregnancy and the postpartum period are often described as transformative - physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. But for many South Asian individuals, this transition can bring up painful and complicated relationships with body image, food, cultural expectations, and past experiences. These challenges are especially present for those with a history of disordered eating or body mistrust.
In South Asian communities, conversations around mental health are still frequently stigmatized. Struggles with eating are often minimized, misunderstood, or masked with language around health, discipline, or family values. And during the perinatal period - when the body is changing rapidly and identity is in flux - these internalized narratives can feel especially loud.
Perinatal Disordered Eating: What It Can Look Like
Disordered eating during pregnancy or postpartum may not always fit neatly into a diagnosis. It might look like:
Restricting food despite hunger due to fear of weight gain
Experiencing guilt for needing rest or nourishment
Obsessing over “bouncing back” physically after birth
Fixating on feeding decisions (breastfeeding vs. formula) as a reflection of worth
Internalizing family comments about changing body shape
These struggles are often intensified by cultural pressures to appear grateful, strong, and selfless, even when your tank is depleted.
In South Asian families, food can be both a source of love and control. Many people grow up in homes where food is heavily emphasized but also closely monitored, where appearance is openly discussed, and where care for others is prioritized over care for self. These early dynamics can resurface when someone is tasked with caring for a new life while navigating their own healing.
Reclaiming Therapy as a Culturally Rooted Act of Care
Seeking support during this season can feel radical, especially in cultures where self-sacrifice is often seen as virtue, and asking for help can carry shame. But therapy in this context is not about rejecting culture. It’s about making space for all parts of it: The parts that offer connection, comfort, and belonging, and the parts that may need to be rewritten.
Perinatal therapy for South Asian clients can include:
Exploring the messages received in childhood around food, body, and caregiving
Processing grief related to unmet emotional needs growing up
Navigating cross-cultural pressures in parenthood and family relationships
Building a compassionate relationship with a changing body
Creating space for duality, fear, and complex emotions
Rather than pathologizing these experiences, therapy honors them. It validates how cultural context, intergenerational trauma, and societal pressures shape the perinatal journey.
Therapy Is an Act of Love
Choosing therapy during this time is not a luxury. It is a deeply meaningful act of love, not only for the self, but also for the child(ren) who will one day witness how their parent models care, rest, and emotional presence.
Breaking cycles doesn’t always look dramatic. Sometimes it’s choosing to eat when hungry. Sometimes it’s naming the grief that accompanies change. Sometimes it’s challenging the belief that rest must be earned.
South Asian individuals navigating perinatal transitions deserve spaces where their identities are understood and not explained away. Spaces where it’s safe to hold grief and joy side by side. Spaces where they are not expected to shrink, stay silent, or “push through.” Healing is not about abandoning where you come from; it’s about intentionally choosing what to carry forward.
If you’re seeking culturally responsive support around perinatal mental health, disordered eating, and identity exploration, that’s the work I love to do. You can learn more about me here >>> Ruby Prasad, LPC-Associate (supervised by Dr. Bill McHenry, PhD, NCC, LPC-S). I offer therapy grounded in compassion, cultural understanding, and whole-person care, and I’m passionate about supporting South Asian clients in building a gentler relationship with food, body, and self during these seasons of change.
Learn more or schedule a consultation HERE.
