In a world that often asks mothers to keep going, Leila Armour offers something beautifully different — permission to be held. Through Village for Mama, Leila has created a deeply nurturing space centred around postpartum nourishment, community and intentional motherhood. As a mother of five and author of the beloved Village for Mama cookbook, her work is a tender reflection of her own lived experience. In this conversation, Leila shares the lessons motherhood has gifted her, the importance of building a village, and the beauty of slowing down during life’s most transformative seasons.

For those discovering you for the first time, can you tell us a little about yourself, your beautiful family, and the journey that led you to creating Village for Mama?

Hello beautiful Daughters of India Village, I know I’m in good company here.

I’m Leila, a mama of five beautiful children, including two sets of twins. I became a mother seven years ago and honestly, it is my favourite version of me. I often say that I truly found myself through matrescence and that the experience of becoming a mother has been the catalyst for so much of the work I do today.

I’m a postpartum doula, author, holistic nutrition consultant and founder of Village for Mama.
During my first pregnancy, I began learning about traditional postpartum care practices from cultures around the world and was struck by how much wisdom Western motherhood had lost when it came to nourishing and supporting mothers after birth. At the time, the idea of intentionally preparing for postpartum felt like such a foreign concept and it simply wasn’t something being spoken about by anyone in my own community.

That journey eventually became Village for Mama, which first began as a postpartum recipe book designed to help mothers gather their village and receive nourishment during those early weeks after birth. Over the years it has grown into so much more and now includes an online village, postpartum education and resources, a practitioner directory and more recently, a postpartum planning and support app - Your Postpartum Village. 

Everything I create stems from one core belief: mothers deserve to be deeply supported through their fourth trimester. Because postpartum isn’t simply recovery after birth, It's the foundation women begin motherhood from.

Motherhood can transform us in the most unexpected ways. How would you say becoming a mother — and now raising five children, including two sets of twins — has shaped the woman you are today?

Motherhood has softened me in some ways and expanded me in others.

I think one of the biggest surprises for me has been discovering just how deeply motherhood has fuelled my creativity. After each postpartum, when I have intentionally slowed down, rested and truly honoured that season, I’ve noticed I come out the other side full of inspiration and new ideas.
Village for Mama came to me four months postpartum with my daughter. Other parts of my business were born after my first set of twins. And most recently, I built an entire app while tandem feeding my second set of twins.

Motherhood hasn’t made me less ambitious. If anything, it has made me more observant, more creative and far more connected to the work I feel genuinely called to do in the world.

I think becoming a mother has given me a much deeper understanding of what feels meaningful to me and where I want to direct my energy. Of course, the irony is that motherhood has also left me with far less time to bring all of my wild ideas to life. But in many ways, I think that tension has taught me to trust timing, work with more intention and create things that feel deeply aligned with the season of life I’m in.

Was there a particular moment in your own postpartum experience where you realised how deeply women need support, nourishment and community during the fourth trimester?

I think what struck me most was realising just how much modern motherhood expects women to continue carrying life as normal. It almost feels like a badge of honour in our society to be unchanged by pregnancy and birth.

Women are recovering physically, feeding around the clock, learning to mother and navigating an enormous identity shift, and yet somehow are still expected to compartmentalise all of that and continue showing up in the world as though very little has changed.

What we don’t acknowledge enough is how much strength there is in surrender. To truly soften, rest and restore during those tender early weeks can feel deeply uncomfortable in a world that celebrates productivity and independence. It can be seen as indulgent, unnecessary or even lazy.

But I remember feeling the contrast so deeply between intentionally protecting my postpartum and being fully supported, versus what I saw mums around me experiencing.

It became very obvious to me that postpartum itself isn’t inherently hard. Unsupported postpartum is what’s hard.

So many mothers feel pressure to “bounce back” quickly after birth. What do you wish more women knew about slowing down and truly honouring postpartum?

I wish more women understood that rest postpartum is not indulgent.

Birth and postpartum are one of the most physiologically demanding experiences the female body will ever go through, and yet so often women spend months preparing for birth while giving very little thought to what happens afterwards.
I truly believe a supported postpartum is a mother’s birth right.

We have normalised women recovering physically, feeding around the clock, navigating enormous hormonal shifts and learning how to mother, all while being expected to continue carrying life as normal.

I have now experienced three very different postpartums, all honouring different lengths of intentional rest. The first, I rested for around ten days. The second, I protected four weeks. Then with my most recent postpartum, I honoured a full forty-two days of deep rest and support.
What I have learnt is that when mothers truly allow themselves to slow down, receive support and surrender to that season, they do not come out the other side depleted. They come out with more capacity.

I think modern motherhood asks women to return to normal far too quickly, but postpartum was never meant to be something we simply survive. When we honour that season well, I believe it changes everything that comes after.

You speak so beautifully about “gathering your village.” What does a supportive village look like to you, and how can women begin building one around them?

I think one of the biggest misconceptions we have around village support is that it needs to involve lots of people. 

So many women don’t intentionally plan for postpartum support because they assume they don’t have enough people around them to warrant having a village.

But you will be surprised at how much of a difference one or two people can make. Sometimes a village is simply one friend doing school pickup, a neighbour dropping off a meal and your partner understanding exactly how to support you. 

What matters isn’t the size of the village, it’s making support visible and specific. It's why planning for postpartum makes such a difference and why I built my postpartum planning platform. 

I also believe we need to be the village in order to have a village.

We need to normalise gathering around women when they have a baby, even when they haven’t explicitly asked for support or specfically planned for postpartum. A lot of first time mums really don't understand what it's going to look like.

I think once women experience what it feels like to be truly held during postpartum, they naturally want to become that for other mothers in their own community. And most people genuinely want to help. They simply don’t know how. The more clearly we communicate what support actually looks like, the easier it becomes for people to show up in meaningful ways.

Caring for yourself while caring for little ones can feel overwhelming at times. What are some small rituals or grounding practices that help you return to yourself amidst the chaos of motherhood?

Motherhood has taught me that nervous system support needs to look different to what it did before kids.

I used to think feeling regulated needed a long walk, a yoga class, time completely to myself. I think the more children you have, the more you learn to tune into the little things. The tiny resets.

For me sometimes that looks like a three minute shower, washing off the overwhelm, doing a quick face cleanse and oil and putting on something that makes me feel comfortable and beautiful. A pair of jaymes bamboo undies and a DOI dress always does the trick. 

Sometimes it’s music. I love how a single song can completely transport you out of a dense moment and shift the energy of everything around you.

I also love lying on my Pranamat for a few minutes with some intentional breathing followed by a coconut cacao or spiced chai.

Food and nourishment are such a central part of your work. Is there a recipe from Village for Mama that feels especially comforting or meaningful to you during postpartum? We would love for you to share it with our readers.

I have so many favourite postpartum recipes and I feel incredibly lucky that through each of my postpartums, my village has nourished me with so many of them.

This most recent postpartum was especially beautiful because my doula also introduced me to more traditional TCM and Ayurvedic recipes, which really expanded the way I think about postpartum nourishment.

So when I built the recipe library inside Village for Mama Your Postpartum Village I added some new recipes inspired by my most recent postpartum experience.

I absolutely have to share the Ayurvedic rice pudding with you.
It is so delicious and makes the most perfect nourishing and warming breakfast, snack or little sweet treat.

It’s soft, warm and incredibly easy to digest, which makes it especially beautiful for those tender early postpartum days when warmth and gentle nourishment matter so much.

Creamy, warming and gently spiced, this Ayurvedic rice pudding is a nourishing option for breakfast, dessert or an afternoon snack. With easily digested basmati rice, protein-rich milk and nourishing ghee, it provides gentle energy with warming spices. Ginger, cardamom and cinnamon support digestion and circulation, while goji berries and sesame seeds provide minerals and antioxidants to support postpartum wellbeing.

 Ingredients 

1 cup basmati rice
2 tbsp ghee
6–8 cardamom pods
1 small cinnamon stick
4 cups full cream milk
1 cup water
1cm piece of ginger, finely grated
Pinch of sea salt
2–3 tbsp maple syrup
1 tsp vanilla bean paste
2–3 tbsp goji berries, plus extra to garnish
1–2 tbsp toasted sesame seeds (black or white)

Method
 
1. Optional: soak rice in filtered water for 1 hour, then drain well.

2. Add ghee to a heavy-based pot over low heat. Add cardamom pods and cinnamon stick and gently toast for 1–2 minutes until fragrant and aromatic.

3. Add the basmati rice and stir for 1 minute to lightly coat the grains.

4. Pour in the milk, water, ginger and salt. Stir to combine. Bring to a gentle simmer.

5. Cook over low heat for 25-30 minutes, stirring regularly to prevent sticking, until the rice has broken down and the mixture is thick and creamy.

6. Stir through maple syrup and vanilla bean paste. Remove cardamom pods and cinnamon sticks (optional).

7. Fold through goji berries and allow them to soften in the warm pudding for 3–5 minutes.

8. Serve warm topped with toasted sesame seeds and extra goji berries.

Notes for Mums:

Store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days. Add a splash of milk when reheating to loosen texture. To make this dish dairy free/vegan, swap the full cream milk for coconut milk or other milk of your choice. Soaking the rice will reduce cooking time, so check the pudding earlier and reduce the simmer time slightly if needed.