Pregnancy asks one thing of the body. Postpartum can ask another. This guide explains how nutrient needs may shift after birth, especially during breastfeeding.

If you are feeling persistently tired after having a baby, more than what you expected, you are not alone.

This article helps you understand the signs of postpartum iron deficiency and what to look out for.

Short answer: synthetic nutrients are compounds manufactured to replicate the chemical structure of vitamins and minerals. Wholefood nutrients come from concentrated food, with the surrounding food matrix intact. Neither is universally better. Haem iron from animal food is absorbed several times more efficiently than most synthetic iron, while synthetic folic acid is absorbed better than the folate naturally present in food. The practical differences are cost, dose precision, tolerability, and, in Australia, which set of regulations the product sits under. The right choice depends on whether you are supporting everyday nutrition or correcting a diagnosed deficiency.

If you have searched this term, you probably recognised something in it before you knew what it meant. The particular exhaustion that sleep does not fix. The foggy, flattened feeling. The sense of running an engine that has not been refuelled.