Let's talk about the hardest-working thing in your body that you've never actually thanked.
Collagen.
It's what your skin is made of. Your joints. Your pelvic floor. The very tissue that stretched to make room for your baby and now has the not-so-small job of bouncing back. It holds you together through every stretch, ache, and 3am feed of motherhood and asks for zero credit while doing it.
So let's give it some.
So what even is collagen?
Think of it as your body's scaffolding, the most abundant protein you have, and the structural framework for your skin, bones, joints, tendons, hair, nails, and connective tissue.
If your body were a house, collagen is the timber and the beams: the stuff that holds the whole shape together and keeps it springy, strong, and bouncing back into place. You make it yourself, all the time, but your natural production starts gently declining from your mid-20s, which is exactly the window many mums are trying, falling pregnant, and recovering in.
Why you need it at every single stage
- Trying to conceive: you're building the reserves before the marathon. Topping up your body's raw materials now means the scaffolding is ready before the demand hits.
- Pregnancy: your skin stretches across your bump, your pelvic floor and abdominal wall soften to make room, and the hormone relaxin loosens your joints — all of it leaning on collagen. Your baby is built from it too: their developing bones, skin, and connective tissue. You're spending reserves faster than ever before.
- The fourth trimester: birth is where recovery begins. Skin that stretched is finding its way back, loosened joints are re-stabilising (hello, new aches), and tissue is repairing, collagen is a key building block of all of it. This isn't "bouncing back," it's rebuilding, gently and well.
- Breastfeeding: as your body keeps working hard and running on very little sleep, supporting your skin, joints, and connective tissue with the right raw materials is one small thing in your corner.
"But doesn't my body just make its own?"
It does, but here's the honest science. Production is already on a slow decline from your mid-20s, then pregnancy and birth pile on enormous demand, and supply struggles to keep pace. There's also a fascinating detail: glycine, a key amino acid in collagen, may become conditionally essential in late pregnancy, meaning your body's normal ability to make enough can't keep up with what your baby and changing body suddenly need. Collagen is one of the richest dietary sources of glycine there is. So topping up isn't vanity, it's handing your body the exact raw material it's crying out for.
Does taking it actually work?
Fair question, the wellness world loves a buzzword. So, real talk: collagen supplements are hydrolysed, broken into small peptides your body can actually absorb. The research is encouraging, studies on collagen peptides show improvements in skin elasticity and hydration, plus benefits for joint comfort. Two honest caveats: it's a support, not a magic wand (it works best with good food, water, and hilariously, with a newborn- rest), and results build over weeks and months, not overnight. Studied doses land roughly between 2.5g and 15g a day depending on the goal.
And here's where we sneak in 👀
Every serving of Nourish & Nurture delivers 8g of collagen, a generous dose that sits right inside the clinically studied range: at the higher end of what skin research uses, and squarely in the zone studied for joint support. Not a token sprinkle, not overkill, a real, useful amount to support your skin, joints, and recovery through trying, pregnancy, breastfeeding, and the fourth trimester.
You held it together — literally — to bring your baby into the world. Now let's hold you together. 🤍
👉 Shop Nourish & Nurture
Always chat to your healthcare provider, midwife, or registered dietitian before starting any new supplement during pregnancy or breastfeeding.
Sources: Cleveland Clinic and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health overviews of collagen and connective tissue; research on collagen peptide supplementation and skin elasticity and hydration (e.g. Proksch et al., 2014); studies on collagen peptides and joint comfort; Rasmussen et al. (Journal of Nutrition, 2021) on glycine as conditionally indispensable in late pregnancy; Association for Dietetics in South Africa (ADSA) maternal nutrition guidance.