Planning for Postpartum
It’s completely normal to be focused on your birth plan while you’re pregnant. Birth is a BIG deal! You spend so much time researching the right setting, your birth team, and what to pack in your birth bag — all while trying to take in the advice you want and dodging the not-so-wanted advice.
When the big event of giving birth is over — you find yourself at home with your baby, sleep deprived, under showered, bleeding, leaking milk, and wondering where to go from here.
Let’s talk about your postpartum plan…
After having a baby, you usually have a postpartum follow-up appointment with your primary care provider around 6 weeks. This leaves a lot of time for questions, concerns, and issues to arise from all the drastic change that is taking place as you heal from giving birth and navigate caring for a newborn. Without proper preparation and planned support, this can be a very challenging and/or isolating experience. It’s so important to familiarize yourself with the “fourth trimester” and what to expect, so you can have a smooth transition into motherhood whether it’s your first, second, or third baby and beyond.
Regardless of how your baby entered into the world, you will be bleeding for 4-8 weeks after the birth. Your uterus is making huge efforts to contract itself back down to its pre-pregnancy size. Your brain and body are using A LOT of nutrients and energy to produce breast milk for your baby throughout the day. Even the smallest of tasks — like going up and down stairs multiple times a — leaves very little energy for the body to do its work. This can prolong healing, affect your milk supply, and cause postpartum mood disorders such as postpartum anxiety, baby blues, or postpartum depression.
So based on your body’s recovery demands alone, the ideal postpartum support plan would look something like this —
For the first 2 weeks:
You want to be spending the majority of your time in bed resting, recovering, and feeding your baby so all other household duties of cleaning, caring for other children and/or animals is the responsibility of your partner, close family/friends, or postpartum doula.
Arrange for in-person help in advance or at least have someone on call so they are ready if you need them.
Plan for a lactation consultant to support you in the early days and weeks. You can reserve an in-home visit in advance, and just reach out when the baby is born. Typically they will be able to visit within 48 hrs. They can give you peace of mind knowing you are on the right track or be incredibly instrumental in troubleshooting latch or supply issues.
For the first 4-6 weeks:
Have a meal train going with friends and family or stocked freezer meals. Not having to make quality meals while in recovery mode is one less thing to think about.
*Pro tip: Host a “nesting party” during your last few weeks of pregnancy and invite your friends and family over. Ask each of them to bring ingredients to make one of their favorite freezer-friendly meals. You will have a FULL freezer of ready-to-make meals made with love.
Your body is going through the biggest hormone drop it’ll ever experience, while having the physical demands of caring for a newborn around the clock — it’s going to need some extra TLC. Plan for weekly body work in the form of massage/abhyanga and belly binding to support the uterus’ shrinking process.
Pediatric chiropractic care is incredibly helpful for newborn gut health, and/or any feeding or sleeping struggles.
Lastly, but very importantly, giving birth brings new life in the form of a baby but also a new role, identity and responsibility of becoming a mother and parent. Mental health checks with a professional are beneficial for processing these new experiences and moving through challenges with more resilience and ease.
After 6 weeks to 1 year:
You may no longer be considered “postpartum” in medical terms — however, there is still recovery ahead after carrying a growing baby for 9 months. See a pelvic floor physical therapist to continue to support your body and regain strength and tone. As long as you are producing milk, you are also producing relaxin (the hormone that keeps bones and ligaments soft) so adjustments and modifications to your daily body mechanics are a must in protecting your back, abdominal muscles, and pelvic floor.
Things you can do during pregnancy to prepare you for postpartum:
Start a registry for friends and family to fund professional services. Include the registry link in your baby shower invite. BeHerVillage is the perfect platform for this. You can use this registry to find essential postpartum services such as a postpartum doula (hi!), pelvic floor PT, postpartum massage, etc.
Learn about newborn sleep behavior and how to maximize rest in those early weeks and months.
Turn your bedroom into a postpartum sanctuary with everything you need to care for your baby and rest your body.
Plan a nesting party or request more information regarding my nesting support.
Did you know? You can purchase my “Postpartum Planning Guide” which includes mom and baby checklists to fully prepare your home for the essentials you need to heal and thrive, topics to discuss with your partner to feel fully supported throughout postpartum, as well as a nutrition guide to prioritize your body’s nutrient stores while breastfeeding.
