Postpartum Planning
Why do I need a postpartum plan?
Creating a postpartum plan is an important part of your birth preparation. This plan is there to support you during your early days and weeks of parenthood. That precious and magical time when you are getting to know both your baby and yourself as a parent.
We spend lots and lots of time thinking about birth, rightly so, it’s arguably the most (or one of the) transformative moment of your life.
However, postpartum is an equally important time. This is the time when you will be sharing your first moments together as a family. You will be healing from your birth and making sure that you get a full recovery so you have the best possible experience as a parent. That you have the energy and enthusiasm to take on the tasks in front of you.
It’s a moment in your life where you will be asked to adapt to a monumental amount of change. This takes a lot of resources. Where it can feel difficult is when you are trying to adapt and change and recover and manage lots and lots of competing demands.
You will have done something magical. You will have birthed a new life. This is a big deal. Huge. You deserve care, nourishment and space. This postpartum plan is about you having time to consider your options and put things in place to support you. Taking time for the future you. Making sure that future you is cared for, so in turn, she is able to dedicate herself to early motherhood and caring for a newborn.
What should my postpartum plan cover?
This will be different for everyone. What is important to you, might not matter to someone else.
For lots of women, food and nourishment plays a big part. The filling of the freezer and/or receiving meals from friends and family feels very special. This is wonderful but you can also choose to have ready meals, simple foods that are easy to prepare, take aways or a mix. It can be helpful to understand what foods will be extra supportive in the postpartum phase and how you might choose to incorporate these.
Herbal medicine can be incredibly calming for after birth. Herbal bath soaks and herbal teas can be a beautiful thing to explore. Making some self-care recipes to tend to your body after birth can be a nice way to spend some of your weekend days in late pregnancy.
Relationships. If you have a partner, take the time to talk about what this time means to you both. How do you imagine the changes to your relationship when the baby comes will play out? How would you both like to be supported during this transitional time? How will you make time for each other and your relationship? Finding your way back to a physical relationship, what intimacy might look and feel like after your birth? How might you mark these moments together?
It can be helpful to spend time considering your support networks. Who will be there to support you? Whose company is warming and helpful? Are there people who make you feel like you have to put a ‘front’ on? The ones you need to put makeup on for and clean your house?! It might also be valuable to spend some time now reflecting on your boundaries. This could also include a plan for how you will introduce your baby to friends and family. I always, strongly, encourage you to consider who will be coming to visit you (and give support and care) and who is coming to meet the baby and have newborn cuddles. I would suggest that people who are there for you are welcome in the early days and those who are coming to meet the baby can wait until you are ready.
Feeding is a big deal. In the UK our breastfeeding rates are woefully low. This is because of a lack of structures and systems to support women. 80% of women in the UK do not meet their breastfeeding goals and only 1% are still exclusively breastfeeding when we get to the stage at which solid food is introduced (when the baby is six months old). So if this is something that is important to you, this should be part of your planning. For breastfeeding to go well, you need support. Knowledge can be helpful but can also sometimes be unhelpful too.
There is so much more and I’ll be sharing more about that over the coming weeks. If you’d like support creating your plan. I’d love to help. You can book a free chat here to talk more or drop me an email.
