Postpartum Planning Guide: Essential Tips for New Mums
- Freya Bielenberg
- Jun 5, 2024
- 3 min read
Updated: Jun 18, 2024
Welcoming a new life into the world is a rollercoaster of joy, excitement and a whole lot of other emotions. You’ve spent months planning for your new arrival: what to eat, what not to eat, what’s in your birth plan, doing your hypnobirthing, getting pregnancy massages, finding your kegels, strengthening your kegels, decorating the baby’s room, tailoring your workouts to your trimester… it’s a lot! But what happens after the baby arrives? What happens when you get home, exhausted and hungry, trying to care for this new little human that didn’t come with an instruction manual? The “oh shit, what now” moment hits hard.
If it’s your first baby, everything about postpartum is brand new. If you already have kids, it’s a whole other circus! Where the heck is this village everyone mentioned? Newborns need sleep, feeding, changing and they cry — a lot. The frequency of these needs is irregular but constant, leaving little time for anything else. Even when feeling overwhelmed and exhausted, many new mums hesitate to delegate baby care, often out of worry or guilt and insist on doing it themselves instead.
In those first months, it’s easy to forget that you also need sleep, food and a change of clothes. You’re on this new journey just as much as your baby is and you need and deserve to be looked after too. It’s maddening that we encourage, if not pressure women to have babies and then expect them to just get on with it afterwards, with very little recognition of their experience or wellbeing. Yes, it’s hard, and no, there’s no changing the steep learning curve, but with a little bit of postpartum planning, we can put things in place beforehand to make it feel more manageable and to make sure that you, as a new mama, are held too.
How to create a cocoon with postpartum planning:
Expectations of others: Discuss with your partner, family and friends what you expect from them in those first few months. How can they help you? Explain that your needs will change daily. Be selfish! This is your time with your baby. If you’re not feeling like having visitors, say so—even to your mother-in-law, great aunt, or NCT girls. It’s your space, and people need to respect that.
Invest in comfort: Buy comfy house clothes, socks and slippers — things that prioritise your comfort but also make you feel a bit put together. Soft, non-restrictive materials can help you feel cosy and more like yourself in those first few weeks.
Set up stations: Create stations around the house with essentials and if you have multiple floors, put one on each floor. Include things like one-handed snacks, hydrating drinks, muslins, nipple guards, pumping materials, a travel pillow, a charging brick and an e-reader or tablet
Entertainment: Make a list of things you want to watch, read and listen to. You don’t have to be anywhere, so lean into it and enjoy the rare downtime while the world hustles around you.
The 5-5-5 rule: Spend 5 days in bed, 5 days on the bed, and 5 days around the bed. It’s a guide to help you take things slowly. Your body is working overtime to heal and adjust. Don’t push it too hard because you won’t get this time back.
Plan for meals and drinks: Plan meals and drinks not just for the first few days but for the first few weeks and months. Recovery can take up to two years to fully get back to a pre-pregnancy state. Proper nutrition during this time can make you healthier than you were before, according to Traditional Chinese Medicine.
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