Importance of Postpartum Planning

Due to concerns with postpartum mood disorders, such as the baby blues, postpartum depression, postpartum anxiety and postpartum psychosis, we have started introducing postpartum planning into our prenatal appointments with our birth clients. So much energy is focused on pregnancy, the nursery, baby showers, buying baby clothes and gear, planning how the birth might go, packing your birth bag, learning about the changes that are going on inside your body and that is just to name a few! However, very little time is thought about the less glamorous side of this: what it is going to be like to have your baby home with you.

Planning Now Means More Time With Your Newborn Later

While it can be challenging to plan how the postpartum period will go exactly, having conversations now can save time and energy later, when you need both of those things the most. We do not expect our clients to be able to map out their days with a newborn, but we do encourage them to think on a broader level about what they would like to happen, how those wishes will be accomplished, and who will (and won’t) be present.

Plus, if you think about who will be in charge of known needs (cooking, cleaning, errands, etc.), you will be able to spend more time bonding with and dealing with the unexpected needs of your newborn when he or she arrives.

Fluid Planning is Key

Parenthood is one big, great unknown. It is impossible to plan for every single thing that will happen. Furthermore, it is impossible to plan for how you feel. So the postpartum plan is a very fluid document. We encourage you to do many drafts, and go back and change it as much as needed. The important part of the planning is to open the door for conversations. These conversations may be with yourself about how to handle your postpartum body, or with your partner to talk about sharing responsibilities, or with your in-laws to limit how long they will be staying in your home.

Furthermore, things will come up that you were not prepared for and we hope that the planning you have already done will make it easier to account for those unknowns.

Topics Covered in Our Postpartum Planning Guide

General Newborn Care
Your Postpartum Body
Mental Health Care
Visitors
Meals
Self Care
Sleep
Your Home +1
Older Children

Convenient Scheduling

We hope that has many individuals and families as possible are able to benefit from our postpartum planning, and because of that, we offer many different options to better suit you.

Birth Doula Clients: At our first prenatal appointment, we will give you the postpartum planning guide to complete prior to your second prenatal appointment.

Postpartum Doula Clients: For all our postpartum clients, we like to have a planning meeting where we can learn about you and your family. At this appointment, we will give you a postpartum planning guide to complete (hopefully) before your baby arrives. If it isn't until after your baby arrives you realize you would like a postpartum doula, we will email you the postpartum plan as soon as possible so you can benefit as much as possible from it.

Postpartum Planning Consultation: During this private meeting, we will meet with you and anyone else you would like to be present to discuss in detail each aspect of your postpartum plan and you build a completely individualized plan.

Postpartum Planning Class: In this small group class, we will go over in detail each section and as a group talk about any excitement, concerns, fears, and other feelings that may arise while thinking about your postpartum plan.