The Postpartum Visit for Birth Doulas
All of our birth doula packages include a complimentary consultation, two prenatal appointments, complete birth support, and one postpartum visit. The postpartum visit is not necessarily to provide postpartum care since we are still wearing our birth doula hats, but it is debrief about the birth experience and make a plan moving forward with finally having your newborn home with you!
Structure of the Postpartum Appointment
This appointment is very casual, so the structure is very much on your terms. We generally like to have the appointment in your home, after your midwives have conducted their home visit, and in between family members. Generally when we leave our clients in their birthing location after their baby is born, talking to us in the last thing on their minds. This appointment is to close out our birth support and to open the doors for other support we can offer, or refer out for services outside of our scope. Our intention behind this appointment is be a calm appointment, where you do not need to worry about how the house looks or when the last time you washed you hair.
Most clients like to talk about their birth experience. This is the perfect time to ask questions, get clarifications, relive what it was like to finally hold your baby, and anything else you may want to talk about. We generally do not want to tell you our experience at the birth, because your experience is what matters. So because of that, we do not provide a timeline or our interpretations of how the birth went.
This is also a great time to talk about any referrals that you may need. While we have some training in breastfeeding, and are able to help with breastfeeding positions and basic latch issues, we are not able to diagnose or work with any difficulties you may have. We do have some local lactation consultations that you can either visit in their offices or they can come to your home. One of our doulas, Emily, is also a massage therapist so we can talk about any linger pain you are having in your body from pregnancy, labor, or birth. We have chiropractors, physical therapists, psychotherapists, and many more amazing practitioners in our area that can help with anything you may need. Morgan is great at opening the conversation for any programs that may be beneficial for you and your newborn with her background in social work.
Postpartum Doula Support
While all of our birth doulas are also postpartum doulas, this appointment is not intended to be an official postpartum doula appointment. We can use this appointment to plan and help structure what you would like our postpartum doula support to look like, but we generally do not want to be using our postpartum doula skills during this appointment.
Postpartum Planning
With all our doula clients, weather they are birth doula, postpartum doula, or even placenta encapsulation clients, we encourage them to do some postpartum planning prior to the baby arriving. So ideally, the plan is complete and even being used when we arrive for our postpartum appointment. We will talk through what is working with your plan, what is not working, and everything in between. For those who are not our clients, we do sell the postpartum plan online, and also offer private and group postpartum planning classes.
We love having this last appointment with our birth clients as a way to wrap up care, and move forward. We look forward to supporting you from pregnancy to the postpartum period! Contact us today to learn more!
