Here at Made for This Birth we obviously believe that it’s important to prepare for and make intentional decisions regarding your pregnancy and birth. These times are designed by God to be profoundly significant rites of passage for you as a woman and mother. But it’s also true that many women focus so much on the birth that they neglect to learn about or plan for the postpartum time adequately! In fact, especially to new parents, the intensity and difficulty of the postpartum time can come as quite a shock. Just like birth, this time is critical to think about and plan for as best you can. Preparing for the needs of postpartum will reduce stress, your risk for depression and anxiety, and allow this special time to be more peaceful and joyful.
One of the best things you can do at the end of pregnancy is to make intentional decisions about how you will handle the postpartum time as a family as well as take practical steps and preparations that you’ll thank yourself for later. There are a few dozen questions listed in the Made for This Birth “Planning for Postpartum” downloadable resource that will give you lots of guidance as to what things you should be thinking about and preparing for now. (CLICK HERE for site subscription members or find it on the Made for This Birth app!)
How will you handle visitors? Who will be preparing meals? Do I have the information at the ready for a lactation consultant if needed? When do we plan the baby's baptism? These are just a few of the many things to think about now for a more positive and supported postpartum time for you, your baby, and your whole family!
Another important thing you can do is to use these last few weeks of pregnancy to double or triple batch your meals. Whatever you are making for dinner, if it’s freezable, double or triple the batch and freeze the extra in meal size portions for your family. You can also take a whole day or two and dedicate them to prepping as many postpartum meals as possible to freeze for whenever you need them. No one ever regrets having more meals on hand! Even if you will have family or friends bringing meals or setting up a meal train, every extra meal you freeze now will come in handy when those meals from others stop coming or to fill in any gaps in the calendar. And you’ll absolutely still appreciate having an easy dinner to thaw when baby is two or three months old and keeping your hands full all day, trust us.
If you've been blessed with some nesting energy, use it wisely! Just like so many things throughout pregnancy, this is an intentional part of God's plan. This beautiful interior motivation is designed by God to support and help you prepare for this baby and postpartum time! However, it's easy to "waste" that energy on unnecessary projects or things that won't actually be serving you or your family in the best possible way. Instead, use it well towards a more fulfilling, healthier, and peace-filled postpartum. That's what it's there for!
To help you with that, below you can find a free postpartum item checklist to download and print to make sure you have the things you need for those first few initial days and weeks after birth. Some things you may have on hand already and some may be things you didn't even think about yet. These are the tried and true absolute essentials I've found most beneficial both for clients and for me personally.
Click right on the box below to grab it for yourself!
The last few weeks of pregnancy are the time to purchase or gather these necessary postpartum items. Do you have enough pads on hand? Nursing supplies? What groceries can you buy and stock ahead of time so you don’t have to purchase them for months? Get it now so you won't be scrambling after birth to make sure you have these things on hand. You'll have more than enough on your mind and being well supplied now will be one less thing to take energy away from healing, resting, and bonding with that precious new baby.
Click on the image or link below to see just some of the important items we recommend having on hand before baby is born:
We also highly recommend checking out the birth supply stores In His Hands Birth Supply and Precious Arrows, both online stores offering many of these supplies you may need for birth and postpartum.
The postpartum time is intense, amazing, exhausting, beautiful, messy, and incredibly full. We absolutely promise that your future self will thank your present self for whatever work you put in now during your pregnancy to intentionally prepare for it well. Set yourself up now for the best postpartum experience possible for you, your baby, and your whole family.