While creating a birth plan is important, less typical but just as crucial, is creating a postpartum plan

Mothers need the same thing a newborn baby does. They need to be swaddled with support. They need to be affirmed and held.” These lines are a mantra in the professional birth community of doulas and OBGYNs. A postpartum plan can help that happen. It’s a mapped-out set of preferences and needs, a plan of action for what happens in the initial days and weeks after birth, during which a mother adjusts to life with her little miracle.

Modern society has forgotten that a woman who’s postpartum is just as vulnerable after the baby is born as she is during labor. Often exhausted from the birth, instead of resting, she’s tasked with caring for a newborn who needs her for absolutely everything.

Creating a postpartum plan enables a mother to think through in advance what will help her, bring her comfort, and calm her. It allows her to plan how to get the support she’ll need so she can feel as good as possible afterward.

When creating a postpartum plan, the first starting point is to have a plan of action for the technicalities. Who’s going to take responsibility for her family’s physical needs while she recuperates? Who will pick up the other children from school those first few days (or weeks)? What will we do for suppers in that initial period?

Other technical but emotionally charged questions might be: Do I want visitors in the hospital? Who am I comfortable with holding my baby? Do I have a pediatrician to go to?

An Ounce of Prevention

Mrs. Chaya Rochel Satt MSc, who’s maintained a private practice in Yerushalayim for over a decade, believes that the physical preparation we do pre-birth prepares us emotionally as well. “Educating ourselves about childbirth reduces fear and panic during childbirth. So, too, does educating ourselves about the postpartum period. During this time, our hormones come crashing down, which affects our mood. That’s normal, healthy, and supposed to happen. Understanding that is critical.

“Crying a few days after birth is normal, feeling exhausted and wanting to stay in bed is normal. Often the anxiety and depression that many women experience is an emotional response to healthy emotional distress. Knowing that emotional distress is normal and embracing it is very important. You’d ask for a Tylenol after birth if you were in pain. When you feel overwhelmed, ask a friend for a hug, or ask your husband to take care of the baby so you can decompress. Taking care of your emotional needs prevents them from escalating.”