How to Prepare for Postpartum - Best Tips & Tricks with Free Checklist

Just like we take time during pregnancy to get ready for labor and birth, it’s also extremely important to prepare for postpartum.

It often comes with numerous unexpected challenges, however, you can learn how to experience it as an amazing time of healing, bonding with your new baby, and discovering how life will look as your family grows.

While there are aspects of pregnancy recovery that are outside of our control, the ways we prepare make a huge difference! Keep reading to learn the top practical ways you can prepare for postpartum! To make this process easier, you can also download my free Postpartum Preparation Checklist HERE.

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The 5-5-5 Rule – #1 Way to Prepare for Postpartum

This postpartum recovery method is highly recommended by many midwives and it typically speeds the postpartum recovery process. From my own experience, this plan helped me to fully recover extremely quickly even after a difficult labor and hemorrhaging. I plan to implement it during all future postpartum periods.

5 Days in the Bed

The first 5 days are spent relaxing in bed under the covers with your baby, getting up only to do necessary things for yourself or your baby. Ideally, even your meals, snacks, and drinks should be brought to you in bed to minimize your activity. This is a great time to focus on nursing and skin-to-skin with your baby. Good activities to do are reading, listening to music, books, or podcasts, and watching movies.

5 Days on the Bed

Spend the next 5 days primarily on your bed with your feet up, however, you can start doing a little more. Get dressed and make the bed to feel a little more like yourself! Maybe play a board game with the rest of your family on the bed. If you have other young children, do a craft with them. If you have computer work to do, now’s a great time to do that as well.

5 Days Around the Bed

While you still need to be prioritizing rest, during these last 5 days you can start to move around more. However, always stay near the bed and come back frequently to rest. This could mean heating up a meal for yourself and coming back to eat it on the bed. You could also tidy up your home a bit or even fold a load of laundry. Make sure to not be on your feet for longer than 30 minutes at a time and continue to nap and relax as often as your body needs. If you start to feel too exhausted, take a step back from the activity.

Prepare to Slow Down

Most women are used to staying busy and keeping lots of plates spinning at once, but postpartum is a time to take a step back from almost everything and focus on your family and yourself. If you try to stay on top of your usual tasks while still in the middle of recovery, it can have negative consequences to your health and mind and your family. Make sure you prepare for postpartum by doing the following things:

Decline invitations – You don’t need to be busy outside of the house for at least a few weeks postpartum. It’s okay if you end up missing a few events or if you have to tell a friend “no.” You have other more important things to focus on.
Temporarily cancel commitments – While a job will typically provide for a maternity leave, you’ll need to take the initiative to temporarily cancel other commitments such as volunteering or side hustles.
Let go of perfection around your home – Even if your house is perfectly clean when your baby is born, it won’t stay that way as long as you’d like it to. Just like cleaning won’t be a top priority, you’ll likely fall behind on cooking and other household tasks. Life will settle into a new rhythm before you know it, but in the meantime, it’s best to just accept the season you’re in.

Plan Any Help

Depending on your family, friends, and living situation, you may or may not have much help available to you. As you prepare for postpartum, take some time to think through any help that has been offered or that you might want to ask for.

Your husband – Hopefully your spouse will be the first one to want to help out postpartum, but depending on their job or other circumstances, they may not be able to as much as you’d like. Talk together about their availability and ways they can support you best.
Local family – Often local family members will offer to help. Think through ways their assistance would help you without adding stress. Communicate clearly what you think you’ll need postpartum and be prepared for things to change when you’re actually in the middle of it.
Visiting family – If you have family wants to visit to see the new baby, figure out when would be the best time to limit stress and to make things easier for you.
Friends – Not everyone lives in a community where friends help in times like this, but if you do, it’s a blessing! Whether it’s help with meals or housework, accept the help that you feel will make things easier for you. Make sure not to try to be a hostess when you’re newly postpartum! You don’t need to be caring for guests while still recovering and learning to care for your new child.
Postpartum doula – Doulas aren’t just for birth, and hiring a postpartum doula can be a great option for some people! They can help out around the house, care for you as you recover, and teach you how to take care of your baby among other things. If you’re interested in hiring one, ask around to find someone that has a good reputation. You can also research online to find a great postpartum doula in your area.

Meal Preparation to Prepare for Postpartum

Having access to easy healthy meals is one of the best ways you can prepare for postpartum. Have a plan so that no one in your home has to cook a full meal for two weeks. There are three primary ways you can make this happen: homemade frozen meals, a meal train, or purchased meals. It’s often easiest to do a combination of the three. Here’s what you’ll want to make sure to have available to you:

Healthy Snacks

You’ll need easy access to nourishing snacks all throughout the day (and maybe the night). Make sure most of your options are full of protein and fat. Fiber is also a huge plus! My favorite postpartum snack ideas are:

Granola – Make sure to make your own or buy a healthier version with minimal sugar.
Yogurt parfait ingredients – These delicious treats can be made with simple, healthy ingredients such as fresh, frozen, or dried fruit, granola, nuts, chia seeds, shredded coconut, and maybe a touch of honey or maple syrup. Get creative and create your own delicious parfait recipe!
Healthy cookies or bars – You can make your own cookies or bars and freeze them or purchase them (or do a little of both). Try to find some that include healthy ingredients, not just sugar and flour.
Fruit – Fresh, frozen, or dried fruit are all great options.
Trail mix – Purchase or make your own!
Smoothie ingredients – Smoothies make such a wonderful snack. You can use ingredients such as frozen fruit, whole milk, coconut oil, chia seeds, and collagen or protein powder. The options are endless!

Full Meals including Meat and Vegetables

This period is one of the most important times of your life to be eating well. Meal trains and takeout are the easiest options, but most people can’t rely on these for every meal. If you’re planning to prep some meals yourself, here are some ideas to get you started:

Soup – Nutrient-dense and easy to freeze, soups made with meat, vegetables, and bone broth are fantastic postpartum. You can also purchase soup if you’d prefer not to make it yourself.
Chili – Just like soup, chili is healthy and easy to freeze. Make with sprouted beans and bone broth for added nutrition.
Casseroles – There’s a reason why so many people make casseroles when freezing meals! They often have a meat, vegetable, and maybe a starch, and they reheat wonderfully.
Pre-cooked shredded chicken or ground beef – While this isn’t a full meal, precooked meat makes for quick and easy sandwiches or tacos.
Deli meat – This is a great option if you’re planning to purchase some food ready to eat.
Fresh and frozen vegetables – Frozen vegetables can be easily steamed or stir fried and fresh vegetables are great for salads, sandwiches, and tacos.

Breakfast Options

While breakfast is the most important meal of the day, it’s also the easiest meal to prepare for! You have so many options:

Eggs – Quick, healthy, and easy to cook!
Ezekiel bread – It’s much healthier than regular toast, and it keeps in your freezer which is a big bonus since you probably don’t know when you’ll go into labor. You don’t want bread sitting on your counter getting old!
Pancakes – Next time you’re making pancakes, put some in a freezer bag in the freezer. They reheat great for a delicious breakfast! There are also many pancake recipes that include healthier ingredients such as oat or almond flour and fruit.
Breakfast casseroles – Breakfast casseroles are a great way to freeze eggs and other fantastic ingredients.
Muffins and quick breads – Another food that freezes wonderfully and doubles as a great snack! Find recipes that contain some healthy ingredients such as oats, fruit, or nuts.
Breakfast cookies – There are so many healthy breakfast cookie recipes that taste delicious and can be frozen.

Drinks

It’s so important to stay hydrated, especially if you’re breastfeeding! Be careful of drinking lots of caffeine or sugary beverages. You want to give your body all of the support possible to heal during this time, and keeping your caffeine and sugar intake low is extremely helpful. These are my favorite postpartum drinks:

Water – This is the most important drink.
Milk – Whole milk is filling and contains various nutrients.
Coconut water – This is a great, healthy alternative to other electrolyte drinks!
Herbal teas – There are many herbal teas that are delicious and full of important nutrients your body needs during this time.

Healthy Extras

Don’t feel bad if you’re not at a place where these foods are doable. However, if you have access to them, here are some extremely nourishing foods that can make a big difference in the healing process:

Bone broth – An extremely nourishing and healing drink, many traditional cultures recommend bone broth for the postpartum mothers.
Beef liver from healthy grass-fed cows – Among other vitamins and minerals, beef liver is extremely high in protein and iron which are both essential during this time. It’s one of the most nutrient-dense foods you can eat!
Red raspberry leaf, nettle, and oat straw teas – All of these teas are full of numerous vitamins and minerals including iron and can help to boost energy. Red raspberry leaf and nettle are believed to boost milk supply. They have all been used at times (together or separately) to reduce bleeding and help with postpartum healing.

Supplies to Prepare for Postpartum

You’ve likely already thought through everything you’ll need for the baby. You probably already have clothes, diapers, carseat, crib, and more. But have you thought about the supplies you’ll want to have as you prepare for postpartum? Here are some of the most helpful things to have to make your recovery as easy and comfortable as possible.

Heating pad – Heat can be so soothing for afterbirth pains and sore muscles. Either an electric heating pad or a rice, bean, or flax filled pad will feel amazing!
Aftereas e tincture – Many midwives recommend Afterease to ease the pain of afterbirth contractions. While these contractions are normal and healthy, they’re often painful and tend to get worse with subsequent pregnancies.
Padcicles – Many women enjoy the pain relief of homemade frozen pads made with soothing aloe. You can learn how to make them here.
Adult diapers – While you can use overnight sanitary pads for postpartum bleeding, for the first days to week, it’s often more comfortable to wear adult diapers instead. Your bleeding will be the heaviest during these days, and leaking is the last thing you want to think about.

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A Finished To-Do List

If you’re anything like me, your to-do list is never finished, however, before getting close to 40 weeks of pregnancy, it’s extremely helpful to not have any pressing demands on you. The nesting instinct usually kicks in to help! This can mean:

Stay caught up on laundry – The last thing you’ll want to do after having a baby is laundry. To prepare for postpartum, stay caught up on laundry during the last portion of pregnancy. This way, you’re at least not behind when the baby arrives.
Have a tidy house – It doesn’t have to be perfect, however, you’ll likely be more relaxed if you start the postpartum period with a clean home. Before having a baby, I like to make sure some basic tasks such as cleaning the bathroom and vacuuming are done. This is a great place to enlist some help if people ask what they can do for you!
Finish or pause any big projects – This is not the time to be in the middle of a painting or redecorating project! If you’re putting together a nursery, make sure you have it to a good place before you get too far into your third trimester.
Avoid being in the middle a transition with other children – It’s not a good idea to start potty training or transitioning a toddler to a regular bed during the third trimester. Even if you wanted to do something like this before the new baby is born, if you’re already in your third trimester, it’s probably best to just wait until life is a little more back to normal.
If possible, avoid any other major transitions or events – It’s best to be at a stable place in your own life before bringing a new baby into your home. Try to plan any moves, trips, or other big events so things are back to normal by late pregnancy. If you’re debating changing your medical provider or anything related to your pregnancy/birth care, do it as soon as possible.

Make a List

It can be overwhelming to have so much to do to prepare for postpartum! To organize your thoughts and relieve any stress, go ahead and make a list of the actionable things you want to do before the baby arrives.

To make things easier for you, I’ve created a customizable Postpartum Preparation Checklist which you can download for free HERE.

How to Prepare for Postpartum – Conclusion

There are a lot of things you can do to prepare for postpartum and set yourself up to have a great experience! As you’re thinking through what you need to do to prepare, download my free Postpartum Preparation Checklist HERE.

Even when you face new challenges, the ways you’ve prepared will help you enjoy this time without extra stress. Be patient with yourself as you heal and learn how to care for your new baby, and treasure all the time you have to relax with your family!

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What about you? How are you going to prepare for postpartum? Leave a comment and let me know!

How to Prepare for Postpartum – Best Tips & Tricks with Free Checklist