Planning Beyond Birth

Predicting how we will experience and endure birth and postpartum is near impossible, but planning for both is.

The power of a (birth) plan

If you are an expecting parent, it is likely you have a birth-plan – a careful piece of research on the setting and support you want during your labor and birth. These roadmaps give pregnant parents some control over a process that can leave many feeling helpless and overwhelmed. They are empowering, especially when created collaboratively with providers we trust and, assuming labor is humming along, they are guideposts for those supporting us through a vulnerable and intense experience.

Given these props, why stop at birth?

Planning for postpartum

Postpartum is often defined as the three-month period following birth (although some believe parents are – and should be treated as – postpartum for longer). Regardless of length, there are many commonalities across our postpartum journeys, which co-exist with unique needs and outcomes.

For example, all new parents need rest and nourishing food, but not all experience equal levels of isolation from their community; and while the “baby blues” is a frequently noted experience, longer-term emotional complications are determined by individual context.

While many parents intend to take their postpartum as it comes – and understandably so, given how hard it is to know what to expect – a fourth-trimester plan can be as helpful as the one they developed for the third. Like a birth plan, defining our postpartum needs and goals in advance (knowing these might change), and the systems and supports necessary for both, can set us on track for recovery.

For example:

• Advance grocery and meal plans, home-based or home-delivered, will ensure you are well fed as your body’s natural reserves of energy deplete.
• Identifying immediate and broader community in advance will allow you to readily tap both when you emerge from nesting.
• Articulating if you will or will not breastfeed may empower you to find potential support, in advance, in sync with your situation and goals.
• Knowing to expect some emotional ups-and-downs, or more serious complications based on your history, could galvanize you to seek particular kinds of care in advance.

On all of this – and other aspects of postpartum – planning offers an opportunity to think through priorities and steps towards a healthy adjustment to parenthood.