In conversation with Kathryn Millhouse

What is a postpartum plan?

I think it’s safe to say we’ve pretty much all heard of a ‘birth plan’, whether we actually had one or not.

In fact, when you type ‘birth plan’ into Google, you will be bombarded by 1,710,000,000 results. Yep. 1,710,000,000. However, when you search for ‘postpartum plan’, you are only provided with 59,600,000 search results (numbers current as of 21st December 2022). Sure, 59,600,000 is a big number BUT that’s only 1/28th of the ‘birth plan’ results.

Understanding what a postpartum plan is isn’t exactly rocket science - a plan for postpartum, duh! - but not a lot of us actually prepare for our postpartum. I know I’m guilty of this too!

Sure, we may set up the nursery - you know, the one we won’t use for months, sometimes a year?

Sure, we may buy a breast pump or take parenting classes in preparation for the repetitive tasks of breastfeeding and swaddling and nappy changing.

But there’s SO much more we could be doing. Whether you formalise it or not, or use a postpartum planning service, a postpartum plan is any decision made to protect yourself, and your family, in the days, weeks, or even months, following birth.

And we need to be talking more about this.

Why does postpartum planning even matter?

Postpartum planning matters because YOU matter. It’s as simple as that.

You - your health, your sleep, your nutrition, all of it - matters. And establishing support ahead of time can be crucial.

If you’ve listened to episode 04 of the podcast, you’ll remember hearing from a professional postpartum planner, Kathryn of MotherUp.

As she says, a postpartum plan is PROTECTIVE against your physical and mental health deteriorating. “We know as women it is difficult to put our needs first and to be open about the support we receive”.

“A lot of the time, if people aren’t actually delegated, then they’re naturally not going to feel like they’re accountable for anything, and then everything falls on the non-working parent, by that I mean the non-professional working parent or non-paid parent, which usually tends to be the woman.”

“And it can just cause overwhelm and it works against prioritising your healing and your mental wellbeing in postpartum, because you know, your job really is to focus on your physical healing and your matrescence journey and the bond you’ve got with your baby.”

“The main focus that I put into place is the focus of the mother, and trying to get her village and her support team to feel accountable and necessary to promote her wellbeing. Because it’s such a vulnerable time and you’re in a new role, your body is healing, your mind is changing, you’re in such an incredibly transformative time.”

What exactly does a postpartum plan look like?

A postpartum plan covers anything from:

• mind

• body

• nutrition

• key relationships

• boundaries

• support

• home

• and more!

Think…

• What are your preferences around visitors? And who is enforcing these preferences?

• Will you cook every meal? Or your partner? Will you prepare and freeze food in advance? Will you subscribe to a meal delivery service? Are family and friends dropping food off at the door? Or coming around to cook for you?

• What housework needs to be done daily, weekly, etc.? Who is doing these tasks? Will you temporarily hire a cleaner? Who is doing the home admin or grocery shopping? Who is walking the dog?

• How will you protect your sleep to ensure you get a solid few hours of rest? Do you need to rearrange your home space so you don’t aggravate any potential stitches or c-section wound?

• Is there a counselling or psychology service you can book an appointment with in advance to touch base after birth? Do you have numbers for mental health helplines? Who would you even call?

• Do you have the number of a lactation consultant or for breastfeeding support if needed? Where is your closest or preferred women’s health physio?

And the list goes on and on.

I get it, it’s a LOT to think about!

But truthfully, it’s even more overwhelming to think about when you’re deep in the trenches of postpartum.

Something has to give, and unfortunately, as mothers, it’s usually us and our health, our sleep, our nutrition, our care that are the first things to go.

Where do I even start creating a postpartum plan?

Kathryn is passionate about postpartum planning, clearly. So much so, she created an incredible (and free) resource called the ‘MotherUp Postpartum Canvas’ which is a pretty good (let’s be serious, comprehensive!) place to start when approaching your postpartum.

“It’s literally a plan on a page that I’ve compartmentalised into mind, body, home, support resources, questions to facilitate a to-do list and iterations, and a big relationship section… and nutrition as well! All the things that are really, really important in postpartum and I have these guiding questions.”

Did you have a postpartum plan? What did that look like? Follow Perinatal Stories Australia and MotherUp on Instagram to let us know!