Skip to main content

Postpartum Essentials 101



I recently met Jenny through a online blogging group. I instantly connected with her blogs and reached out to her. She is the mother of 2 and lover of all things home decor and parenthood. She also loves donuts which is a plus in my book! She has amazing posts about pumping exclusively, must-have items, and DIY how-to's. Check her out over at Paint & Pillows.

I asked her to write about her postpartum experience and list her must-have items for when you bring baby home. Enjoy this "tell it like it is," but very logical list of postpartum supplies you will need after having a baby.

Must-Have's by Jenny 


Despite what those supermodels and celebs show us, your body doesn’t just snap back into place. Things are squishy and leaky and kinda gross. Not knowing what to expect or what can help, can definitely make those first weeks at home harder and more uncomfortable than they need to be. So I’ve compiled a list of postpartum essentials to help ease you into your journey of motherhood.

  1. Maxi Pads – I’m not talking about regular ol’ pads either. You’re going to want the super-duper, ultra-absorbent overnight pads, because after baby, there will be blood. Lots of blood. After all, you haven’t had a period for nine-months, so now your body is going to try and make up for that. Thanks, Mother Nature.

  1. Comfortable Underwear – Forget the skimpy, sexy panties from your pre-baby days . . . at least, for a while. With all the blood and swollen bits that come with birth, you’re going to want something that covers everything up and keeps it all in place. And black. You’re probably going to want to get them in black. Because Mother Nature.
  1. Tucks – You’ve just pushed a human the size of a small watermelon out of a hole the size of a bagel. Things, understandably, are going to be sore after that. The witch hazel in these pads helps cool your swollen lady bits and take some of the sting out of the healing process.

  1. Dermoplast – The hospital gave me some of this after the birth of my first and it was a life-saver! Dermoplast is a pain-relieving spray that’s safe for use on your more delicate areas and can definitely help soothe your tender bits, especially if you’ve had stitches.

  1. Peribottle – The hospital will probably send you home with one of these little squirt bottles to use for hosing yourself off after using the bathroom (because nobody wants to drag toilet paper over a sore bottom). But if you have more than one bathroom in the home, I’d recommend getting one for each. They’re inexpensive and it’ll save you time trekking around the house to locate one whenever you have to answer Nature’s call.

  1. Stool Softener – There’s not much in this world more terrifying than those first few poops after baby, especially if you tore during delivery. They’ll give you some stool softener in the hospital, but you should probably have some one hand at home and take them regularly for a while until you’ve healed a bit. Trust me.

  1. Postpartum Girdle – Your body has spent nine-months with a tiny human stretching your skin and pushing all of your organs out of place. Your after-birth stomach is going to be . . . squishy. It’s going to take a while for everything to return to normal. A postpartum support belt provides support for your tired core as well as holding everything in place while it heals. This can help shrink and tighten your hips, waist, and belly, which is a plus in my book!

  1. Breast Pads – Even if you’re not planning to breastfeed, when your milk comes in, your boobs are going to be engorged and leaky for a while. Unless you want to constantly be changing your top, invest in some breast pads to sop up the mess and prevent embarrassing wet spots from appearing on your clothes (at the worst time, of course).
Bringing home your baby is such a special thing.  Enjoy that little bundle of joy! Soak up every tiny moment. And don’t forget to take care of your postpartum body! Check out our checklist of postpartum supplies to help prepare you for the Fourth Trimester!



I would love to see every woman prepared the best they possibly can be for the postpartum period of having a baby. I'd love to see postpartum care as a preventative measure instead of a reactionary measure. I believe one of the key pieces missing from the maternity care and culture in America is the absence of "the village." No one was meant to raise children alone and yet we try to do it every single day.
Tranquility by HeHe, A Concierge Birthing and Doula Service in Boston, Massachusetts
"We can't wait to pamper you."



Comments

  1. only mom care well their baby, not other like a mom its hard to woke up in night when baby cry
    Rebellious Fashion Coupon

    ReplyDelete
  2. I wish I would have had postpartum belt years ago. It fits just right for the lower part of my stomach. I have been needing something like this for a long time. I would recommend this product if you have issues with lower stomach flab.simaslim

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Do Inductions Really Rise Around the Holidays?

Do Inductions Really Rise Around the Holidays? As long as I can remember in my doula career, I have been told, both seriously and sarcastically, that inductions rise around the holidays because doctors want to control the births they will have to deliver on..let’s say Thanksgiving day or Christmas Day.  I have to be honest in that I never really paid much attention to it because our team typically takes off the end of the year! It has been an intentional decision in years past to not take births in the months of December and January. This provided us with the time to disconnect, visit family and friends, and wrap up one year + dive into the next with a solid foundation. As you well know, 2020 has changed so much of what we knew and, for us, this meant not having the space to disconnect without leaving birthing people vulnerable in a global crisis and not traveling for this holidays. With this, we decided to work straight through 2020 into the start of 2021. And in this moment, the enti

Failed Inductions: What You Need to Know

Failed Inductions: What You Need to Know When we talk about inductions, we often speak of them like they are 100% guaranteeing us a baby at the end. While this is true most of the time, you’d probably be surprised to learn that indcutins can fail and you may be sent home to wait it out a bit longer. Or, if the option isn’t presented to you, you can ask or take yourself home. It is important to ensure that you and your baby are safe to go home.There are thousands of women each year that experience a failed induction and it can be very hard emotionally.  What is a failed induction? A failed induction is the inability to reach active labor while being induced . There is a certain process we want to take when it comes to induction. I call this your ‘individual induction equation.’ It’s truly individual to you and you get to introduce various induction methods as you see fit which makes your equation unique to you. First we want to ripen the cervix--it needs to be soft. You have options of

Is your IUD poisoning you?

Could your copper IUD being causing your body to be overloaded and in need of a serious detox? (This is also a podcast episode on The Tranquility Tribe podcast, if you prefer, listen  here .) Hey Tranquility Tribe! This week, we’re getting educated about a little-known, big problem that affects thousands of women around the world: copper toxicity. HeHe has had a copper IUD for about a year and loves it, but when she started experiencing some funky symptoms, she came across the topic of copper toxicity and knew she needed to do a deeper dive. There’s no one better to educate us about this than someone who has experienced it themselves, so HeHe enlisted the help of Kirby Costa Campos, who has made it her life’s mission to educate herself and others about copper toxicity and help women face the reality that the copper IUD may be playing a big role in occurrences of this poisoning.  Kirby had been ill on and off for many years and