16 - Postpartum Recovery in Four Easy Steps!

Hey everyone, it’s Doula Deb here! If you’re an expectant or new parent feeling overwhelmed by the thought of postpartum recovery, you absolutely need to listen to our latest episode of the Birth and Baby podcast. In this episode, Lindsee and I dive deep into a crucial topic for every new parent: postpartum recovery. 

We share our personal stories—both the struggles and the triumphs—to give you real, actionable advice on how to make your recovery smoother and more manageable. From the importance of staying in bed during the first week to easing back into daily life by week four, we offer a clear, compassionate plan that can make a world of difference in how you feel both physically and mentally.

You’ll hear about the pitfalls to avoid and the simple yet powerful steps you can take to set yourself up for a faster, more fulfilling recovery. Plus, we give you tips on handling visitors, managing expectations, and prioritizing your well-being.

Don’t miss out on this episode packed with practical advice and heartfelt encouragement. Tune in now and arm yourself with the knowledge and support you need to thrive postpartum. Your journey to recovery starts here—let us guide you every step of the way.

Links to Resources: 

• Preparing for Parenthood Workbook: www.douladeb.com/workbooks

Thanks for tuning in! 🎧✨ Don’t forget to hit that subscribe button so you never miss a moment of the Birth and Baby podcast! Have a question or topic you’d like us to cover? Click here to send us a message or email us at birthandbabypodcast@gmail.com. Until next time, be gentle with yourself and remember—you're doing an amazing job! 🌟

Deb Jimenez @ Doula Deb LLC: www.DoulaDeb.com, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Twitter.

Lindsee McDonald @ Wildflower Birth Services: www.WildflowerBirthService.com, Instagram, Tiktok.

Disclaimer: The content of this podcast is for informational and educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional medical advice. Always consult your physician for any medical questions. The views expressed by guests on this podcast are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views of the hosts. Reliance on any information provided is at your own risk.

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction
• 3:41 Week 1: Rest and Recovery
• 6:06 Week 2: Gradual Movement and Rest
• 9:52 Week 3: Easing Away from Bed Rest
• 10:51 Week 4: Released from Bed Rest
• 12:45 Setting Boundaries and Expectations for Visitors
• 13:43 Listening to Your Body: The Key to Successful Recovery

Transcript

Welcome to the Birth and Baby podcast, where we dive into the real talk you need. The stuff people don't always tell you about. We're here to answer your questions. No matter how weird and to help you feel empowered and excited about giving birth and raising your babies. We're here to share a passion with all things pregnancy, birth and parenting, and to help you navigate this wild and wonderful journey with confidence and joy. Whether it's prepping for birth, mastering breastfeeding and postpartum, or getting those much needed Z's, we've got you covered.

I'm Lindsay, a childbirth educator, doula, proud mama of four, and your birth and baby bestie. And I'm Deb, your ultimate birth, postpartum, and sleep doula, and a mom to two incredible kids. All right, let's dive in.

Welcome back to the birth and baby podcast where we provide compassionate, knowledgeable and approachable guidance for expectant and new parents. I'm Dula Deb and my co -host is here, Lindsay. And today we're diving in to a crucial topic, close partner recovery. How are you today, Lindsay? I'm doing well. I'm super, super excited to talk about this. And before we get into it, I do want everyone to remember recovery is not a one size fits all process, but with a little planning and pacing you can support your body's healing journey. So let's dive in.

So first I want to share about my own experience. When my son was born, my first born, I didn't take very good care of myself in those first few weeks. I thought I could handle it all and I didn't realize I was running on adrenaline and cortisol. I specifically remember telling my husband, we're actually doing really good. You know, are you doing good? Yeah, we're doing fine. Everything seemed super manageable until around week two when I felt like I was hit by a freaking brick wall.

I was so exhausted and overwhelmed and my recovery was significantly delayed. It lasted a full eight weeks. Fast forward to the birth of my second child. I knew I had to do things differently. So this time I followed a plan of progressive bed rest and I paced myself very carefully. I didn't really even leave my bedroom for a week. I stayed upstairs, meals were brought to me. My baby was with me the whole time and we just slept and nursed and slept and ate and slept. The difference was remarkable. I was back on my feet in just four weeks. Here's what I did to improve my postpartum recovery. And I want to share that with you so you can too. Yeah. So my story is very similar to yours, Deb, but with my first baby, my postpartum period, I was like, you know, again, like I've told this story in episode two, I was very young and I feel like we had so many people come visit us all the time that I always felt like I was being a host and like I was being a host in my early postpartum period was constantly up, constantly in my living room, constantly moving around my house. And I felt terrible. Like you said, I had a long recovery time and I just felt exhausted. I remember my mental health was not great either. and with my second one, I had a very similar story because I had two under two at that point. So I was chasing around a toddler while also having a newborn at home and it was a lot. But similar to your second story with my fourth born, I stayed in the bed for a week. I actually remember I got up one time because my son's birthday was the day after my baby was born at home. And so I walked out into the kitchen saying happy birthday to him, let him have his cake and presents and I walked my butt back to the bed.

I stayed there. My food was brought to me just like you said. was beautiful. And I the most amazing recovery time with her and I was back up and feeling totally fine in four weeks. My mental health never better postpartum. So, I want to talk about specifically the first week postpartum. This period is all about focusing on rest and recovery. So like we said, with our good recovery process, we sit in bed for a whole week. So I like to call this phase week one in the bed during the first week home with your baby, prioritize staying in the bed. This helps you recover from pregnancy, birth, whether that be vaginal or C -section and the demanding newborn care schedule. Aim to stay horizontal in bed as much as possible. So keep your baby food, water, and any other necessities within arm's reach, or have someone, a partner or a postpartum doula, right? Bring them to you.

So your goals during this first week should simply be to feed your baby in whatever way works best for you and don't hesitate to ask for help. So if you are breastfeeding or you're pumping or your bottle feeding formula, whatever that looks like, you can also still ask for help in these things. Your second goal is to eat nutritious meals. Warm meals are usually best for postpartum healing because they're easier to digest. And again, people can bring you these meals in bed. So stay in bed, stay your butt in bed, drink plenty of fluids, water, electrolytes, things like that. And most importantly, rest. You have a newborn baby and they sleep like all the time. So sleep and rest and just chill and don't worry about the world going on around you. It'll still be moving when you are ready to get out of bed. Yeah. Yeah. And a little caveat, we're not saying you can't get up to walk around to the bathroom. Like you got to go to the bathroom. You got to get your circulation. Yeah. Don't pee in your bed.

You know, don't do that. Bedpans, I guess, but like, you still need to walk around, you still need to get blood flow. But what we see often is these moms who are like, it's okay, I can do dishes, I feel bad. I can still cook, my husband doesn't really know how to cook very good. No plan ahead for this, just know that you're gonna be in bed for a week. If your spouse really can't cook well.

Then we plan ahead. have meal prep. We have somebody coming in, bringing meals. You have family bringing. So like plan ahead so you know you're spending a whole week pretty much stationary going to the bathroom and back in bed. So once we've done that, we got into week two. This is the week where you're on the bed. You're still focusing on rest, but you get to begin to move around a little bit more.

No strenuous activities. Don't start your day until you feel well rested, whether that's 10 a or 3 p That's perfectly fine. All you need to do is only go with what the energy you have. And if you feel like getting out of bed, taking a shower and getting out of bed for a little bit to do a few things, then you're just gonna go right back to bed as soon as you feel tired, which may be like 30 minutes to an hour at a time. Yes, yes. So your goals for week two is continue feeding your baby as needed and with any necessary assistance that you need. Maintain your healthy diet. Again, focusing on those warming warm foods that are broken down, highly nutritious. And another note here is any food is better than no food. So if you can't

If you can't possibly bring yourself to eat another bowl of seaweed soup, which is one of those casserole, casserole, casserole, can't have one more slice of lasagna, you know, like, I don't care what you eat, but you just have to eat. So do your best. Stay hydrated. Drinking so much water, you usually are very thirsty if you're nursing or lactating. So making sure that you have either ice cold water or a warm cup of tea or what just switch it up so that you don't get bored. And then of course, obviously rest, you go with your body's need for rest because again, you are also recovering from the pregnancy, the birthing experience and your placenta healing or the splinter wound healing. If you do feel ready for visitors at this time,

I say limit it to one to two people for the whole week and definitely not on the same day. Make sure that they come with meals and or offer to help with tasks like holding the baby while you rest or doing a load of laundry or if they can just tidy up the kitchen. Sometimes it's nice to have a list of things that would be helpful to do around the house. I say if someone isn't willing to do any kind of chores while they come visit, especially in week two, then they probably should wait to come visit.

Yep, they shouldn't be coming to see you and your baby anyways. But also, like, I think people want to help, you know, like everyone kind of has that, like, at least most people have that in them where they want to be helpful and they want to be helping. like, don't feel bad about saying, Hey, do you mind doing this? And hopefully they offer and if they do offer, don't say, don't worry about it. It's okay. No, freaking tell them what you need or want. that's absolutely

And if they offer to bring you some coffee or a snack, like welcome that. like, yup, bring it on. Bring it on. Okay. So that brings us to week three, which is around the bed. So it's time to start slowly easing away from the bed rest while still keeping close to home and prioritizing rest. So by now you should start feeling better each day, even though sleepless nights can still take a toll, right? You still have a newborn. We understand that.

But your goals should again be continue feeding your baby. That's always like first and foremost. Eat well to help your body recover. Drink plenty of fluids. So get creative with tea, smoothies, soups and broths. And yes, again, lots of rest. Your goals are very similar. It's just that your body is now able to be moving around and be around the bed and close to it. So you're always able to go sit back down or lay back down whenever you feel like you need to. So if you haven't had visitors yet, this might be a good week to invite one over. So don't overdo it, of course, right? Still limit them. Don't have a whole party, but they can still come to you in bed if needed. That's something else. that's my fourth. I totally, people who came just came in my bedroom and I was laying my butt down and sitting on my bed while they came and visited. And of course you can also like rest and sit on your couch in your living room. So there's that. Yep. Great. 

So finally there's week four you are released from the bed, but only if you are feeling ready for that. By this time, you might feel ready to get out of the house for some fresh air and a gentle, easy walk with your baby, but please take it slow and take it day by day. If at any point in this recovery of these last four weeks, you would notice an increase in bright red bleeding or return to bleeding, that is a huge red flag. Red bleeding, red flag. A normal postpartum blood, is going to be a dark color and you will be familiar by then what a normal bleeding looks like. If that is bright red all of a sudden, guess what? You get to go back to bed for 24 to 48 hours. That means you have ready yet. Yeah, your body's not ready. You have a fresh opening of bleeding and that means your body, you overdid it. And you know what? It's probably going to happen at some point. It is okay, but what we need to recognize is that if that happens you recognize that you need to go back to bed. And typically your body just bounces back within 24 to 48 hours, you're right back to back on track. So don't worry if this happens to you, just know, okay, that was too much. I went and did the laundry, my bad. I'm not ready for that. You know? Yeah, yeah. So I'm gonna go over the goals for week four. And guess what? There's a theme here.

Feed your baby. Keep nourishing your body with healthy food, obviously. Stay hydrated and then always rest as much as you can until you feel like you can move on from that. And those first few months, even after these first four weeks, that is gonna be a theme. Listen to your body, get the rest that you need.

Cause that baby's not sleeping through the night by four weeks. hate to bring it to you. No, and do not expect that. go of expectations. say that for everything, both all pregnancy, birth, postpartum, let go of your expectations. Cause that's when you get let down. So don't expect your body to be back to normal in four weeks. Don't expect your baby to be sleeping through the night. Don't expect it to be horrible either. Yes. You know, we're just going to go along for the ride. Go with the flow. Give yourself grace.

So just remember these are just general guidelines and the most important thing is to listen to your body. Every recovery journey is unique. They're all different. So share this podcast with your family and friends so they know what to expect and how to support you and tell them that we said no visitors until after three to four weeks, unless you're feeling up to it and only if they bring you food or do chores around your house. Okay, you can blame it on us. We don't care. Exactly. I blame my doula for a lot of things.

And my kids, I was like, my doula said I can't, I'm sorry. And we all had to laugh about it, but it was an easy way to set some boundaries and some expectations. But guess what? We were ready to have visitors before we told everybody we were gonna be ready. So I said three to four weeks by week, you know, with my second by week, I think it was about two, two and a half. I was like, actually, I really could use a visitor. I could use a mental break and tell my birth story and get that relational.

And then the person I chose was someone who was going to be able to come over. They brought a meal. They were super helpful. They even took my oldest to the park for a while and gave us a break. It was a wonderful experience, but because we had set some really clear boundaries about it. So reflecting back on that experience, I can't emphasize enough how important it is to follow these steps or guidelines.

The difference in my recovery with my second child was like night and day. By pacing myself and prioritizing rest, I was able to recover more quickly and fully. I hope that you find these tips as helpful as I did. If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to leave them below or you can email us at the birthandbabypodcasts at gmail .com. As a note, this concept was adapted from the great Penny Simkin whose wisdom has guided many through their pregnancy, birth and postpartum journeys. And unfortunately, she's no longer with us and we like to let that honor her in that to keep her principles alive. Yeah. Okay. So thank you for joining us today on the Birth and Baby podcast. Remember to please subscribe and tune in next time for more expert advice and guidance on your journey through birth and parenthood.

Take care and be gentle with yourself.