Mother Tree Birth Services

The Basics
As a family

Rest as much as you can. If this is a first child, take the time to all nap together. If you have other children, arrange for adequate childcare and baby-care so that you can both spend time with baby alone and spend time with your other children alone.

Prioritize. Put everything on back-burner that is not a priority to your survival.

Eat nutritiously. Just as in pregnancy, the well-being of the whole family relies on continuing to eat nutritious easy meals. This is especially true for breastfeeding as mom’s bodies begin burning up to 500 extra calories a day to feed baby. Have pre-arranged help to either stock the fridge/freezer with ready-made meals, order take-out, hire an on-sight cook or a postpartum doula to ensure easy meal preparation.

Make a list: of all the regular household duties that must be accomplished. Take advantage, or solicit family, friends or a doula to help to accomplish anything on the list needed.

BE willing to go into a little debt if required to have the help you need. This advice coms directly from new mos. Hiring a postpartum doula is one of the most beneficial services a family can invest in or receive as a gift. The more help you have in the first six weeks the more easily the transition for you and your whole family to find your new equilibrium.

Spread out the guests, delay them or have them all come at once. Even if you aren’t private for the health of yourself and baby, it’s better to wait to have the onslaught until you’ve recovered a bit, so don’t be afraid to set your boundaries. Let people know when you are ready to have them and have a designated helper OR better yet, tell them that if they want to come, they must either bring a meal or do something on your check-list. Avoid party-style entertainment, other young children (other than siblings) and lots of passing around of the baby in the first weeks. This is for the health of the overall family physically, emotionally and spiritually. A baby is just getting used to the world and exposure to a lot of outside influences risks unnecessary exposures to it’s young immune system, to it’s bonding with parents and to your overall energy expenditure (takes energy away from you and baby).

Postpartum support also includes: