The first few days and weeks postpartum are challenging. Not only are you resting and recovering from the massive feat of bringing a baby into the world— but you’re also transforming in your relationships. Alongside this, I found that communicating clearly to others and setting good boundaries was also quite hard. How do you communicate to those around you what you need and want? How do you tell them how to help, and when it’s too much? In this post I want to share a strategy I love for preparing for your postpartum period: writing out to-do lists for other people ahead of time. Here are three lists you can use in your own planning.
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How to Prepare for the Postpartum Overwhelm: My Favorite Three Lists — Episode #046
When you’re a new parent, people want to help. But they don’t always know what to do. And you won’t always know what to ask for – that’s where the 3 Essential Postpartum Lists come in.
Life Happens — #045
Even if you planned every moment down to the last second, there is always an element of unpredictability that can come into play: life happens. How can we embrace these unexpected curves, breathe, be patient and see what comes next?
Designing a New Model for Moms Around 50/50 Parenting — Episode #032 With Tracy Candido and Karina Mangu-Ward
Fertility struggles, imago and 50/50 parenting: what can happen when partners bond over a similarly difficult infertility experience.
Preparing for the First 30 Days Postpartum After a C-Section
Recovering from a C-Section is worlds different than recovering from a vaginal birth. Here are 9 steps you can take to be prepared before your birth and during your recovery.
The Invisible Emotional Weight of Infertility – Episode #026 With Anne
When you want to be a mother but are battling infertility, where do you go from here? One woman shares her experience with this painful realization, the difficult conversations that followed and how she is moving forward with her life despite this difficult challenge.
How Our Early Pregnancy Silence May Be Hurting Us
Our culture is shockingly poor at making any space for the experience, or even the possibility, of loss and grief. It’s no wonder that we protect the secret of pregnancy (and ourselves) until we feel we’ll receive a warmer, safer reception. We may have heard these messages enough over the years through pervasive cultural norms and experiences that we are telling ourselves the same things, to make it easier. To make it less painful. But what if this cultural norm does not actually serve us well? What if it isolates us when what we really need is connection and silences us when we need a voice?
Preparing for the First 30 Days Postpartum: What to Buy, Research, and Say
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Intuition, Empowerment, and Creating Yourself Anew as a Mother — Episode #010 With Steph Jhala
Stephanie Jhala enjoyed a healthy, medically uneventful pregnancy. But at the very end of the planned home birth, something went wrong. Her baby was not breathing. After a transition to the hospital, Steph’s newborn daughter was on put on life support in the NICU, consigned to a cooling sack and connected to countless tubes. Doctors predicted her death. But Stephanie knew instinctively that her daughter would be fine. And she was right. Her daughter improved by leaps and bounds, and is now a thriving, feisty 10-month-old. How did Steph access that intuition? How does she continue to trust and cultivate her mind-body connection on a daily basis? And how is she using the tools she learned in her business as a leadership consultant to become a leader in motherhood? In this episode we talk about intuition, deep listening, observation, and checking first with yourself as a source of wisdom.
The Pain and Beauty of Pregnancy After Loss
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Why I Want to Talk About My Pregnancy Loss
Pregnancy loss is a broad term that encompasses the loss of life of any embryo, fetus, or unborn baby. The most common type of pregnancy loss is miscarriage, affecting up to 50% of all pregnancies. Put another way, every other woman you know who has been pregnant has likely experienced some form of pregnancy loss.
What If I Am Not a Good Mother?
There were 10 of us. I came first and helped raise the rest. I did not want my mother’s life. I did not want to alternate between being pregnant and breastfeeding for twenty years, nor did I want the underlying lack of autonomy and choice that represented to me. Yet still, her legacy and example ran deep, and I was always sure that whatever edition of motherhood I might someday desire would come easily to me. I wasn’t prepared for what actually happened.
Women Have Periods. Women Have Miscarriages. Being a Woman Involves Blood.
Courtney Skott is an award-winning, independent furniture and interior designer. She also wants to talk about blood: women have periods, they have miscarriages, and they have abortions. None of this should be shrouded in mystery or secrecy.
How We Fail Our Friends The Most
There is one thing that has disappointed me more about motherhood that I’ve been struggling to to put into words. It reveals the cracks and the gaps in the way we’ve built our society, in the way we culture, in the way we show up for each other.
Dealing With Morning Sickness and Dehydration
One of the hardest parts about pregnancy is dealing with all of the symptoms and side effects. One ways to deal is with hydration. But water isn’t enough. Here’s how I handled it and what worked for me.
My Short List of Must-Read Books on Pregnancy, Parenting, and Childbirth
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The Story Behind “Startup Pregnant”
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18 Weeks of Morning Sickness: Or, I Don’t Want To Be Good At This
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Pregnancy is So Short, So Fleeting (I Promise)!
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Should You Call a Pregnant Woman Fat?
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Little Quips on This Not-So-Little Pregnancy
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Loving Yourself: Tender Self-Care for Pregnant Ladies
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20 Weeks: The Best Pregnancy Things (Clothes, Tools, Tips) I’ve Found So Far
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The Nesting Instinct: 12 Unusual Things to Clean Before Baby Arrives
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