How to Prepare For Your Labor & Delivery Hospital Stay & Postpartum

You're getting ready for that exciting moment in your life where you're expecting a newborn baby! Congratulations, mama!! Before you dive right into all the fun stuff, here are some things you may want to consider.

In this Article:

• Your Hospital Stay MUST KNOWS
• Useful Tips For Your Postpartum Care Team
• Recommendations For After You're Home From The Hospital (What To Wear)

Things You MUST KNOW Before You Head To The Hospital For Labor and Delivery

Once you get to the hospital and the adrenaline from child birth wears off, that's when you'll experience what I like to call: The Hospital Stay Mayhem.

Assuming you and baby are 100% healthy and baby isn't transported to the NICU or baby nursery, you can expect your mother & baby room to be filled with specialists around-the-clock. Bare in mind, that if you know what to look forward to ahead of time, you'll be able to better prepare and thus have a much more satisfying recovery period during your stay.

You can expect to be seen by nurses and bedside aides who are typically there to:

• Check your vitals (temperature, blood pressure, etc.)
• Administer your postpartum medication (if any is needed)
• Respond to any questions you have
• and overall make your stay as comfortable as possible meeting requests or needs within their role.

You can also expect your OB to congratulate you and check your incision (if you had a caesarean), and a host of other medical professionals like the registrars, birth certificate staff, food services, house keeping, PACU nurses (typically for patients who have just gotten out of surgery and are recovering from the effects of anesthesia), Pediatric Nurse Practitioner and their assistants who will be there to do testing on baby (bilirubin levels, blood work, take their vitals, check their weight, etc.), and if you plan to breastfeed you'll also be visited by their on-site Breastfeeding Specialist / Lactation Nurse. Lastly but not least, don't forget about the First Day Photo Photographer who will also knock for pictures.

There will be A LOT of traffic into your mother and baby recovery room that's already scheduled by the hospital. These visits are not synchronized and will most often happen every hour on the hour causing you to lose sleep.

If you plan on having family and friends visit, I would recommend requesting people who you trust that can be in the room with baby while you're asleep, because if you dose off, which is highly likely from the frequent room traffic, you will not have energy to entertain additional guests.

Useful Tips For Your Postpartum Care Team (Family & Friends)

Postpartum is the fourth trimester that not a lot of people talk about. Properly preparing is extremely important so you can avoid postpartum anxiety, unnecessary stress, or onset depression.

With each childbirth, your hospital stay sets off your recovery period and for most people, it is the most exhausting few days because your room feels like a cold, revolving door of people that you must answer to in order to get the care you need to be discharged.

There's no real way of getting around all the hospital staff unless you birth at home or different birthing center, but what you can control is the amount of company you allow into your hospital room and your home during the first few weeks of being home.

I would highly recommend considering these things for any new mom looking to have the BEST postpartum after care experience:

• Clean the house before going into the hospital if you can.
• Limit clutter and organize as much as possible.
• Limit the number of house guests that visit you for the first few weeks.
• Keep in mind it's okay to decline visitors while you're adjusting.
• Strategically allow people over who will HELP YOU transition.

A list of helpful things postpartum visitors can assist with, INSTEAD OF COMING TO SNUGGLE BABY (and this may help you facilitate who you allow over):

• Helping you get around the house (especially after a C-section)
• Showering
• Helping with older kids
• Bringing over cooked dinner or take out so it's one less thing for you to think about
• Pick up any accumulating house chores so clutter stays down. (Clutter reduces the risk of postpartum depression and allows you to really focus on yourself and baby)
• Helping to get reorganized after unpacking from the hospital stay
• and the biggest one, looking after baby while you catch up on sleep after the new bi-hourly nightly feeds and diaper changes.

Entertaining guests may seem ideal at first, but knowing ALL the things will really help you plan and balance accordingly.

Postpartum Wear That Works (Recommendations):

Starting off strong with advice here, don't worry about getting dressed up for at least the first week. Catching up on sleep will be a strong priority, so having FUNCTIONAL postpartum wear that you can relax in, but still be extremely functional is really key.

I've been discussing this pregnancy and postpartum journey for a while now and another big preparation tool is what to pack in your hospital bag. If you haven't set up your bag already, check out these recommendations and get on it.

I'm wishing you a happy rest of your pregnancy, healthy delivery and speedy recovery...and as always, if this has helped you, share with a friend.

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Enjoy your new journey in motherhood! Don’t forget “Muscle Up Mommy!”