Five ways to do postpartum RIGHT

1. GET COOKIN. Two or three weeks prior to your due date (or earlier, if you're nesting already or think you might have your baby before 40 weeks) take a look at that Pinterest board you've been working on since 2012 full of casseroles and stews and soups. Traditionally, warm, broth-based, and nutrient-dense foods are most healing for new moms. Soups and stews with veggies, bone broth, warming spices, and easy to digest grains can help your body repair strained tissues and maintain a full milk supply. If your Pinterest board is more Keto and less Ayurveda, have a look at mine by clicking here. Keep your freezer stocked with at least a week's worth of meals to toss on the stove at a moment's notice.

2. ASK FOR HELP. You might hear this phrase coming from the mouths of coworkers, friends, or neighbors, "If you need anything, let me know!" The weeks and months after you have a baby are not the time to pretend to be Super Woman. People love to feel useful - if they offer it, take 'em up on it. Meal Trains and other similar support systems might seem pushy or greedy at first, but would you rather keep Emily Post happy and be starving? Or be humble and fed? There is no shame in writing on your baby shower invitations "Please consider contributing to my Meal Train or postpartum doula fund". I think you'd much rather receive 6 hours of in-home postpartum doula support than 40 size NB onesies with the same corny phrase anyway.

3. Prep your sanctuary. After delivery, the last thing anyone wants to do is scramble around the house looking for the baby wipes and nipple butter. This trick saved me and I think it'll save you too: keep a basket of all the baby and mom essentials in every room you'll spend your days in. I find all my ornate yet functional wicker baskets at thrift stores. Why pay $35 for a basket from China when you can buy another basket from China for .50 cents? Inside I keep several clean diapers, a clean onesie, wipes, nipple cream, a water bottle and protein bar for nursing, lip balm that moonlights as diaper ointment, a clean shirt for mom, and a Haakaa breast milk saver.  This lets me venture from the bed, to the couch, and to the kitchen without frantically running from one room to the other when baby spits up fresh hot breast milk all down my nursing bra.

4. Go easy on yourself. There will always be time to be the eco-friendly, crunchy, hippie-chic, Insta-perfect Mom. The first few weeks of new motherhood are about survival, healing, rest, and bonding. Nothing else matters. I repeat: nothing else matters. Overwhelmed with the dishes? Ask your neighbor to pick up some paper plates the next time they run to the store. And don't feel guilty for asking. Not up for folding laundry? Don't. Think you might actually create a HAZMAT situation with your unwashed armpits? Strap that baby into whichever seat contraption you have, set it down in your bathroom, turn on some John Mayer Spotify and take an overdue 10 minute shower. I promise you'll pull back the shower curtain no less than 6 times to check on your sweet baby, but you need to bathe, Mama.

5. Stop with the self guilt. Afraid to reach out to that person who offered to help because of what she might think of your house, your mothering, or what's in your fridge? Don't. It matters all of 0% what other people think of you. Even other moms, or non-moms, or your own mom. The only people who you need to focus on making happy are your baby and yourself. You are capable. You are strong. You can do really hard things. You just made and ejected a baby from your body. Give yourself some credit.

-Emily