Postnatal Recovery - 5 top tips for preparing for your fourth trimester - Grace Lillywhite, Centred Mums
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Postnatal Recovery - 5 top tips for preparing for your fourth trimester
The early days after having a baby are renowned for being hard work. As well as adjusting to the demands of feeding and caring for your newborn, you’ll spend the first few months of motherhood healing from birth, both physically and emotionally. It’s easy to say, but we can’t emphasise enough how important it is to prioritise your own wellbeing as much as your baby’s at this time. Just as your newborn is adjusting to life outside the womb, you are also entering a new phase in your life. The way you look after yourself in this period, will give you the tools you need to care for yourself and your family for the rest of your life. By taking simple steps during your pregnancy you can better prepare for this time and give yourself the start to motherhood that you and your baby deserve.
Planning Nutrition
Your recovery is going to be hugely impacted by what you put into your body and it is difficult to put much thought and time into this when your baby has arrived, needs lots of feeding and you are sleep deprived! Making sure you eat lots of protein will really help with your healing and you also need plenty of healthy fats, vitamins and minerals to replenish from the hard work of pregnancy. Batch cook healing foods such as chicken soup and veg packed stews as much as you can before baby arrives to take some pressure off. Make a weekly meal plan of nutritious food in advance and have online food deliveries ready done or write a weekly shopping list that someone else can go to the super market to get. Ask any visitors in advance to bring nutritious food with them so they too can batch cook during your pregnancy if necessary. Once baby has arrived, if you have a partner make sure before they leave for work every day they have set you up with what you are going to eat to make it as easy as possible. Have some hard boiled eggs and hummus in the fridge and dried fruit and nuts in the cupboard that you can snack on when the baby won’t be put down.
Planning for Visitors
Having people come to see you can be wonderful but it can also be draining and hard work! Plan a schedule of visitors (if you even want them!) and make sure that anyone who you allow to visit in the early days brings plenty of support such as food, a readiness to help with washing etc and no expectations of being hosted! Manage everyone’e expectations in advance and only invite people who will be helpful to you.
Planning Rest
This is absolutely vital as your body recovers from your birth experience. Please don’t buy into society’s badge of honour for mums who are up and out after a few days. Your pelvic floor will thank you in the long run if you spend at least the first couple of weeks in and around your bed, focusing on feeding and bonding with your baby. How can you help facilitate this in advance? Can your partner look after for the baby for 2 hours every morning before they leave for work? Calling in family or a postnatal doula can be a god send. Can you book a cleaner to take some of the pressure off of keeping on top of the house? Again try to have a schedule where people come to the house to look after you - your main role is to care for the baby while other people care for you.
Planning Your Movement
While you don’t need to be up and out of the house in a hurry, making sure that you stay mobile with simple ankle circles, shoulder circles, breathing exercises and gentle pelvic floor connections will give you a head start when you are ready to exercise. The more mobile you stay in pregnancy the better and getting to know some simple exercises that are suitable in the early days will really help. Our pregnancy Pilates classes are perfect to introduce you to moves that will take you through pregnancy and beyond. In pregnancy, try to walk 3 miles a day (if your body will allow and you are not advised to rest for any medical reason) to help speed up your postnatal recovery and stay as active as possible. When you are finally ready to leave the house postnatally, take it easy and go for slow, gentle walks.
Planning Body Work
Visiting a body worker in pregnancy can help prepare for an easier birth experience and set you up for an easier postnatal recovery. Releasing tension caused by your pregnancy is vital in enabling your core to function properly and making sure everything is well aligned will help so much after your baby has arrived. A trip to a specialist osteopath or other body worker can work wonders during your postnatal recovery and during your pregnancy too. It is also a great idea to go back in the early days postnatally to help restore your core function. Many specialist osteopaths offer mum and baby treatments so you both get to benefit from their expertise!
Bio:
Grace Lillywhite is the founder of Centred Mums. She started this exciting and innovative series of wellness programmes to support women throughout their motherhood journey. Grace has been working with this wonderful population for over ten years and specialises in working with abdominal separation and pelvic floor dysfunction. She is a huge believer in a holistic approach to women's health and draws from her nutrition and lifestyle training as much as Pilates to get amazing results for her clients.
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