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When we’re expecting a baby, much of the preparation focuses on birth — the hospital bag, the nursery, the birth plan.

But the weeks after birth can be one of the most physically and emotionally demanding periods of life.

Through the stories shared on Perinatal Stories Australia, one theme emerges again and again: many mothers prepare carefully for birth, but far fewer feel prepared for the weeks that follow.

Postpartum planning means intentionally thinking ahead about the support, care, and resources you may need once your baby arrives. From practical help to emotional support, planning ahead can make the early weeks feel more manageable and help protect your mental wellbeing during a time of enormous change.

What is Postpartum Planning?

Postpartum planning is any intentional decision made to protect your wellbeing and support your family in the days, weeks, or even months, following the arrival of your baby. Preparing for postpartum — sometimes called a postpartum plan — can make the transition into early parenthood more manageable.

It can include thinking about:

Who will help with meals, household tasks, or older children
What emotional support you may need
How you will prioritise rest and recovery
Who you can contact if you begin struggling with your mental health

In simple terms, postpartum planning means preparing not just for birth — but for the transition into parenthood. Rather than waiting until you are exhausted, overwhelmed or struggling, creating a postpartum plan creates space to prepare for recovery, adjustment and wellbeing.

Why Postpartum Planning Matters

The early weeks after birth bring profound changes all at once, as parents adjust physically, emotionally, and practically to life with a new baby. This includes:

physical recovery from pregnancy and birth
hormonal shifts
sleep deprivation
feeding challenges
identity changes
new responsibilities and routines

And this is even before considering the emotional and mental health challenges that can also arise during this time.

Kathryn on the day she was released from hospital with her daughter, unprepared for motherhood: “I was sent home on schedule mentally broken and traumatised. A once confident and vibrant woman stripped down to her most vulnerable state”.

Parents are often told to expect sleepless nights, but less often told how to manage them, or how to prepare for the emotional vulnerability and adjustment that can accompany the fourth trimester. When these experiences arise, many people feel unprepared or isolated. Even when a baby is deeply wanted and loved, this transition can feel overwhelming.

This is one of the reasons postpartum planning can be so helpful. Increasingly, maternity care professionals recognise that care after birth is not a single appointment or check-up, but an ongoing process of recovery, adjustment, and support for both mother and baby — an approach reflected in Australia’s Living Evidence for Australian Pregnancy and Postnatal Care (LEAPP) guidelines. Thinking ahead about support systems, rest, and mental wellbeing can help families navigate this transition with greater confidence.

If you’ve listened to episode 04 of the podcast, you may remember hearing from professional postpartum planner Kathryn Millhouse of MotherUp. She explains that creating a postpartum plan can help protect both physical recovery and mental wellbeing, particularly because many mothers struggle to prioritise their own needs during this time.

As Kathryn explains:

“We know as women it is difficult to put our needs first and to be open about the support we receive”.
“A lot of the time, if people aren’t actually delegated, then they’re naturally not going to feel like they’re accountable for anything, and then everything falls on the non-working parent — by that I mean the non-professional working parent or non-paid parent — which usually tends to be the woman.”
“And it can just cause overwhelm and it works against prioritising your healing and your mental wellbeing in postpartum, because you know, your job really is to focus on your physical healing and your matrescence journey and the bond you’ve got with your baby.”
“The main focus that I put into place is the focus of the mother, and trying to get her village and her support team to feel accountable and necessary to promote her wellbeing. Because it’s such a vulnerable time and you’re in a new role, your body is healing, your mind is changing — you’re in such an incredibly transformative time.”

Thinking ahead about support, rest, and emotional care can reduce some of the pressure that families often feel in the early weeks after birth. Rather than trying to solve problems while already exhausted or overwhelmed, planning ahead creates a framework of support that can make the transition into parenthood more manageable.

Postpartum planning can help families:

organise practical help before it is urgently needed
protect time for rest and physical recovery
identify emotional support and mental health resources
reduce feelings of isolation in the early weeks

While it can’t remove every challenge of early parenthood, planning ahead can make those challenges easier to navigate. One of the most important elements of postpartum planning is support.

The Role of Support in Postpartum Mental Health

Research consistently shows that social support plays a crucial protective role in maternal mental health. Studies have found that women with lower levels of support are significantly more likely to experience postpartum depression than those with higher levels of support (Cho et al., 2022). Adequate support can reduce stress, improve resilience, and lower the risk of postpartum anxiety and depression.

Support might include:

practical help with meals, cleaning, dog walking, or errands
emotional support from partners, family, or friends
professional support from midwives, psychologists, or maternal health nurses
peer support from other parents

Importantly, support does not need to be perfect or constant to be helpful. Even small forms of consistent support can make the early weeks feel more manageable.

What A Postpartum Plan Can Include

Every family’s postpartum plan — sometimes called a postpartum support plan — will look different, but many plans touch on several key areas — from emotional wellbeing to practical household support.

Practical Support.

Many families benefit from organising practical help ahead of time.

Examples include:

arranging a meal train
asking friends or relatives to help with laundry or groceries
scheduling childcare for older siblings
limiting visitors during the first weeks

Reducing daily demands can create more space for rest, recovery, and bonding with your baby.

Emotional Support.

In your words.

“Having the plan really allowed me to talk through and sit down with all of my key support people like my mum, my mother-in-law, my dad, and be like, ‘This is the plan. If you think something can be added, if you think we can or should do things differently, this is how we can talk about it.’ And it just created a framework to talk through a lot of these things that can otherwise feel awkward.”

— Siobhan (Episode 24)

Emotional support is just as important as practical help.

This may involve identifying people you feel comfortable talking to if you feel overwhelmed, anxious, or low. Some parents also find it helpful to connect with perinatal mental health professionals before birth so they know where to turn if support is needed.

Planning ahead can make it easier to reach out early rather than waiting until symptoms become severe.

Protecting Rest and Recovery.

Sleep deprivation is one of the most significant challenges in early parenthood.

While newborn sleep is unpredictable, some families plan ways to protect rest where possible, such as:

partners sharing overnight care where possible
trusted family members helping with household tasks
taking turns resting during the day

Rest is not a luxury during postpartum recovery — it is essential for both physical healing and mental health.

Where to Start Creating a Postpartum Plan

A postpartum plan doesn’t have to be complicated. It simply invites you to think ahead about the kinds of support, boundaries, and practical arrangements that may help protect your recovery and wellbeing after birth.

In your words.

“My plan was just pages and pages of resources of: If I feel this way, this is what I can do. If this happens, do this. Just lots of ideas. All of the ideas, all of the resources.”

— Siobhan (Episode 24)

You might begin by considering questions like:

Visitors and boundaries.

What are your preferences around visitors in the early weeks?
Who will help communicate or enforce those boundaries if needed?

Meals and nourishment.

Who will be responsible for cooking in the early weeks?
Will you prepare and freeze meals in advance?
Will you use a meal delivery service, or have family and friends drop meals off?

Household tasks.

What housework needs to be done daily or weekly?
Who will take care of grocery shopping, home admin, or walking the dog?
Would it help to temporarily hire a cleaner?

Sleep and physical recovery.

How will you protect opportunities for sleep so you can get a solid stretch of rest?
Do you need to rearrange your home to make recovery easier — for example, if you have stitches or a caesarean wound?

Professional support.

Is there a counsellor or psychologist you could book an appointment with after birth?
Do you have the numbers for mental health helplines if you need support?
Do you know who you would call if you were struggling?
Would it help to get a referral and Mental Health Plan in advance?

Postnatal care.

Do you have contact details for a lactation consultant or breastfeeding support?
Where is your closest or preferred women’s health physiotherapist?

And the list goes on.

It might feel like a lot to think about. But in truth, these questions often become far more overwhelming when you are already in the thick of postpartum life.

Without some preparation, something has to give. And too often, it is the mother's own needs — her sleep, nutrition, recovery, and care — that fall away first.

If you need some guidance to get started, Kathryn’s passion for protecting the postpartum period led her to create a free resource called the ‘MotherUp Postpartum Canvas’:

“It’s literally a plan on a page that I’ve compartmentalised into mind, body, home, support resources, questions to facilitate a to-do list and iterations, and a big relationship section… and nutrition as well! All the things that are really, really important in postpartum and I have these guiding questions.”

Postpartum Planning Is Not About Perfection

A postpartum plan cannot eliminate every challenge of early parenthood. Babies are unpredictable. Recovery can take time. Emotions can shift in ways we don’t always expect.

Remember…

Postpartum planning is simply an act of care. Care for your recovery, your wellbeing, and the profound transition you are moving through.

Postpartum planning is not about controlling every detail. It’s about creating a supportive environment so that when challenges arise — as they often do in early parenthood — you don’t have to navigate them alone.

At its heart, postpartum planning is simply an act of care. Care for your recovery, your wellbeing, and the profound transition you are moving through as a new parent. This reflects a more mother-centric approach to maternity care, which recognises that supporting the mother’s wellbeing is essential for the wellbeing of the whole family.

Too often, the focus of preparation centres on the baby — the nursery, the pram, the tiny clothes. Postpartum planning gently shifts some of that focus back to the mother. Because your needs matter too. You deserve support, rest, nourishment, and space to heal — because caring for a baby begins with caring for the mother.

Sources

Australian Living Evidence Collaboration. (2023). Living evidence for Australian pregnancy and postnatal care (LEAPP). https://livingevidence.org.au/living-guidelines/leapp/

Cho, H., Lee, K., Choi, E., Cho, H. N., Park, B., Suh, M., Rhee, Y., & Choi, K. S. (2022). Association between social support and postpartum depression. Scientific reports, 12(1), 3128. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-07248-7

This blog is informed by lived experience and is not intended as medical advice.
If you or someone you know needs support, Perinatal Stories Australia encourages you to reach out to Lifeline (13 11 14), 13YARN (13 19 76), or Suicide Callback Service (1300 659 467).