It’s 2021, you’re pregnant and combing through the internet trying to figure out this whole postpartum thing. 

Everything you run into is telling you to “ask for help!” or “delegate to your family.” Not bad advice… BUT pandemic quarantine and lock-downs are still a real thing. Which means all that potential in-person support may not be accessible. 

So how do you plan for an empowered postpartum experience and get the support you need virtually?

One of the upsides of being 18+ months into a global pandemic (literally a sentence I never thought I’d type) is that many of the postpartum support professionals have successfully pivoted their practices online. Which means you may have MORE access to MORE people than you would have pre-cov*d. 

Fun fact: This was the original inspiration for the Badass Birthers Club — the opportunity to serve and connect with amazing people, regardless of location (or lock-down status) and help them cultivate an empowered pregnancy and postpartum experience. 

Opportunities for Virtual Support: 

Lactation Support 

• While in-person is ideal, many IBCLCs offer online consults. And don’t forget! Lactation support is not just for early postpartum. Your lactation specialist can help you with weaning, transitioning to formula, pumping, tandem nursing, and more. I just had a virtual consult with my IBCLC to help me through a 5 day nursing strike with my 16-month-old and now we are happily nursing again. 

Sleep Coach

• Struggling with nap times, bedtime, and midnight wakings? A sleep coach can help you find individualized and aligned tools to help you and your tiny human get more sleep. 

Food 

• Friends and family making your dinner may not be an option right now. But if you have folks close to you, consider setting up a meal train. Folks can do distanced drop-offs to your porch! 
• Not an option? Gift Cards to food delivery services like doordash, instacart (great for snacks!), hellofresh, or even your favorite local restaurants are a great way for folks to support you from afar. 

Emotional & Mental Health Support

• Taking care of your emotional and mental health is vital postpartum. Many counselors and therapists now offer telehealth services and it is definitely something to explore with your provider. 
• If you aren’t connected with a licensed therapist, using a service like Better Help or Talk Space is a great way to get started with online counseling. 
• Not in the mood to talk? Apps like Headspace or Expectful (which is specific to the parenting years) offer meditation and mindset. 

Social Support

• Early postpartum is lonely (even pre-pandemic). Many hospitals and birth centers host virtual support groups and there are specific groups for breastfeeding and bodyfeeding, birth processing, and working through the baby blues. We’ve cultivated a tight-knit community, regardless of location, in the Badass Birthers Club to process many of these topics and more. The nice part about virtual support is that the commute is a breeze 🙂 

What about in-person? 

There may be parts of postpartum where you want and need people in person. As you co-regulate postpartum, it’s important to establish boundaries and expectations for those entering your space. Some could be as simple as hygiene (i.e. wash your hands before you hold the baby) and length of visit. Others could be more complex like what visitors should do when they are there (clean? Make a meal?) or expectations around distancing, masking and more of our current reality. 

Regardless of what kind of support you choose to utilize, it’s important to lay a foundation first: How do you want to feel in those early days? What’s important to you? What is a hard no? What is an absolute must? Who can hold those boundaries? Some of these questions are tough to answer and require a lot of exploration which is exactly what we support in the Badass Birthers Club.