Postpartum Must Haves and What to Expect Now

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In October 2023 I was blessed to have experienced my third home birth. I’m now 6 weeks postpartum and want to share the must haves of postpartum care and what to expect as a woman in general.

To read about my third positive home birth story, click here or watch it on YouTube here.

Hospital vs Home Birth Postpartum

I’ve had very different postpartum experiences with each birth. After my first hospital birth, I was in the NICU with my baby for several days, so my needs would be different than my home births. Hospital and home births are also going to have different essentials because the hospital will most likely provide you with the basic hygiene necessities.

This list is what I consider postpartum must haves after a home birth. Most of these will also work for a hospital birth too but some would be provided by the hospital and not require you to purchase individually.

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Postpartum Must Haves for Mom

From basic hygiene necessities to outside care, there are several things that I would consider must haves postpartum. Over the last several births, I’ve bought many items after being told that I needed them. Of course, I didn’t end up using half of it.

These are tried and true necessities for me. Over each postpartum period, I’ve cherished these.

Adult Diapers/Maternity pads

After you’ve given birth, you will have postpartum bleeding called lochia. Lochia is the vaginal discharge of blood and mucus after delivery. It can last up to 6 weeks in varying flows. The first few days and even weeks can be very heavy. Your uterus is healing from a dinner plate size wound and expelling all of the blood that has built up over your pregnancy.

Having a good quality adult diaper or maternity pad for those first few days is invaluable. I have used pull up diapers and was very pleased with how well they worked! After about day 3 I started using the large maternity pads before moving on down to my normal period pads.

The adult diapers I used were the generic store brand of Depends. No need to be fancy with these. The one thing that I did require was no fragrances. If you’re sensitive like I am to fragrances, make sure you watch out for that.

If you have had a C-section, basic period pads may suffice as you generally do not have as much lochia as vaginal births.

At the hospital they will have netting underwear and large pads available in most cases. I have yet to hear or see any pull up adult diapers offered.

Ice pads

Ice pads have been a life saver for me for 4 out of the 5 births. You put these on top of your adult diaper/maternity pad, and it helps reduce swelling and pain to the area almost immediately. You’re generally only using these for the first few days postpartum.

I remember when I worked on the L&D floor in the Navy. The night shift nurses, and I would take newborn diapers, cut them open and pour ice into them. Close them up with tape and put into the freezer. This always felt like such a tedious task but now after having children, I know just how valuable that task was for many women.

For women having a home birth, you will have to do this task. I have personally used regular maternity pads for this and stashed them in my freezer for when I needed them.

Tucks pads

Something that I feel doesn’t get talked about enough for postpartum are hemorrhoids. This is not something I had personally expected the first time around. I highly recommend buying TUCKS pads for use of your potential hemorrhoids.

These pads help soothe and heal very well. These are not always available in the hospital that I have seen over the years. I would recommend asking your labor and delivery unit prior to delivery if they offer these or if you should buy them for your hospital bag.

If you’re doing a home birth, definitely purchase a pack of these to have on hand.

Pain management

If you’ve had more than one child and breastfeed, you are aware that each subsequent child cause worse contractions postpartum. Let me tell you, these are not comfortable. Having something for pain is a postpartum must have for sure.

Pain management can be a touchy subject to women who want to stay away from medication and be as natural as possible in all aspects. I completely respect this and have tried it many times myself.

However, with postpartum recovery, I have not found anything that helps me like ibuprofen. I do not feel like I’ve failed when I take ibuprofen. It is one area I will gladly use western medicine in.

I have tried tinctures marketed towards postpartum and period pain. Sadly, I personally cannot take the herb cramp bark, so they have not worked for me. They have actually made my bleeding (lochia) worse. If you do take one of these tinctures and find that your bleeding (lochia) has increased, I recommend stopping immediately and contacting your healthcare provider if needed.

What I personally take and would recommend you speak with your healthcare provider on, is 800mg ibuprofen every 6 hours. I generally take it around the clock the first 5-7 days and then start tapering off as much as possible. Usually by the end of the first week, I’m down to once a day and then even less going forward.

Meal Trains and Freezer Meals

Food. I recommend lots of easy and convenient food for you and your family. When you are recovering from birth, you need a lot of protein and good fats. If you’re also breastfeeding, you will need a lot of it.

The larger your family is, the harder this task can become. I have found that meal trains from churches, family and friends are probably the most helpful thing I could have ever had.

A meal train is when someone or even an online program such as MealTrain.com, sets up a coordinated sequence of meals to be delivered to your home. Some can even donate towards food delivery services or even money to go towards other items you may need at the store. Having something set up like this for the first couple of weeks postpartum, was invaluable to us.

The freezer meals are just as helpful. Especially for those who do not have any close friends or family to orchestrate a meal train. I started making large food batches to freeze around the 34-36 weeks mark. At 6 weeks postpartum I still have freezer meals we are eating our way through. It has been a life saver.

I suggest doing a combination of freezer meals for breakfast, lunch and dinner if possible. I made things like pancakes, waffles and egg cups in muffin tins for breakfast. Lunch was generally leftovers to be honest. Dinners were mainly casserole type dishes of course and super simple to make and reheat when it was time.

Of course, the hospital will feed you during your stay there, and sometimes your partner as well.

Protein Snacks

This is a specific postpartum must have for breastfeeding mamas. The need for food is a real dilemma when you’re constantly stuck in a chair/couch feeding your precious newborn or wrangling other children in the home.

To keep up your milk supply and to not become hangry, you need to have strategically placed protein packed snacks around your home.

I have a homemade trail mix in bowls around the places I feed my newborn. My trail mix consists of nuts such as peanuts, almonds, cashews and pumpkin seeds. I also add in dried fruit that we have on hand. Sometimes its cranberries or raisins or even dried blueberries. Then to satisfy my sweet tooth I do add in chocolate chips. I must warn you that if you have other kids, especially a toddler around, you will wonder where those chocolate chips ran away too.

Comfortable Clothing

After many years of breastfeeding, I have found that my absolute favorite thing to wear are “yoga” pants and these tank tops from amazon shown below. I have had these for the past 4 babies and still wear them even when not nursing a child. They are that amazing.

Other items that I would say are must haves are other nursing attire such as shirts and dresses. I wear nursing friendly dresses to church and many people have commented that they didn’t realize I was actually nursing my child until the end of our conversation. I have bought many items from Latched Mama over the last 5 years and they’re still going strong today.

Postpartum Must Haves for Baby

I’ve recently done a post on my must haves for your new baby while pregnant with our 5th child. It is a list of very basic items. You would be surprised just how little you truly need for your newborn.

Check out the post below for those must haves.

Must Haves for Our 5th Baby | Home Birth | Exciting Updates

Need Help Deciding on Hospital Vs Home Birth?

I have a post and video on this very topic.

Home Birth | Top 5 Reasons to Choose a Natural Birth

Let me know your postpartum must haves

Leave me a comment below if there is another postpartum must have that you can’t live without.