Although you’ll most likely never see this list on a baby shower registry, these products and resources (pulled together by mamas who have been through the newborn fog a time or two), will really benefit you throughout those first few weeks postpartum. Be sure to file this away for your postpartum checklist, you’ll be so glad you did!
1) Out of hospital lactation consultant
One of the best things you can do for yourself, and your baby, is schedule an appointment with a lactation consultant for the days or even week after leaving the hospital. Not only do lactation consultants help you make sure baby is latching properly, they also provide you with so many helpful tips when it comes to feeding schedules and routines in the early days. Even if you think you and baby have got the latch down, it’s nice to get an experts opinion on everything to give you the peace of mind. Not all, but some pediatric offices actually have lactation consultants on staff. To save yourself an extra trip, it might be worth scheduling an appointment with the lactation consultant when you schedule your babies first visit with the pediatrician. If you’re not able to see a lactation consultant in person, there are virtual consult groups like Nest Collaborative available to you!
2) The Haakaa
A lifesaver for so many mamas, the Haakaa is a genius little manual pump that suctions to your breast and helps catch extra breastmilk. It’s a great way to store milk without pumping in the early days, and also helps remove excess milk when or if you start to feel engorged. Do yourself a favor and get one!
3) Liquid IV + A HUGE Water Bottle
Hydration will be a huge part of your postpartum regimen. In the hospital, they will typically give you a massive water bottle that you’ll surprisingly love more than you ever though you could love a hospital grade water bottle (it will get you through some really tough times). But to keep yourself extra hydrated, you might want to add a few pouches of these Liquid IV pouches to your water too.
4) Adult Diapers
After giving birth, it’s completely normal to bleed for a week or two after delivery. Totally understandable since you just birthed a human being, but in our opinion- not talked about nearly enough. In order to prepare for the bleeding, the hospital will have plenty of mesh underwear and large pads available to you. But if you’re like 99.9% of women out there who can’t stand pads, you are going to want to stock up on adult diapers. These are our favorite!
4) High rise panties (C-Section)
Any mama who has had a c-section will tell you, once you’re officially out of the postpartum diaper phase, you’re going to want to have several pairs of high waisted panties around. We love these, but there are so many options available if you just do a quick google or Amazon search for ‘postpartum panties.’
6) Sitz Bath
Whether or not you have stitches or tearing, a Sitz bath has so many postpartum benefits. can help reduce swelling and inflammation, promote healing, relax your muscles and relieve the pain from a tear or episiotomy, soothe childbirth soreness, relieve itchiness from stitches, ease pain from hemorrhoids (which are unfortunately very common postpartum) and keep things clean down there.
So how do you make a sitz bath? You can get one of these amazing sitz baths for your toilet seat (so you don’t even have to really squat!) or fill your bathtub with 2-3 inches of warm (not hot) water. Make sure the water is only as high as your hips when you sit down. Add sitz bath salts to the warm water, or make your own with a combination of epsom salts, witch hazel, lavender, or chamomile oil. Soak for up to 20 minutes once a day. If you have stitches, be sure to check with your healthcare practitioner in advance because sitting in a warm bath for too long can make the stitches fall apart.
After your sitz bath, you can pat the area dry with a clean cloth or (and this is our favorite little tip) put your hair dryer on cool and blow the area dry!
7) All the Frida Mom Recovery Products
Frida just gets mom and their postpartum recovery kit reflects that. While you’re in your third trimester, go ahead and order one of these to keep under your bathroom sink until baby arrives. The kit comes with everything you’ll need to stay comfortable down there. Even healing foam for those dreaded hemorrhoids.
8) Sunflower Lecithin
If you plan on breastfeeding, then you definitely want to plan to avoid mastitis. To put it simply, mastitis is when your milk ducts become clogged and the clogged duct can cause an infection in your breast tissue. It is very painful and may cause you to have extremely high fever, chills, and red, swollen breasts. To avoid clogged ducts, we recommend keeping sunflower lecithin on hand, especially during the first weeks postpartum after your milk comes in and as your body regulates your baby’s changing feeding schedule.
Sunflower Lecithin is a natural fat emulsifier that can help to reduce the “stickiness” of the milk and deter fats from clumping together. It may also loosen existing fatty clogs and improve milk flow.
9) A very good Stool Softener
If you’re about to experience your first postpartum poop, congrats! It’s definitely a right of passage during the early postpartum days. Just be prepared by stocking up on stool softener (we like Colace, Miralax, Dulcolax) and and give your body some time to ease into it. You’ve got this mama!
10) Stock up on Ibuprofen
Even if you have some in your medicine cabinet already, order more. You will not regret having a full bottle of these little pills on your bedside throughout the many stages of your postpartum journey.
If you’re a mom currently in the postpartum trenches and feel like we are missing necessary items, or if you’ve been here before and have anything to add. Please comment below, we’d love to hear from you! xoxo
