Faster Healing After Baby: 10 Essential Items to Speed Recovery after Delivery

Nobody likes feeling horrible, so after you have your baby, you will want to heal as fast as you can.

If you are preparing for childbirth, and want to make sure that your postpartum recover is as speedy and stress free as possible, I have some some essential things that you will want to have on hand for when your baby is born.

Please read: This information is provided for educational purposes only and is not intended to treat, diagnose or prevent any disease. We encourage you to make your own health care decisions in partnership with a qualified health care professional.

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When you baby has arrived, part of you will be totally infatuated and in love with this new little creation. The other part of your may well feel as horrendous as I did after my first baby.

Faster Healing After Baby: 10 Essential Items to Speed Recovery

There are some products that if you have on hand, you will thank me later!

1 Quality snacks and meals

When I had my first baby I could not believe how hungry I was. SO HUNGRY. It turns out that is a normal response to having a baby and if you are breastfeeding it may continue for quite some time.

Before baby arrives prep your house with lots of healthy, high nutrient, high protein, high fat snack options. These Lara bars are a convenient option. As are a selection of nuts, bliss balls, seeds and dried fruit (for the fiber).

Pre-make a selection of meals that can be frozen, then thrown in the oven to heat. To make it easier on yourself, bulk buy aluminum pie dishes to cover with more foil then stack in the freezer as they can then go straight into the oven.

Not sure what to cook? Birth Eat Love have a super affordable Freezer Meals Cookbook where you get 17 delicious recipes that actually freeze well, a bunch of tips on bulk cooking and freezing food and a pre-made grocery list! Pretty amazing for under $10!!

2 Breastfeeding box

Putting together a breastfeeding box (or two!) was one of the best things that I did with babies 2 and 3. I wish I knew about it for my first baby! All you need to do is get a small box or basket and add:

Snack food – I always had crackers and bars on hand
Water bottle – I love this one as it stays cold all day
Pure lanolin to prevent and heal cracked nipples
Paper and a pen to make down feedings
Phone
Magazine or a good book
The TV remote
Pain relief so you remember to take it regularly
Burp cloths
Cotton diaper flats or other cloth for spills

3 Disposable underwear

The last thing you want to be doing postpartum is washing 3 or 4 pairs of undies per day. You need some nice, soft, super-stretchy disposable knickers.

These are super comfortable if you have had a c-section, or to help keep you pad in place for the first few weeks postpartum.

4 Padsicles

When your nether regions are super tender and swollen, something cool and soothing is just what you want. You can buy pre-made cooling, medicated pads or you can make your own by applying some alcohol-free, unscented witch hazel to cotton maternity pads then store them in the fridge.

5 Sitz bath

One or two nice soothing sitz baths per day, is a great way to help heal hemorrhoids as well as decrease swelling and speed healing of your vagina and surrounding areas. You can make your own sitz bath, or you can buy a pre-made sitz mix.

6 Omega 3’s

One of the best ways to help prevent post natal depression is to make sure you are getting enough omega 3’s in your diet. You can get omega 3’s in your diet from walnuts, oily fish, chia and flax seeds or you can take fermented cod liver oil.

7 Whole Food Vitamin

Just because you have had your baby already does not mean that your need for vitamins and minerals has stopped. Your body need plenty of nutrients to handle the stress of healing, sleeplessness, breastfeeding and the stress of your new life. A whole foods vitamin supplement is the perfect additive to your diet during this busy time.

8 Belly binder

After birth, your belly will remain stretched for some time. Abdo binding helps to support your back muscles, and speeds up the healing of your abdominal muscles. Wear a good quality abdomen binder for the first month post partum, if you invest in a good one, you can use it for subsequent pregnancies as well.

9 Peri-bottle

When you pee for the first time after having your baby, it can be quite uncomfortable. One of the best things you can do is to add water while you are peeing to dilute the urine. Washing well after using the toilet also helps keep the area clean and reduces the risk of infections. The easiest way to do all this is to get a super affordable peri bottle, and keep it beside the toilet. If you use more than one toilet, grab a couple.

10 Poop aids

Once you have masted peeing after a baby, next step is the first poop. If you went in to labor naturally, you will probably have had a bit of a natural clear out before (or during) labor. This means you probably won’t need to poop for a couple of days. Phew.

In preparation for the next few weeks, you will probably benefit from a high fibre diet, with plenty of fruit, vegetables and water. Stool softeners are a postpartum womens best friend!

Also there is a great gadget called a squatty potty. It is a great way of making sure your body is in the optimum position to make pooping easier.

Faster Healing After Baby: 10 Essential Items to Speed Recovery

Healing postpartum is hard but the horribleness is usually overtaken by the wonderfulness of having a delicious little bundle of love to snuggle and stare at constantly.

But these sneaky tips, will make the whole process much smoother for you!