Postpartum care focuses on your care after having your baby. In general, the care targets the 8 to 12 weeks, known as immediate postpartum, after your baby’s delivery and focuses on your mobility and physical recovery. The six weeks are set for women with vaginal births and the eight weeks are marked for women with caesareans or birthing complications. This time frame aligns with the date for when doctors will have follow-up appointments with new mothers and give medical clearance to return to work and all activities as usual. Therefore, unless your physical health indicates otherwise, postpartum care and support ends with your follow-up appointment and the clearance of your OB.

At HOM, we believe that the postpartum period continues beyond the standard twelve weeks.

Immediate postpartum support with HOM is providing care support following delivery, and it addresses your mobility, health, and emotional needs of recovery as you adjust to life with your baby. We talk about limiting your movement, work, household chores, caretaking habits, etc. that you may do when you return home. We want to ensure you allow your body the necessary time and conditions to fully heal physically, both internally and externally, and not do things that will exacerbate your body’s recovery process. Together, we discuss the various plans and modes of support you need during this time and include everything from babysitters for siblings, meal preparation, your bathing needs, your rest needs, and your breastfeeding or formula feeding plans. We work with you to consider schedules and relatives and/or friends who can visit to assist to ensure that everyone who comes to see your family’s newest addition is helping you you’re your recovery process while they are with you.

Continuous postpartum support with HOM extends beyond the initial twelve weeks. During this time, HOM works with you for your baby’s first two years as you navigate the emotional, mental, and physical transformation of learning and reclaiming your body, mind, and emotions. The two-year postpartum support centers your well-being on a holistic level. If you experience postpartum depression, anxiety, weight loss or gain, mood swings, and more, we understand that it is not just a bad day or a mark of failure as a mom. These are all a part of your postpartum recovery as your body—the organs, the chemicals, the brainwaves, all of it—work to recalibrate your new normal.

We partner with you to ensure that you have a support system where you feel safe to be vulnerable and honest about your experiences with motherhood and the new you that you and your partner may not always recognize. At HOM, we believe there is nothing wrong with saying “I’m not okay.” We will walk with you in learning how to be, what being okay looks like, and what you can do to be then stay okay.

We at HOM understand that it took you ten months for your body to create, grow, protect, and birth an entire human being with its own sinew, bones, flesh, personality, expressions, and attitudes. We know that the first year of a baby’s life will see that baby experience the greatest amount of growth and development it will ever experience in its entire life. It makes sense, then, that you will need at least two years to learn to be you again and to learn how to be the new you with this new identity.