Many of the parents we talk to while pregnant are eager and wistful when thinking about the arrival of their newborn. And why not! Meeting your little one will be the start of such amazing love, a deep lifelong relationship with many adventures and sweet memories.

Postpartum planning helps with meeting the universal needs of parents who are going through the newborn stage. The goal of creating a postpartum plan is to create realistic expectations for yourself and your family while setting up the necessary support systems (ideally prenatally). Typically, people spend a lot of time planning their birth and focus very little on how life will be afterward, only to find that becoming a parent is a huge life transition! Creating a detailed postpartum plan will improve your postpartum experience and help you feel confident and supported as a parent. It also helps with making sure that you don't continually try and 'run on empty' and 'push though' - only to find that the the whole experience has depleted your resources and left you vulnerable to developing mental health struggles.

After living though and studying this unique period of life we can tell some of the universal needs of parents in the early postpartum period are:

• The need for adequate rest

• The need for support and space required to physically heal from birth

• The need for nourishment

• The need for loving safe relationships and support

• The need for trustworthy and non-judgmental learning opportunities

• The need to be supported in discovering their new emerging identities as parents

• The need to know they are not alone or failing when faced with the tough moments

• And almost everyone requires some level of support with feeding ( whether they are choosing to breastfeed or not)