7 Steps to Holistic Healing After Birth: How to Make Your Postpartum Plan

The way that mothers are loved and cared for after birth impacts them for the rest of their lives. Traditional postpartum care across the world focused on helping new mothers rest, replenish, and rejuvenate through practical, social, and emotional support, going far beyond a couple of weeks in bed and the pressure to "bounce back".

We are spiritual beings in physical bodies, and our emotional, physical, and spiritual wellbeing are deeply interconnected.

When one part of ourselves is out of balance, it affects the rest. Our modern medical model treats symptoms in isolation, but true wellness means listening to what our bodies are saying to us, and looking at our health as a whole.

By preparing for a restful, slow 'fourth trimester' with a holistic mind-body-spirit approach, we can heal more deeply and replenish more fully - both in the short and the long term.

7 Steps to Holistic Postpartum Recovery

1. Practical Support

Focusing on recovery and bonding requires real practical help. Plan ahead for who will handle cooking, cleaning, laundry, food shops, and older children.

Counter the conditioning that asking for help is "needy": set up a meal train, consider a postnatal doula or mother's helper, and set clear boundaries so visitors help out while they are with you.

2. Physical Recovery

Physical healing is mostly about rest. Allow yourself to be lazy and savour slow time in bed. Traditional rituals focus on "mother warming", keeping your womb and feet warm with hot food and drinks.

Support your body coming back together through belly wrapping, closing the bones ceremonies, chiropractic care, postnatal yoga, and daily warm oil massage during your sacred window.

3. Nourishment

Your body needs nutrient-dense, warming foods like collagen-rich broths, stews, and soups to rebuild energy reserves and support milk production.

Stock your freezer with hearty meals and keep wholesome snacks by your bed. 

Protect your gut microbiome with probiotic foods like kefir, sauerkraut, and kombucha, alongside prebiotic fibers to feed the helpful microbes.

4. Emotional Health

The fourth trimester comes with conflicting feelings, doubts, and joy that require processing regardless of how birth went. Empower your emotional wellbeing with journaling, positive affirmations, self-hypnosis, and creative storytelling.

Explore supportive tools like EFT tapping, homeopathy, flower remedies, or talking therapies to feel heard and seen.

5. Spiritual Wellbeing

During birth, your energy field opens wide at the crown to universal consciousness and at the root to the Earth.

Coming down from this cosmic act requires intentional grounding. Meditate on and visualize your energy field closing back around you to reconnect with your personal identity.

Nurture your energetic space with chakra balancing, breathwork, crystal healing, or calling on your faith and spirit ancestors.

6. Relationships

Modern life often lacks the traditional 'village,' so we must build our own. Talk openly with loved ones before birth about your needs.

To protect your connection with your partner during tiring months, commit to micro-moments: a cuddle before sleep, holding hands while the kettle boils, eye contact, and sharing the best and worst parts of your day.

Streamlining baby logistics and preparing for unexpected scenarios (like NICU stays or feeding challenges) frees up your mental energy. Focus on skin-to-skin bonding, and following your baby's lead.

7. Connection to Nature

Birth is deeply expansive. Bringing your energy back down to Earth helps anchor you during times of uncertainty.

Ground yourself through herbal teas, replenishing salt baths, stepping into fresh garden air, using essential oils for massage, and bringing fresh flowers into your home.

How to put together your postpartum plan

Whether you are preparing for your own fourth trimester or supporting clients in your birth and postpartum doula practice, you can turn these concepts into an actionable, visual plan.

Download a unique holistic postpartum plan guide with a license for limited commercial use - so doulas, birthworkers, antenatal teachers, hypnobirthing teachers and midwives can print to give as handouts to clients and use as a tool to discuss how to prepare for thriving after birth. An excellent accompaniment to my illustrated postpartum plan template.

For Mothers: An illustrated, fill-in-the-blanks visual planner featuring my original watercolour illustrations to help you map out what your postpartum sanctuary plan will be. 

I hope having this template will help make the conversation about postpartum more fun and engaging.

For Doulas & Birthkeepers: Includes my Limited Commercial License, allowing you to print unlimited copies of the full client guide sheets and illustrated worksheets for your 1-to-1 visits and prenatal workshops!

Explore other handmade resources to share with doula clients with some of my bestselling handouts and teaching tools for birth education