One of the most common theme of questions we get in consults is about what happens after the birth.
How do we take care of mom and baby? Where in the house will we hangout after we give birth? What about the mess in our house? Do you weigh the baby? Can we just…eat our own food afterwards? And oh, did I ask you already, what about the mess?
Your immediate postpartum experience, what happens in those few hours we stay with you after you've had your baby, are important to the health of you and baby, the bonding between you and baby, and the overall emotional tone this experience imprints in the life of your family.
You’ve expended allll your energy towards working to meet your baby and now- they’re here!! You deserve to steep yourself in the joyful relief and ecstatic new beginning that is being written before your eyes. While you soak up your baby, we quietly and quickly continue our work.
Our work always involves being aware and keeping track of you and baby, making sure everybody is healthy and happy and stable. If there is derivation from that, you’ll see us get more active and be more hands-on in your experience. When all is going smoothly though, we like to patiently watch and hold space for you. We love celebrating with you, laughing with you, crying with you, and breathing big sighs of relief with you.
We are big fans of physiological birth from start to finish, so our favorite way for you to birth your placenta is to simply allow you to do just that. Expectantly managing the situation should anything come up, but giving you and your body space to do what it needs to do without pulling and prodding.
We are also big fans of knowing each other’s role at a birth. Usually one of us is assisting the other, so after the birth when things have settled down and you are just floating around on cloud 9, one of us is more focused on clinical aspects of your care while the other is more of the "details lady," yet we both play a bit of both roles, too.
Those “details” include everything from cleaning up all of our equipment, sterilizing items, emptying and cleaning up the birth tub, starting loads of laundry, taking out the trash, even making pancakes in your kitchen for you if that’s your post-birth meal request. Ya know, full-service midwifery.
We like to say that our goal is to leave your house as if nothing ever happened- except, well, ya know, there’s a baby there!
What about the mss? It's already as thoughtfully contained as possible due to our awareness and experience, your supplies already organized due to our work together prenatally, and it quickly gets swooped up by the homebirth trash fairy, out of sight and out of mind. We are also expert blood spot removers, although that's usually not needed due to our preparation. Again, full-service midwifery.
On the clinical end of things we are doing things like taking vitals for mom and baby, making sure mom can ambulate (a fancy word for move around, walk) well, everyone is stable, helping with breastfeeding, checking your perineum and vagina for tearing and suturing as necessary, providing an in-depth newborn exam (where we give you all the fun baby stats your family members have been texting you about for the last couple hours!), and providing in-depth postpartum instructions in terms of what’s normal and abnormal, what to expect in the next 24-ish hours before we see you again, etc. A highlight? Simply letting you and your family BE without interrupting this precious time. THAT'S what helps make postpartum at home so dreamy.
You see, there’s a lot that goes into our job after you have your baby. We want you and your partner to feel safe and confident enough to simply soak in the experience while we take care of the rest.
Those first hours after you have your baby are meant for getting to know this new being, dim lights and bonding over gentle oohs and aahs as your baby looks in your eyes, latches for the first time, and feels your heart rates fall in sync as they lay contentedly on your chest.
This is a sacred time, this is an important time - we recognize this and support you in light of that important fact. And as we tuck you all in bed and head out the door hours after you’ve birthed your baby, we love knowing that your postpartum experience will continue to flow from here, this safe space, and that you will ride into it with our attentive care and a newfound level of confidence and connectedness.
If you're interested in learning more about homebirth midwifery care be sure to follow us on Instagram @beautifulonemidwifery. We love sharing about the day-to-day and behind-the-scenes of what goes into having a homebirth!
Although we are licensed midwives by profession, we are not YOUR midwives. All content and information on this website is for informational and educational purposes only, and does not constitute medical advice. Although we strive to provide accurate general information, the information presented here is not a substitute for any kind of professional advice. For more information, click here.