If there's ever a time to have strong boundaries, postpartum is that time.
Setting boundaries is important if you want to have a peaceful postpartum.
Get clear about what you want and need your postpartum to look like. What do you want and not want? Who do you want to visit you in the hospital and at home? You get to decide if you want visitors and when after your baby's arrival.
Everyone wants to meet and hold the new baby, but the mother needs to be held too. This is a time for you to get to know and bond with your baby, family time together, learning to breastfeed and care for your baby. The time after birth is when the mother needs rest so she can heal physically, emotionally and mentally. Give yourself the gift of time you need, however long that is. As the mother, you decide what's right for you and your family. You need visitors to hold and mother you, while you mother your baby.
Visitors want to meet, hold and take photos of the baby, give their opinions about how to parent, how to care for the baby, and how to do things. The first days and weeks after birth are the time for you to transition to motherhood, whether this is your first or fifth baby, to become a family, welcome the new member into your home and life and spend time together. As a new mother, you need support, rest, care and love from visitors who understand your needs during postpartum. Visitors who ask you how you are, bring you food, do some dishes or fold laundry, take your older children for a play or whatever else you need. You may decide you don't wan't any visitors for a week, or only family members and professionals in your home at first. Decide what you do and don't want and tell people before the birth. It's your postpartum, so you choose what you need and what's best for you and your family.
I support mothers after birth in Castlemaine and surrounds to get the rest, care and confidence they need. Contact me to find out how we can work together so you have a peaceful postpartum.