The response to Sohla’s episode, where we both shared a few things that our husbands have done to make us feel supported postpartum, and shared several elements of postpartum recovery that we wish we’d had a heads up on, was insane. Countless older moms, brand new moms, soon-to-be-moms, all the moms, wrote me to thank me for sharing the real deal about postpartum.
But the #1 thing I heard was “I wish my partner had done that” or “I wish my partner had known to help with that" kinds of comments in regards to Sohla and I sharing how supportive our husbands are as newborn dads. My husband George absolutely crushes the labor and postpartum/newborn phase. I can’t even count the number of times that my friends or IG followers have seen him in action and said something along the lines of “how did George know to do that?” or “you’re so lucky he did that!”.
And it got me thinking: all of our husbands want to make us feel loved, taken care of, and supported. It’s not their faults that they have never done this before! Neither have we, after all! We want them to know exactly what we need without us having to tell them, but they are not, in fact, mind readers capable of meeting our every hormone-riddled need before we even know we need it ourselves.
So, I polled my Instagram audience to get their feedback on how they felt supported by their partner during labor and postpartum, and 20k+ women responded. This is a HOT TOPIC. I combined that intel with my own personal experience from giving birth to my three sons, and here we go: A Complete Handbook for Being The Best Newborn Dad/Partner Ever. It’s a podcast with an accompanying PDF for quick reference. Because our partners deserve to be set up for success! So this handbook is here to help them out.
I get into:
Explaining some of the gnarlier elements of childbirth and postpartum so guys know what we go through
Things to avoid saying (I’m so sorry that the hospital couch is uncomfortable, but I promise your wife is more uncomfortable than you are)
Teamwork for nighttime wake-ups
Taking that breastfeeding “death thirst” seriously
Actual scripts for handling your partner’s hormonal changes, mood swings and yes, rage
Following her lead on sex after childbirth
And so, so much more.
Links:
Listen to this episode in your favorite podcast app:
*the* guide to being the best newborn partner ever