The Future Postpartum

All of our stories, experiences and visions are needed to co create a better perinatal landscape. Medical professionals see one side of things, mental health care providers see another, doulas and community care workers see other aspects of what's needed. But at the center of the professionals, academics, researchers and policy makers MUST be the lived experiences of actual postpartum people. You know what 3am FEELS like, you know what it is like to recover from a 3rd degree tear or a major abdominal surgery while also parenting. You know what it is like to have your postpartum bleeding minimized, or your mental health shoved into checkboxes during a rushed appointment with a crying baby. You know wrestling with feeding choices, relationship struggles, emotions, money, work, while healing from life’s most intense somatic experience. You know what support you did/didn’t have, how you wished it could have gone, what was missing from your care provider's tool box.That is why this conversation has to happen front and center in the public square, free and accessible for all to contribute to. Your stories matter, your shares are so powerful and we love holding you all through this week and always. 

Policy change and care structures need to be built around the real life experiences of postpartum people to build the future where a nourished postpartum is a basic human right. 

Here are Birdsong’s future dreams of a nourished postpartum vision for all:

💜All people feel empowered and deserving to have a fully supported, nourished and rested first forty days after delivery.

💜The word postpartum is synonymous with nourishment… not depression. 

💜Generational healing occurs forwards and backwards for all our lineages as we nourish each person’s sacred healing window.

💜Babies are welcomed into supportive communities that hold the needs for postpartum people and caregivers.

💜All community members feel capable of meeting the needs of postpartum people.

💜Family leave policies are flexible and abundant for all postpartum people and caregivers in the first year postpartum. 

💜Postpartum education is embedded into public health programming and school reproductive health programming from Kindergarten through University. 

💜Medical care providers are educated on the complex needs of postpartum bodies, minds, and hearts. 

💜Postpartum mental health is understood as a continuum of healing and not pathologized or weaponized against postpartum people. 

💜People look forward to the nourishment and support available to them during the postpartum time. 

💜Postpartum care and support is available after miscarriage, abortion and loss. 

💜With each child comes more postpartum support, not less. 

💜Sitz baths and postpartum donuts for all!