From Breastfeeding to Recovery: Postpartum Essentials to Have at Home

While the list I’m sharing below is not exhaustive, it’s a great starting point. Of course, you can custom tailor this list to be more conducive to how you give birth (whether you have a C-section or vaginal delivery), whether or not you're breastfeeding, and if you want just to have the basics or feel super prepared.

Ideally, this list is a good one to help you start on the right foot.

So, let's start with our number one best-selling product. If you are breastfeeding, or even if you're not, these helpful Hot/Cold Breastfeeding Gel Packs can be used—as the name suggests—both hot and cold to provide some relief while feeding.

You should use these warm when trying to encourage a letdown or just need some soothing relief. If you are trying to dry up your milk supply or battling mastitis, refrigerate these until nice and cold, not too cold, and insert them into your bra to help relieve engorgement and suppress your milk if weaning.

I will say I love these so much because they have a helpful circle cutout and slit, so you can easily fit these around your pump while you're pumping. If you’re using them while pumping or nursing, use them gently warmed up to help encourage a letdown, like I mentioned.

These come in a pack of two, and the cover is removable, so you can wash them as needed. They are an absolute must-have instead of bulky ice packs that may not fit in your bra correctly or are uncomfortable.

If breastfeeding, having a nipple balm (or two!) at home is a must.

Please note: No matter what nipple balm you purchase, look at the ingredients and see if you need to wipe it off before nursing directly or pumping.

For example, some nipple balms will have vitamin E in them because it is a super nourishing ingredient for the skin, but babies should not ingest it. If your nipple balm has vitamin E, please remove it before breastfeeding.

Ultimately, you should consult the back of your bottle or nipple balm jar for instructions on how best to use it.

One of my favorites is the 'Mama Balm’ by Mama & Bird out of Australia. There's no need to wipe off before nursing, which is excellent. So you can use this right before you start pumping, right before you start feeding, and also after if you need a little extra soothing help.

If you experience swelling or tearing. Having some perineal pain and swelling relief spray at home is essential.

You've heard of Dermaplast, which is a great option. If you're looking for something a little more natural, you could use witch hazel, which is actually in our Peri Aid by Women’s Wellness Boutique. This is just a simple witch hazel solution to help immediately after birth. And there's no need to rinse this off. It's very gentle and very effective.

There's also an Organic Perineal Soothing Sitz Spray. This is more of an herbal blend with lavender and chamomile, so it's super anti-inflammatory. It also has witch hazel and aloe vera, which have calming astringent properties. This would be such a lovely, supportive option.

If you need some extra relief down there, again from swelling or stitches, or tearing that you might be dealing with after a vaginal delivery, sit spray is on your list.

Speaking of care down there, our customers and new moms can’t get enough of the Push Balm from Anointment. It's obviously for use after pushing to help with swelling, encourage healing, and offer soothing relief. And it can also be used for hemorrhoids, which, no matter how you give birth after pregnancy, many of us do experience hemorrhoids.

What I love so much about the Push Balm is that it is made with great herbal ingredients. It comes from Canada, from the most lovely company, and I absolutely love it. We sell so many of these, and everyone else loves them.

You’ll also want to have pads at home. It is best to have a variety of pads.

• Hospital pads

• Overnight pads

• Panty liners

Our website offers Organic Bamboo Overnight Pads for weeks one and beyond after birth. They are biodegradable, super thin, organic bamboo, but very absorbent. I love these.

If you haven't already, check out our video on using an upside-down peri bottle. This specific upside-down design is essential, whether you had a vaginal or cesarean birth, and it's a must-have on your list.

And yes, your hospital will give you a peri spray bottle, but it will not have this upside-down design. It will be a basic plastic bottle with a little spout at the top. So, it's time to upgrade the peri bottles and switch to the upside-down ones.

We have two of these in stock in our Postpartum Shop. Having a peri bottle at home is essential no matter where you get them. You can fill it with warm or cool water and add a dash of our Peri Aid—or the Herbal Soothing Spritz—to give it some extra cleansing and healing properties.

Think of this as your portable bidet after you go to the bathroom and need to rinse yourself off. You don't want toilet paper down there—okay, that's the last thing we need. This will gently rinse off the area with water.

If you had a C-section, the extendable spout gives you a little extra length, so you won't have to bend over onto a fresh incision to rinse after using the bathroom.

While discussing care down there, mesh underwear is an absolute must-have on your list. Whether or not you get mesh underwear from your hospital or through our website or get some extra unused ones from a friend, they are a must-have.

We also have an entire Postpartum Underwear Guide on our YouTube channel. It will walk you through the different types of postpartum underwear and when you might want to wear them.

On our website, we have the postpartum mesh underwear from Mother Mother. They are one size fits most, super stretchy, and very comfortable. Mesh undies are designed for our newly postpartum mamas.

Whether you had a C-section or a vaginal delivery, this will be what you step into after giving birth. You'll layer in your super absorbent hospital pad here, shimmy that baby up, and get some rest.

What's great about these is that they are black and help hide any stains. They're not as see-through as the white ones you might get in the hospital. They come in a pack of five, and they are reusable as long as you follow the care instructions. That means washing on delicate and hanging to air dry if possible.

Mesh underwear and some regular postpartum undies must be on your postpartum and recovery list.

In addition to the typical postpartum care items, there are some special teas and tonics you might want to consider having at home after birth.

The Postpartum Restorative Tonic by Milk Moon is one of the bestsellers in our Postpartum Shop. It's handcrafted in California from organically grown or ethically wildcrafted herbs, all designed to support your body and overall health and vitality after pregnancy.

Unsurprisingly, we lose a lot of minerals and nutrients, as well as blood, throughout pregnancy, labor, and birth. This tonic will help restore and replenish those levels. You take one to two tablespoons in warm water up to three times daily to help give your body that extra boost and nourishment it needs after birth. Plus, the bottle is just so gorgeous, too.

And then we have our Iron-Boosting Tea. I've discussed this in other videos before, and it is probably one of our top three bestsellers. It comes from a midwife and daughter team in the UK. It contains organic nettle leaf and rose hips to help boost iron stores after birth.

If you had a vaginal birth or a cesarean birth, you will experience blood loss, some more than others. This is a great way to support your iron levels naturally.

Of course, always talk to your doctor if you have concerns about your iron levels. Get the proper testing done. If your blood loss is severe, always bring up concerns with your doctor because tea alone will not fix deficient iron levels, but it certainly will help support them.

Okay, last but not least for my C-section mamas, if you are having a planned C-section or want just to be a little prepared in case you end up having a cesarean birth, there are two things I would certainly recommend having at home waiting for you.

Of course, you'll also need mesh underwear, pads, and a peri spray bottle, but I highly recommend the individual heating pads from our shop, C-Heaties.

These are one-time-use abdominal heat packs. You stick them on your clothing, and they help provide gentle heat relief to your incision site to encourage healing and improve blood flow. These are amazing. I've used them personally when I'm starting my period, and my menstrual cramps are miserable. They are so lovely and so helpful. I wish I had these for my C-section.

They're $15 for four of them, lasting for hours.

Last but not least, this is an Organic Scar Balm. It is to be used after your incision has fully healed and closed up—you know, after your stitches have fallen out, your staples have been removed, or your glue has completely closed the wound.

This scar balm helps nourish and encourage elasticity. Midwife-created with organic ingredients, it’s perfect for scar massage to help encourage blood flow, which can also help encourage healing. So, it's a lovely product to have at home.

Now that you know what products to have at home, here are helpful tips for being more prepared for life after birth.

1. Meal prep

2. Set up postpartum care stations

This could involve batch-cooking some meals on a Sunday afternoon and freezing them or making double batches of the meals you're already making to set aside in the freezer.

You can also consider a postpartum meal delivery service. We love Mama Meals here at Hello Postpartum. You could also ask a friend to set up a meal train so people can drop off meals.

Related read: 11 Super Simple Freezer Meals for New Moms

If you need meal prep ideas, we have an entire Postpartum Nutrition Guide available for instant download. It is very in-depth and written by postpartum nutrition experts, and it contains 40+ recipes.

Consider getting diaper caddies or a rolling cart on which you can easily layer all of your postpartum products so you can move from space to space to take care of yourself. It's something you could wheel from your bed to your bathroom, Or if you're using the diaper caddies.

You can have a diaper caddy filled with products at each station or in each bathroom in your home. I think it's so important that we spend an hour or two just really prepping our home and our space for postpartum recovery. Because when you're bleeding, you're tired, and you're learning to feed your baby, no matter how you're feeding, somebody's crying. It's important to be prepared.

By having some items on this checklist that I shared, prepping some meals, and creating some postpartum spaces in your home, you can really begin to envision what life after birth might look like and how you can best prepare.

Lastly, we have a free Postpartum Planner on our website that you can grab. It's 16 pages that will walk you through more must-haves for life after birth. It also has a care provider organizer plus helpful questions you can ask your partner to start thinking about scheduling, etc.