9 Must Haves for the NFP User's Postpartum Care Kit!

If you or someone you know is preparing for the birth of a baby, you may have heard something or other about postpartum care. Childbirth is laborious for both woman and child, and the time after the fact is crucial for mother/baby bonding. Not only is this time important for mental health, but a mother also heals physically from the birth: her uterus will expel lochia tissue and blood for 6-8 weeks, and her body will shift back slowly to its pre-pregnancy state. Rest, recovery, and more rest are all crucial for the mother to stay healthy.

It is no wonder then that the mother will want a “kit” of sorts to help her focus on self-care! Not only will she look after a newborn, but for herself as well: it can feel very overwhelming. You can find many ideas online for a postpartum kit, sharing all kinds of options for pads, herbal baths, spritz baths, support for breastfeeding, binders to help her organs shift back into place, etc. Just like the need for a plan for birth preferences, a woman will need to plan and prepare for her postpartum period.

For the woman who uses NFP, postpartum is more than just a time to heal from birth. It is also a time to start charting again! As your main method of preventing pregnancy - and also a handy tool to monitor your reproductive health after childbirth - you will need as much help as you can get in order to prepare for charting. In this post, I plan to share my own tips for a postpartum NFP kit, both as an instructor and mother of two.

1) Pregnancy tests.

No, really, buy in bulk! Especially if you are breastfeeding, charting with NFP after birth can be an anxious time; it doesn't matter how confident you feel about your method's effectiveness. You are carefully awaiting your body to ovulate, whether it happens in the next few weeks, months, or years! While charting will let you know if pregnancy was even possible, having a box of cheap tests to show you a “negative” will do your frantic mind a favor. Even formula feeding mothers who are expected to cycle 4-12 weeks after birth could benefit from a negative test. You can buy cheap brands online through Amazon (such as Wondfo), and you can also find cheap store brands at places like Walmart or the Dollar Store.

2) LH and Progesterone tests.

Testing for ovulation-related hormones are very objective and give a clear indication of where your hormones are at. They can confirm if your body is trying to ovulate (LH), and whether you HAVE ovulated (progesterone). In fact, some women use the Marquette Method of NFP to test their hormones, using the Clear Blue Easy fertility monitor (which tests for estrogen and LH, with their own special line of test sticks). Others may also use these tests as supplements to their other fertile signs, rather than using them as a separate method. To decide which is right for you, speak with a Marquette instructor and women who use the method. You can buy LH strips for cheap in bulk from Amazon, and also find MFB Fertility's progesterone test strips there as well.

3) Update phone numbers and email addresses of your instructor, and be sure to schedule a follow-up with them before and after the birth.

And if you do not have one, now is the time to shop around for one! You may be rusty with charting after going 9 months without it, and you will definitely need to go over special rules for charting postpartum to ensure your method effectiveness. While this holds true for those who never charted postpartum before, even seasoned NFP users will want to at least refresh with an instructor or with their book. Think of it this way: an instructor is cheaper than another 9 months of prenatal medical care! I myself not only offer classes online, but I do consultations as well.

4) Restock on charts and needed materials.

If you use paper charts, either buy more or print more yourself. There are numerous charts you can download for free online, but be sure to use the one that best fits your method. If you use a charting app or online chart, make sure you recall the needed password to log in, and how to use their features. And remember: if you ever want to switch from online charting to paper charting during your postpartum time, or vice versa, make sure you transfer all the data you have charted thus far so as to avoid confusion!

5) Use cute and practical tools to make NFP easier to handle.

Find a cute alarm clock for taking your temperature. Buy that silly pen for your paper chart. Store your charts in a pretty binder or folder and store it somewhere safe. If you use a charting app, find an app that lets you customize it to your needs and is appealing to you. Some women also like to compare their cycles or moods to the lunar cycle, so getting a weather app or moon calendar could make tracking fertility more lighthearted.

Also be sure that your spouse is involved. If you use paper charts, keep the chart posted where they can find and look at it. Or, you could set up a system to let him know whether you are fertile: leave a special symbol on the family calendar, as an example. Be creative, and talk about it with your spouse to figure out what makes it easier to share information.

6) Collect resources to keep your relationship strong during this transition.

Before the baby is born, sit down with your spouse and discuss how to bond together during this rough time. Babies can be rough on marriages, but only if you let them! See if family can help watch the baby for an hour so the two of you can relax and bond, or even enjoy a rare moment for lovemaking. Start-up a subscription to Amazon Prime or Netflix if you haven't, or stock up on DVDs of your favorite movies and shows; there will be nights where baby keeps you up, so make it fun for yourselves at least and share movie nights. Perhaps you could ask for restaurant and take out gift cards for those nights where you want to try something new and fun. And don't be afraid to reach out to counseling if things get too much; find out what low-cost options are in your community through churches or other organizations. Whatever you do to share time together, be intentional about it and ask for help when needed!

7) Join a postpartum forum!

It’s important to be able to find a safe space to discuss postpartum needs where other members can help or understand. A neat NFP-focused group for Postpartum support can be found here. Also feel free to explore non-NFP postpartum and mothering groups that fit your lifestyle! Simply be sure that the group is positive, supportive, and a place where frustrations can be shared without judgement. You have enough drama with healing after birth, raising a new baby, and also maintaining your relationship; the last thing you want are mommy wars.

8) If you are breastfeeding, keep a copy of Sheila Kippley’s book The Seven Standards of Ecological Breastfeeding.

While this method of breastfeeding is taught as a child spacer, you don’t have to practice it in order to find use in the book. Kippley shares invaluable information on what is and isn’t normal for breastfeeding infertility to look like, and also what can encourage an earlier return of fertility. By knowing the ins and outs of how nursing affects your menstrual cycles (or lack thereof!) you will have empowering knowledge to better equip your charting.

9) Plan out your "punching bag".

Ask any experienced NFP user or instructor what they feel is the hardest time in life to chart: most will likely say "postpartum charting". The fluctuation of hormones after birth and during breastfeeding can give all kinds of crazy fertile signs, and some women find that they can not trust their bodies as they did before. Other times, they perfectly understand their charts but hate how long they must abstain! To safely relieve stress, plan ahead about how you want to destress. Are they relaxing baths? Reading a favorite book? Perhaps you want to arrange for an on-call babysitter to watch the little ones so you can enjoy a walk alone? Or, better yet, you want an actual punching bag to punch and kick the frustration away! Whatever you do, acknowledge that stress is normal and can be handled in safe ways.

Postpartum charting is challenging, but you do not have to walk into it totally blind.

Prepare for your postpartum time, and hopefully adjustment to post-birth life will go smoother. By handling the "hard stuff" before it even happens, your family and especially yourself will reap the benefits!

Did you find these suggestions helpful? Is there anything you would add? Comment below!