Typically, even before a new baby arrives, your closest friends and family have started the conversations on when they’d like to visit following birth, and how long they’d like to stay. It’s easy to get swept up in the excitement of planning for all those visitors and before long, you’ve got a calendar of postpartum “helpful help” all planned out… in your mind.

Maybe, at the same time, your partner is also talking to their family and friends, making plans for their own visits. And, because life is crazy and busy, as you're both wrapping up projects in preparation for this new baby, you both forget to compare dates and plans for your respective sides of the family.

Fast forward a few weeks, to the fuzzy, sleep-deprived early days of life with a newborn. You’re realizing that in two days, you’re somehow expecting your mother, your mother-in-law, your brother’s entire family (oh, and their dog), and your college roommate all at once. And because, #babybrain, you've somehow agreed to host them all in your home! 

With your newborn! And also, you just gave birth!

Take it from our postpartum doulas, traffic jams of visitors in the earliest days of Newborn Life, and with post-birth hormones onboard, are taxing for even the most stable, steady relationships.

So that's why we’re offering a tool we encourage all pregnant people to utilize before a baby is born, to plan out your postpartum help (and, to give you the chance write it down while the plans are being made). We call it the "Postpartum Visitor and Support Schedule", but really, it's just a list of your friends and family and the times and dates they're planning come, all written in one spot. 

Hopefully this free printable will do double duty and improve the traffic flow in your home after birth. By scheduling your visitors around what feels right for you, and allow you to build in space for you to get to know your baby, you'll find your own path as new parents along the way!