Stop Planning the Nursery, Plan Your Postpartum

Most pregnant women spend months on the registry, the nursery, and the baby shower, then hit the fourth trimester with no plan for themselves. Nina Spears has spent 15 years changing that. She’s a baby planner, birth and postpartum doula, massage therapist, and author of The Baby Chick Guide to Positive Pregnancy, and she thinks you should start preparing for postpartum before the third trimester even begins. In this episode of Between Meetings & Motherhood, host Alexa Starks sits down with Nina for a funny, honest conversation about how to prepare for postpartum, build your village, and share the mental load with your partner from the day you see that positive pregnancy test. In this episode: * Why you should treat your third trimester as postpartum prep, and what to do in the second trimester to get ahead of it * How to write a postpartum plan: the pelvic floor therapist, lactation consultant, and mental health therapist to research before you need them * What to put on your baby registry instead of another bouncy seat: meal delivery, house cleaning, a postpartum doula, a night nanny * How to build your village while you’re still pregnant, and what to do if you can’t afford to outsource * Postpartum depression, anxiety, rage, OCD, PTSD, and psychosis: what the perinatal mood and anxiety disorders (PMADs) are and why none of it makes you a bad mom * Why Nina treats a birth plan like a flowchart instead of a wish list * Nina’s experience with placenta encapsulation and why some of her clients swear by it * Nina’s planned home birth: three hours of pushing, a baby coming out crooked, and the EMTs arriving just as he was born * The fetal ejection reflex: why her second birth was completely different * The invisible load starts at the positive pregnancy test, not when the baby arrives, and how partners can carry their share from week one * Why people spend more time on the wedding than the marriage, and more time on the nursery than on parenthood * Nina’s big goal: a full education and community platform that becomes a “nest” for moms from pregnancy through postpartum Nina’s book The Baby Chick Guide to Positive Pregnancy is a week-by-week guide with partner tips, available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Target, and Walmart. 📲 Find Nina: baby-chick.com (2,800+ free articles, her book, birth and postpartum courses, and baby planning services) | @thebabychick on Instagram 🎙️ Between Meetings & Motherhood is hosted by Alexa Starks, founder of Mothered Media and editor-in-chief of Mothered Magazine, a podcast for ambitious moms building businesses and raising families at the same time. Join the waitlist for our upcoming Mothered Founders Club, for ambitious mom founders globally who want to build businesses together. #PostpartumPlan #PostpartumPreparation #PregnancyTips #BabyPlanner #Doula #PostpartumDoula #PostpartumSupport #MomPodcast #BetweenMeetingsAndMotherhood #MotheredMedia #PositivePregnancy #BirthPrep #MentalLoad #PostpartumDepression #NewMom Get full access to Like a Motherf*cker at likeamotherf.substack.com/subscribe