Setting boundaries with visitors after birth: Protecting your postpartum bubble
Learn how to set boundaries with visitors after birth to ensure your postpartum bubble remains sacred. Tips for managing visitors, communicating your needs, and prioritising rest and recovery.
Setting boundaries with visitors after birth
The postpartum period is a sacred time for healing and bonding with your newborn. It’s an intimate and transformative moment for both you and your baby, and it’s essential to protect your space during this time. While visitors can be wonderful (sometimes even irreplaceable!), they can also become overwhelming, especially when you’re physically and emotionally drained.
Setting clear boundaries with family and friends early on — both in the hospital and at home — is key to making this period as peaceful as possible. Remember, it’s okay to change your mind as you go along. You’re allowed to adjust your boundaries based on how you’re feeling at any given moment.
Here are my top tips for setting boundaries with visitors after birth:
1. Talk with your partner in advance
One of the most important steps in setting boundaries is to have a conversation with your partner before the baby arrives. You don’t want to be in a vulnerable position and responsible for managing visitors. Decide together when visitors are welcome, how long they should stay, and if there are any specific people you want to avoid during the early postpartum days.
Ensure your partner knows that they will be responsible for enforcing these boundaries so you can focus on your recovery and bonding with your baby.
2. Let loved ones know your plans ahead of time
You don’t have to schedule a specific date for visitors in advance. Your mood, energy levels, and recovery may change day by day, and that’s completely fine! Give yourself the freedom to make that decision in the moment.
When friends or family ask about visiting, simply say that you’ll let them know when you’re ready for visitors. It’s okay to say no or ask them to wait until you’re feeling more prepared. The key is to honor how you feel.
3. Decide what type of support you want from visitors
Visitors don’t just have to come to “meet the baby” — they can also offer practical support that will make your postpartum period easier. Whether it’s bringing a meal, helping with household chores, or running errands, your loved ones can play an important role in easing your transition into motherhood.
Asking for help may feel uncomfortable, but it’s crucial to acknowledge that postpartum recovery is a vulnerable time for you. Honoring your needs not only benefits you but also shifts postpartum culture and supports other new mums as well.
4. It’s okay not to want visitors holding your baby
It’s completely normal to feel protective of your baby or simply not be ready to pass them around to visitors. If you prefer to limit the handling of your baby during this time, it’s perfectly acceptable.
Try saying something like, “Baby is still adjusting to the outside world, so we’re limiting handling for now.” This helps set the boundary without creating any awkwardness. You can also communicate this boundary with visitors ahead of time via message if you prefer.
BabyCare Gold Coast offers Holistic Postpartum Support designed to help new mums navigate the early days of motherhood with ease and confidence.
Our services include Postpartum Doula support, Baby Reflexology, and Pregnancy and Postpartum Counselling, providing holistic, natural postnatal care.
With a focus on postpartum healing and mental health for new mums, we support new mums with birth trauma recovery, emotional well-being, postpartum anxiety, “baby blues”, emotional healing after birth, and holistic baby care.
Postpartum Doula postnatal in-home support is available in the Southern Gold Coast, including areas from Coolangatta, Tweed Heads, Kirra, Palm Beach, Burleigh Heads, Miami, Mermaid Beach, and Broadbeach.
Baby Reflexology is a natural way to address common early life challenges like colic, reflux, sleep difficulties, breastfeeding struggles, stomach issues, teething, stiffness, restlessness, and fussiness to bring relief and comfort to both baby and mum.
Pregnancy and Postnatal Counselling is available both in-person and online, via Zoom. Themes to explore in Perinatal Counselling can include planning your postpartum, integrating your pregnancy and birth journey, navigating relationship changes and new family dynamics, processing changes in body, mind, and identity, coping with sadness or nostalgia for life before motherhood, finding your place in motherhood, and addressing intrusive thoughts or other unspoken struggles.
Our treatment room is located at 58 Railway Street, 4213 Mudgeeraba Gold Coast.
Our pricing is planned to provide affordable support options, making it accessible and suitable for all mums, no matter where you are in your postpartum journey.
Every Mum deserves to experience a joyful and peaceful postpartum. From struggle and survival to joy and ease.