Congratulations, you are holding your little one! The strains of birth are behind you and the time of healing and connection starts.

The 6-week period that follows the delivery of your child is a time unlike any other. It is a time of healing, transformation and feelings you didn’t know were possible. Your body’s recovery begins while your baby slowly enters the world of bright lights and sounds. This is also the starting time of your life together.

This time, also called the “fourth trimester” seems overlooked in our society. We recognize the vulnerability of babies but forgot to allow women the time to rebuild energy, replenish lost nutrients, start to produce breastmilk and recover from the trauma of birth. Around the world it is known that these important measures support a deep connection between you, your child and your family and help to heal your body and mind.

Books and magazines are filled with pregnancy and birth pictures. We are surrounded by so much information it seems we know everything about it. Once postpartum hits, most of us are a little bit lost. This time is less presentable, as it’s a time of blood, milk, pain, tears, sleepless nights mixed with all the love and wonder, that it is hard to cover in nice imagery. Many women I talked to said, they knew everything before the baby comes out, but nothing about the time after especially once you enter your home with your newborn. For most of us, this moment is the beginning of “bouncing back” to our pre-pregnancy body, productivity and spirit. We couldn’t be more wrong.

Postpartum care has been around for millennia but the wisdom around it has been forgotten in the western world. The goal with Happy Baby Belly is to bring this time back and allow all new mothers to cherish the unique transformation during the first 40 days. We encourage the celebration of recovery, the retreat from the outside world and the care and love your body needs to be able to heal and properly care for your baby. Especially if this is your first child, you will have to learn a lot of new things. Most of the things you will learn as you go but you can prepare yourself with the things you know you need, so they can be crossed of the list and make things in these weeks much easier.