After the birth of my first son, my postpartum recovery left much to be desired. As I moved through my postpartum period, I was overwhelmed, exhausted and blindsided by my physical recovery.

I felt so traumatized by my first birth and postpartum story that I was almost to the point where I didn’t want any more children.
 
“If I do this again…” I told myself, “things have to be completely different.”
 
And they sure were. After my second son was born, I felt radiant rejuvenated and energized. I felt empowered to take on any challenge and really leaned into my recovery season.
 
So what exactly made the difference between the two?
 

Half of it was of course, personal experience. I learned a lot about myself and about motherhood with my first. 

Being a first time mom is a unique journey as you don’t know first hand all of the layers of becoming a mother. And learning and understanding what it is to be a mother comes with its share of growing pains.
 
But the other half of it was because I took time to create an extensive postpartum plan. A postpartum plan that started out as a thought, a wish, a dream a home and a vision.
 
I started with a postpartum vision board. Actually a vision board journal.

I thought about what my dream or ideal postpartum experience looked like, how I wanted to feel after I gave birth, how I wanted my home to feel, how I wanted my relationships to evolve and what steps I would need to take to achieve to reach my goals.
 
And I just wrote it all down. I got it out of my head and onto paper. And looked back at my scribblings often. Especially when I started to organize my postpartum plan.

My postpartum vision board kept me focused and helped me to manifest the most amazing and rejuvenating postpartum period for myself. And you can do it too!
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What Is A Postpartum Vision Board?

A vision board is a collage or collection of pictures images and words representing a person’s goals or wishes. Vision boards are intended to be inspirational and motivational.

A postpartum vision board is the collection of images and words that represent your goals or wishes for yourself as a new parent.

A Dive Deep Into Your Desires

Your postpartum vision board is where you go deep and flesh out all of your deepest desires and dreams, goals and wishes and get clear on your values for the most foundational time in your parenting journey. You could also create a birth vision board if you have specific goals or wants for your labor and delivery.

Your postpartum vision board should include all of your dreams, goals, wishes, hopes, things you want to try, how you want your experience to feel, what you want your surroundings to be and so much more.

A Visual Reminder

Your vision board is a physical and visual representation of your dreams and goals for yourself as a new parent. It will include words and images that keep your specifics at the front of your mind and evoke the feelings you are striving for.

I recommend adding pictures of you and words that resonate or come from your journaling to get the deepest and most lasting results from your postpartum vision board.

A Strong Foundation

You can also use your postpartum vision board as the foundation that you use to create your postpartum plan. As you are thinking about and preparing for each area of your postpartum plan, you can refer back to your vision board to make sure that your plan is in alignment. It will serve as a visual representation and reminder of your dreams and desires so that you can stay intentional and make decisions that fit your family and lifestyle.