04/02/2025
Have you heard of the postpartum 5-5-5 rule?
Planned C-section? Unmedicated birth center birth? Water birth at home? Epidural and no tearing? Hospital induction?
No matter how your baby made their grand entrance, one thing is the same: you grew a whole human AND its external organ (aka the placenta) for 9 months. And now? You have a placenta-sized wound inside your shrinking uterus—a uterus that spent 9 months stretching to watermelon status and is now attempting to revert back to its regular programming.
This is why the 5-5-5 rule exists:
💤 5 days IN bed (Yes, literally in bed, under the covers, skin-to-skin with that fresh baby)
🛏 5 days ON the bed (Move a little, but not as much as you feel like you can!)
🚶♀️ 5 days NEAR the bed (Slow and steady, you worked really hard for a long time!)
And that’s on top of other changes or possible wounds like perineal tears, breast engorgement, bleeding, recovering from major abdominal surgery (if you had a C-section), epidural after-effects, swelling from IV fluid, Pitocin recovery, an average of 12-24 hours of labor and 1-3 hours of pushing.
So yeah, rest isn't just "nice"—it's necessary. Your body did something incredible. Honor it.
If you know me personally, you know this might be the secret reason I have five kids. 15 days of bed rest and uninterrupted (well, I try) skin-to-skin with my newborn? Immediately yes.
