The First Three Days After Birth

The moment your baby is born, everything shifts.

Those first 72 hours are not about getting back to normal. They are about landing. Physically, hormonally, emotionally—you and your baby are beginning a new dance. These days are sacred. They deserve slowness, softness, and deep support.

What’s Happening in Your Body

Birth is not the finish line—it’s the beginning of postpartum. Immediately after the placenta is born, your body starts a massive hormonal shift:

• Oxytocin rises to help contract the uterus, prevent bleeding, and bond you with your baby.

• Prolactin and colostrum flow begin, preparing for milk production.

• Endorphins dip, and you may feel weepy, high, tender, or quiet.

• You’re also bleeding, possibly sore, and physically depleted.

This is a time for deep rest, nourishment, and connection.

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Skin-to-Skin: Hormonal Medicine

Skin-to-skin contact isn’t just sweet—it’s biological necessity in the early hours and days:

• Stimulates oxytocin—your bonding, milk, and healing hormone.

• Regulates baby’s heart rate, breathing, and temperature.

• Boosts breastfeeding success and reduces stress for both of you.

Lie back, bare chest to bare baby. Let them nestle, root, and rest. If birth was complicated or skin-to-skin didn’t happen right away, it’s not too late—do it any time. Every second counts.

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Oxytocin: Your Healing Hormone

Oxytocin helps your uterus shrink, your milk flow, and your heart settle into this new life. Here’s how to gently encourage its release:

• Uninterrupted time with baby

• Warmth—blankets, socks, baths, heat packs

• Quiet, dim spaces—soft lighting calms the nervous system

• Loving touch from partner or doula

• Laughter, tears, or music—emotional expression opens the body

If you’re feeling shaky, overwhelmed, or teary, you’re not broken. You’re opening. Let it move through you.

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Warming Foods: Nourish to Rebuild

In most traditional cultures, new mothers are fed warm, soft, easy-to-digest foods. This supports hormone balance, digestion, and milk production.

Ideal postpartum foods:

• Bone broth, stews, lentil soups

• Cooked oats, congee, stewed fruit

• Root vegetables, warming spices (like cinnamon, ginger, cardamom)

• Teas like nettle, raspberry leaf, fennel, chamomile

• Tea with honey to soothe and energise

Stay away from cold, raw, or dehydrating foods in these first few days if possible—your body needs heat to heal.

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Common Feelings in the First 3 Days

You might feel:

• Euphoric or elated

• Exhausted or foggy

• Weepy without knowing why

• Protective, overwhelmed, or unsure

• Intensely in love—or slightly disconnected

All of this is normal. Birth is a threshold. Give yourself permission to feel it all, without rushing to explain or fix it.

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The Sleepy Baby + Feeding Dance

Many babies are very sleepy in the first 24 hours. This is normal. But it can also affect feeding, especially if you’ve had pain relief or interventions.

• Keep baby close and offer the breast often, even if they don’t seem interested.

• Try skin-to-skin, hand expression, and breast compressions.

• Watch for signs of effective sucking: jaw movement, swallowing, audible gulps.

If baby is too sleepy to feed or you’re unsure, ask for support—early feeding support makes a huge difference.

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Why Recovery Might Feel Harder

Some births leave the body or mind feeling more depleted. You may experience:

• Longer bleeding or sore perineum

• Trouble latching or low milk supply

• A sleepy baby (common after epidurals or caesareans)

• Feeling disconnected or surprised by your emotions

There is no shame in this. You are not doing it wrong. Ask for help—early support is powerful.

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Create a Post-Birth Bubble

You don’t need to “host” your first few days. Instead:

• Limit visitors or ask them to bring food and leave.

• Stay mostly in bed or on the sofa.

• Let others cook, clean, or care for siblings.

• Focus on healing, bonding, feeding, and feeling.

This is your village window—let people love you.

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The first three days after birth are about one thing: connection. To your baby. To yourself. To this new identity unfolding.

Hold your baby. Hold yourself.

Keep warm, eat slowly, rest often. Trust that you are enough.

You don’t need to be productive—you are already miraculous.