postpartum Archives

Overcoming Postpartum Challenges: Coaching May Be a Solution

Written by By Melissa Gorley. Adapted from a Family Foundations article by Melissa Gorley. The postpartum season is one of joys and challenges. The joy of holding that precious baby makes all the hard work worth it, but there are also challenges including charting the return to normal menstrual cycles. Coupled with a renewed respect…

Three Generations of Postpartum Perspective

Written by Mike Manhart. Originally published in Family Foundations in 2022. Our home currently shelters three generations and is providing an interesting “grandparent” perspective on postpartum. Our youngest daughter had her first child in September and her husband was deployed 10 days later. Since then, she’s been staying with us, and it has provided a…

The Hardest Job You’ll Ever Love

Written by Katie Zulanas. Originally published in Family Foundations in 2022. Oh, how true that is! Whether it refers to parenthood, or marriage, or another vocation, our life’s work, sincerely pursued, inevitably runs into suffering and sacrifice. Your true vocation will be the hardest job you’ll ever love—and despite that–it is worth it! Postpartum is…

Preparing for Postpartum

Written by Monica Mattuissi. Originally published in Family Foundations in 2022. Recently, when praying the Rosary, I was meditating on the second joyful mystery of the Visitation, when Mary makes a journey to visit her cousin Elizabeth. I was struck by Mary’s eagerness to visit her pregnant cousin Elizabeth, as any woman who has been…

Rising above the baby blues

I have been failing so often to choose joy during this fourth trimester because I was relying on my vocation to fulfill me. How very foolish. I know rationally that my vocation is not my end-all — my life with Christ is.

The unofficial patron saint of c-sections

Anyone who’s had one could tell you that c-sections are far from easy. Beyond the standard post-partum challenges of balancing regular duties with keeping a fragile human alive, there’s also the added inconvenience of an abdominal incision. Healing from a major surgery like that isn’t a joke. Things can be made even harder if there…

Motherhood: strongest antidote to selfishness

Pope Francis is the newest pope of the people. For the first time in decades, media reports on the Holy See are trending positive, non-Catholics find him endearing and his own flock reveal a certain admiration for him, lovingly calling him “Papa Frankie.” While we may have a special place in our hearts for the…

23 postpartum hacks for dads (that don’t involve a gas mask)

There are lots of articles to guide new moms through the challenging world of postpartum life. Turns out, every marriage has a built-in postpartum hack: ask your husband to help! But dad, a little overwhelmed with a temporarily-dependent wife and now a very dependent brand-new, tiny human, might not stay on top of things as…

Expecting and nervous? There’s an app for that

Graphic courtesy of Life’n Stats via Google Play. Note: CCL is not associated with Life’n Stats and this is not an official endorsement; we just like supporting new moms! First-time mammas, rejoice! One of the best motherhood apps out there just got even better and now thousands of parents are using it to take the edge…

Moving off the back burner

From the November-December 2011 issue of Family Foundations: by Carol Greer Recently CCL received the following comment on its Facebook page: I wish that CCL would cover the topic of loving our bodies in those postpartum months and the issues that go with that. I feel like NFP celebrates our bodies, but I always find…