Designing Your Experience

Welcome to your experience design.

This isn't a medical form, it's a conversation starter. The answers you give here will shape the care plan we build around you, your household, and your recovery.

There are no wrong answers. Some of these questions might make you pause, and that's by design. Postpartum is a period of becoming, not just recovering. The more honestly you can tell us what you're hoping for, worried about, and working with, the better we can meet you where you actually are.

Julia has already shared the basics with us from your conversation. This form goes deeper into how you want to feel, what support actually looks like in your home, and what matters most to you in the people caring for you.

Time: About 15 minutes. We recommend doing this when you have a quiet moment, not on the go.

Contact Information

Please use the same email you gave us so we can match this to your file.

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Section 1 — Your Recovery Vision

Q1. What is your primary recovery goal? Most people say "all of the above" and we get it. But the first two weeks postpartum are a negotiation between what you need and what's possible. Knowing your top priority helps us design your care plan around the thing that matters most to you right now.

Sleep and rest Physical healing Breastfeeding or feeding support Emotional restoration Bonding with baby Getting our household running smoothly I'm not sure yet, I'd like guidance

Q2. Tell us more about that. Whatever's behind your answer above — tell us more.

Q3. What's your second priority? If your first priority is covered, what would you want us focused on next?

Q4. What does your life look like right now on a typical day, and what parts of it are you most worried about losing or managing once baby arrives? You're not expected to know what postpartum looks like yet, that's our job. But you know your life, your routines, and the things that keep you grounded. Telling us what matters to you now helps us protect those things on the other side.

Q5. What are you most worried about going into this postpartum? In matrescence (the developmental transition of becoming a mother) anxiety often focuses on something specific: a fear that something will go wrong, that you won't be able to do it, that your relationship will change, that you'll lose yourself. Naming it doesn't make it more likely. It helps us know where to put extra support around you.

Section 2 — Your Story

Q6. Tell us about this pregnancy. However much or little you want to share. Has it been straightforward? Complicated? Joyful? Exhausting? Were there scares, surprises, or hard decisions? This isn't a medical history, it's your experience of what this pregnancy has been like for you.

Q7. If you've given birth before: what do you want to feel different this time? Postpartum memory is powerful. Most second- or third-time parents can name the exact moment things felt hardest, and the thing they wish someone had done.

Q8. If this is your first baby: what are you basing your expectations on? Friends' stories? Instagram? Your mother's experience? Books? A complete void of information? There's no judgment here; we're asking because everyone arrives at postpartum with a mental model built from something, and understanding yours helps us know where the gaps might be and where the good instincts already are.

Section 3 — Your Household & Support

Q9. When do you want postpartum care to begin? Some families want support from the moment they walk through the door after delivery. Others want a few days alone first to settle in. There's no better or worse, just what fits your growing family.

Immediately after hospital discharge A few days after we're home I'm not sure, help me think through timing

Q10. What will your partner's availability look like? Partner leave varies wildly, and "home" doesn't always mean "available." Someone working from home in back-to-back Zoom calls is a very different kind of present than someone fully off work. Be honest about what's realistic.

Fully off work for weeks Working from home — somewhat available Back at the office / traveling shortly after birth Partner's availability will be limited throughout No partner in the household Other:

Q11. Who else will be around, and when? In-laws arriving week two? A mother who wants to help but also needs managing? A nanny for your older child? A friend who offered to bring food? Map out the people who'll actually be in your orbit postpartum, and we'll design your care around the reality of your household, not around you alone.

Q12. Is there a specific period you're most worried about coverage for? Maybe it's the week your partner goes back to work. Maybe it's the overlap when your in-laws leave and school hasn't started yet. Sometimes the hardest window is obvious in advance, and that's exactly where we concentrate support.

Q13. How do you feel about visitors in the early postpartum period? There's enormous cultural and family pressure around visitors after a baby arrives. Your answer here becomes part of your care plan, and your doula will help you hold whatever boundary you set.

Open door, visitors are welcome Limited, close family and friends, coordinated in advance First week private, then open up Restricted, we want space, and we'd like help enforcing that I'm conflicted about this

Section 4 — Care Preferences

Q14. What matters most to you in the person providing your care? Your doula will be in your home during some of the most vulnerable hours of your life. This isn't just about credentials, it's about fit. Choose up to three things that matter most to you.

Calm, quiet presence; someone who moves through the house gently Warm and conversational; I want to feel like someone's there Deep breastfeeding/lactation expertise Experience with C-section recovery Experience with multiples Experience with older siblings in the home Bilingual; specify language: Culturally aligned with my postpartum traditions Skilled at newborn soothing and sleep Confident enough to take charge while I rest

You can select up to 3 — uncheck one to pick another.

Q15. Is there anything that's non-negotiable for you in a care provider? This is the place for things the checklist above can't capture, religious considerations, specific language needs, gender preferences, experience with a particular medical condition, personality traits that would make you uncomfortable. Nothing is too specific.

Q16. How would you like your doula to handle overnight communication? This one matters more than you think. Some parents want to know every time the baby wakes. Others want to be fully off, "don't tell me unless something is actually wrong." Both are completely fine. Your doula will follow whatever you set here.

Check in with me each time baby wakes, I want to know what's happening Only tell me if something seems off or baby needs to feed Full silence unless it's an emergency, I need to sleep I'm not sure yet, I'd like to talk through this

Q17. Are there cultural or traditional postpartum practices that are important to your recovery? Sanhu House is named for sanhujori — the Korean tradition of 삼칠일, forty days of protected rest after birth. Many cultures have their own version: Chinese zuò yuèzi, Indian jaappa, Latin American cuarentena, and many others. If your recovery includes specific traditions (foods, rest practices, rituals, family roles) tell us. We'll build them into your care plan, not around them.

Yes, I'd like to incorporate specific traditions Somewhat, I'm interested in traditional postpartum care but don't follow a specific tradition No, no specific cultural practices to incorporate

Q18. How comfortable is your partner with newborn care? No judgment here, this is about designing overnight protocols. If your partner is confident with diaper changes and soothing, your doula can focus elsewhere. If your partner is learning, your doula can teach alongside caring. Both are normal.

Confident, done this before or naturally comfortable Eager but learning, would appreciate guidance Hands-off, prefers to support in other ways Not applicable

Section 5 — Feeding

Q19. You may have discussed your feeding plans with our team. Let's go deeper: how are you feeling about feeding? There's a difference between a feeding plan and feeding confidence. You can plan to breastfeed and feel terrified about it. You can plan to formula feed and feel guilty about it. You can have no plan at all. Wherever you are is where we start.

Q20. If you've fed a baby before: what was that experience like, and what do you want to be different? First latch struggles, oversupply, undersupply, pumping at 3am, the relief of switching to formula, the pride of making it work; all of it counts. Your history shapes the support we put around you.

Q21. On a scale of 1–10, how confident do you feel about feeding right now? 1 = "I have no idea what I'm doing and I'm scared." 10 = "I've got this." Most people are somewhere in the middle, and that's fine. This number helps us calibrate how much proactive feeding support to build into your first week.

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Section 6 — Wellness Add-Ons

Q22. We can connect you with a range of wellness services that can be woven into your postpartum care. For each one, tell us where you are. You don't need to decide anything right now, "curious" is a perfectly good answer. We'll provide our curated list of vendors and resources for anything you'd like to know more about.

Massage therapy

Postpartum massage isn't spa massage. It targets the specific tension patterns of pregnancy and delivery, lower back, shoulders from feeding, abdominal recovery. Most clients say it's the single thing that made them feel like a person again.