Top 10 careers that make amazing postpartum professionals

A career change into postpartum work

Postpartum care is a cultural practice carried out throughout the world for thousands of years, but it is still a relatively new “career” in many places. Therefore, most postpartum professionals come to this work as a career change. Over the years, we have heard stories from hundreds of graduates about their career changes and the unique businesses they have built based on their life and work experience.

For many of our students, the transition to motherhood sparks their career change into postpartum care. Their heart has expanded, and they want to have a positive impact on the lives of others. They also want a flexible working environment where they can choose their own hours and support their family on their own terms.

For other students, their career change into postpartum work is fuelled by the desire to join a service-based industry. During school, students might feel pressured to aim for careers that are not service-focused, as a status symbol or measure of intelligence (which ignores the incredible emotional intelligence required to work in service). Working in the corporate world, removed from interactions with people, can be unfulfilling over time, and working with people 1-1 and seeing the difference in your time and energy becomes more desirable.

Whatever your motivation for your career change into postpartum work, you bring an incredible range of skills from your previous working life. These skills are of significant value to supporting Newborn Mothers and caregivers.

Top 10 careers that make amazing postpartum professionals

Here are a few careers whose skillsets beautifully transfer to postpartum care:

#1. Hairdressing and beauty therapists

People often refer to their hairdresser or beauty therapist as their counsellors. Many people treasure and look forward to relaxing and being cared for. Hairdressers and beauty therapists listen, encourage, and tend to clients, and leave people feeling like a million dollars! These skills are so transferable to 1-1 in-home postpartum care!

#2. Teachers

Teachers are the unsung heroes of our community who support our kids, communicate with parents, and work within the system. Every day, you take complex information and break it into easy-to-understand, digestible learning pieces for our kids! This is so helpful in postpartum care as you support mothers and caregivers with evidence-based information in a way they can absorb to make informed decisions.

#3. Childcare workers

Childcare workers are the modern-day village. You can ease a nervous parent, support an adjusting child, create a beautiful, playful environment, get food in the pickiest eaters, and hold space for your colleague… all before your first coffee! This capacity to be with children and parents whilst changing hats from problem-solving to play is excellent preparation for entering the chaos of a postpartum family’s home and setting everyone at ease.

#4. Retail & hospitality workers

When you work in retail or hospo, you learn to talk to people from all walks of life! You can meet anyone where they are on any given day without judgment. This skill can be game-changing for a postpartum family, holding things together with sticky tape. Plus, food makes everything better when you’re home with a newborn!

#5. Life coach

You can always tell when someone is a life coach at a party because you ask the BEST questions! Life coaches have a deep interest in people and invite us to reflect in a way that brings illumination to any area of life. Bring this gift of listening, holding space, and asking questions into postpartum care, and you have a recipe for creating a nurturing, caring, supportive environment for newborn families.

#6. Yoga or Pilates teacher

That moment when a yoga or pilates teacher walks into the space is always grounding! Students feel safe in capable hands, ready to tend to their bodies and minds. Helping people connect with and meet with their bodies is a gift. This gift is also needed in postpartum care, where mothers and caregivers are recovering from pregnancy and birth, as well as building a relationship with a new postpartum body.

#7. Midwife

So many midwives get into midwifery to support women and caregivers in the incredible transition into motherhood. However, the system does not always provide the time to sit alongside women, give continuity of care or support people over a long period. Bringing this unmet passion into postpartum professional work is so fulfilling, and families benefit from your deep connection to mothers, your knowledge, and your presence.

#8. Mother or friend

Being a postpartum professional, we are a mother to the mothers. So, your experience as a mother or friend can be foundational to your work as a postpartum professional. Those moments when you scoop up your overwhelmed child, are the sounding board for your best friend’s drama, or that grounding presence at the school gate… these all prepare you for postpartum care.

#9. Small business owner

Running a small business is akin to going to counseling for years! It invites deep work around your values, money mindset, and self-belief! Plus, you wear all the hats - like CEO, marketing manager, accountant, and strategist, on top of what your business actually does. This capacity to meet yourself and others whilst doing all the tasks is great fodder for meeting people amid motherhood. You understand what it is like to be doing all of these things! 

#10. Whatever career you are in!

There are so many other careers that we could list here, including whatever career you are in. Each career holds skills that you can transfer to postpartum work. Postpartum care can involve:

• Listening

• Holding space

• Bodywork

• Asking questions

• Education 

• Event planning

• Providing evidence-based support

• Suggesting resources

• Linking up with referrals

• Problem-solving

• Advocacy 

• Support with boundary-setting

• Practical skills

• Creating plans

• Village building

• And more!

At least one thing you do in your work or life translates to one thing on that list. Whatever career you are in, you have skills that mothers and caregivers long for.

The future of postpartum career

At Newborn Mothers, we have trained over 1500 postpartum professionals.

In the same way, we have childcare workers, disability workers, youth workers, and aged care support workers… we are developing Postpartum Education and Care Professionals as a mainstream career. 

We want our children to attend a career fair at their school and see postpartum professionals as a recognised career pathway and avenue for bringing their compassion and skills to the world.

The day arrives when we see government-funded Postpartum Education and Care Professional positions.

This is the postpartum renaissance!