Can you prevent postpartum depression? There is no checklist that can guarantee a new mom will or won’t experience postpartum depression, but there are evidence-based preventive interventions and protective factors couples can begin putting in place during pregnancy.

In this episode, Chelsea talks about postpartum mental health through the lens of preparation, partnership, and support. Prompted by the current conversations surrounding the Lindsay Clancy trial and Hayden Panettiere’s public history with postpartum depression, she explores what expecting parents can do before the baby arrives to create a stronger safety net around the postpartum mother.

Important: Chelsea is not a mental health clinician, and this episode is not medical advice or postpartum depression treatment. Postpartum depression and postpartum psychosis are also distinct conditions, and postpartum psychosis can require emergency psychiatric care.

In this episode, we talk about:

• Understanding your individual risk factors for postpartum depression during pregnancy

• Why you may want to establish with a perinatal mental health therapist before birth

• Building a maternal mental health support team before you need it

• Why your partner should be part of your safety net—but not your entire safety net

• Protecting postpartum sleep and creating opportunities for meaningful rest

• Preventing one parent from automatically becoming the default parent

• Sharing the mental load instead of waiting for mom to delegate

• Questions partners can ask beyond simply, “How are you?”

• Creating a postpartum mental health escalation plan during pregnancy

• What partners can actually own without trying to diagnose or “fix” postpartum depression

• Why functioning does not necessarily mean a new mother is doing well

• How expecting couples can build stronger relational protective structures before their baby arrives

One of the biggest takeaways:

Your partner does not need to own your mental health.

They can own more of the environment around you.

That can mean protecting opportunities for sleep, bringing food and water without being asked, taking ownership of household responsibilities, managing visitors, learning warning signs, knowing who to contact, noticing meaningful changes, and believing you when you say something does not feel right.

Find perinatal mental health support through Postpartum Support International:
PSI Perinatal Mental Health Provider Directory | PSI Perinatal Mental Health Directory

Download Chelsea’s Postpartum Plan:
Postpartum Planning Checklist for Couples | Postpartum Together

Learn more about Prep for Us:
Prep for Us: How to Prepare Your Relationship for a Baby | Postpartum Together

Prep for Us is Chelsea’s six-week preparation program for expecting couples. It is not postpartum depression treatment. Instead, couples work on the relational structures that can support a healthier postpartum environment—including understanding stress responses, sharing the mental load, protecting recovery, identifying support, communicating needs earlier, and learning how to recognize when something is no longer working.

Because we cannot guarantee that a mother will never experience postpartum depression.

But we can stop making “hopefully she tells us if she’s drowning” the postpartum mental health plan.

How should couples split newborn nights? (And does “sharing the nights” actually mean the same thing to both of you?)

In this episode, Chelsea walks expecting couples through several ways to divide overnight newborn care, from split-night shifts and alternating wake-ups to feeder/support-partner roles and evening-and-morning coverage.

More importantly, this isn’t about finding the perfect newborn sleep schedule.

It’s about making sure both partners understand what they are agreeing to, protecting each person’s basic need for rest, and knowing how to adjust when your original plan stops working.

Chelsea covers:

• Different ways couples can split newborn night shifts
• Whether both parents need to wake up for every feeding
• How breastfeeding changes nighttime responsibilities
• What the non-feeding partner can fully own
• How returning to work affects the conversation
• Why paid work and postpartum recovery both deserve consideration
• Warning signs that your current system isn’t working
• How to avoid sleep scorekeeping and resentment
• Questions to discuss before your baby arrives
• How to safely say, “I’m not functioning well anymore”
• Why the ability to revise the plan matters more than creating the perfect plan

One important reminder from this episode:

Teamwork does not always mean doing the same task at the same moment.

The goal is to build a system where one person’s sleep, recovery, or needs do not automatically become less important than the other’s.

Use these questions after listening:

1. What does each of us imagine nighttime care will look like?
2. How much uninterrupted sleep does each of us need to function?
3. How will feeding affect the division of nighttime care?
4. What can the non-feeding partner fully own?
5. How will we handle nights before a workday?
6. How will either of us say, “I am no longer functioning safely”?
7. When will we review and revise our plan?

Prep for Us is Chelsea’s six-week program for expecting couples who want to prepare for more than birth and baby gear.

Together, you’ll clarify expectations, understand your stress responses, divide responsibility more intentionally, communicate needs earlier, and create systems that can flex when real life looks different from the plan.

Prep for Us: How to Prepare Your Relationship for a Baby | Postpartum Together

Learn more from Chelsea at Postpartum Together.

About Relationship Coaching with Chels + Mike | Postpartum Together

Instagram: @postpartumtogether

Questions to discuss with your partner

Prepare for parenthood as a team

Everyone is excited to meet the baby, but that does not mean your first days postpartum need to become a public baby reveal.

In this episode, Chelsea talks about how expecting couples can decide when to welcome visitors, distinguish genuine support from added work, and communicate postpartum boundaries without blaming one another or turning one partner into the family “bad guy.”

You’ll learn why even loving visitors can feel unexpectedly overwhelming after birth, how to think beyond rigid rules about when family should visit, and what you and your partner should discuss before making promises about your postpartum season.

Chelsea also shares a simple formula for communicating boundaries clearly and kindly:

Warmth + decision + next step

For example:

“We know you’re excited, and we’re excited for you to meet the baby. We’re not committing to visits during the first week. We’ll reach out once we know how recovery is going.”

Later in the episode, Chelsea reflects on approaching ten years of motherhood and shares some of the things that surprised her most about birth, postpartum recovery, hormones, asking for help, feeling touched out, and experiencing resentment toward her partner.

• Why postpartum visits can become more stressful than expected

• The difference between a visitor and a genuine helper

• Why good intentions do not automatically make a visit supportive

• How to decide when family should meet the baby

• Hospital visitors versus visitors at home

• Protecting physical recovery, feeding, rest, and bonding

• Why you should avoid promising access before you know what recovery will require

• How partners can communicate boundaries to their own families

• Why couples should use “we decided” language

• What to say when relatives are disappointed or push back

• How unclear family boundaries can create resentment between partners

• What Chelsea wishes she had known before becoming a mother

• The connection between receiving help, nervous-system regulation, and relationship health

Instead of beginning with, “Who is allowed to visit?” ask:

What kind of support will help our new family feel safe, cared for, and able to recover?

That question can help you make decisions based on your actual needs rather than guilt, family expectations, or pressure to keep everyone happy.

The Postpartum Visitor Plan

Download the guide with reflection questions, visitor-planning prompts, and communication scripts for setting expectations with family.

https://www.postpartumtogether.com/store/p/boundaries

Peri bottle for postpartum recovery

Chelsea mentioned how helpful a peri bottle can be during the first days of physical recovery after birth.

https://amzn.to/4wt1upC

Prep for Us

Prep for Us is Chelsea’s six-week relationship-preparation program for expecting couples. It helps partners strengthen communication, understand their stress responses, share the invisible work, clarify expectations, and enter parenthood as a stronger team.

Prep for Us: How to Prepare Your Relationship for a Baby | Postpartum Together

Email: chelsea@postpartumtogether.com

Instagram: @postpartumtogether

Website: www.postpartumtogether.com

Your relatives are allowed to feel disappointed by your boundaries.

Your responsibility is not to create a postpartum experience where no one ever feels left out. Your responsibility is to protect recovery, build trust between the two of you, and create enough room to meet your baby without immediately becoming responsible for everyone else’s expectations.