The Recovery Box

Why we made it

You've prepared for birth. This is for the after.

You've packed the hospital bag. You've read the books. You're counting down to meeting your baby.

What nobody really prepares you for is the recovery. The swelling and the heaviness. How hard it is to simply stand up straight. A body that suddenly feels unfamiliar. And that moment in the bathroom when you realise you need something, but you have no idea what.

The Recovery Box is everything you need for that moment. It isn't the frilly stuff. Your friends will sort the flowers and the tiny outfits. This is the practical, thank goodness I have this box, chosen by our women's health physios from years of hearing new mums tell us what they wished they'd had.

You don't need to go in blind. Your jobs right now are to feed and cuddle that baby and let your body heal. We've done the thinking for you.

The story behind the box

I made the box I wish I'd had

Fourteen years ago, I birthed my first baby in a small rural hospital. The care was lovely, and I'll always be grateful for it. But nobody talked about my recovery. There was talk of the baby, of feeding, of going home.

I had a high-grade perineal tear and a large abdominal separation. I couldn't stand up straight. I didn't recognise my own body. And I'd expected to step straight back into life as a mum.

What gave me real relief in those first weeks was a warm sitz bath. It was the one part of the day my body could finally let go. What I didn't have was a peri bottle. Nobody had mentioned one, and keeping everything clean with a tear like mine made every trip to the toilet something I dreaded. I wish I'd known.

Because of that tear, my next two babies were born by caesarean. That's when I found silicone scar strips, and they were a godsend.

Both boxes hold what got me through. And what I wish I'd had.

Years later in clinic, my clients kept asking what they needed and where to get it. They'd shop around online, from a handful of suppliers, many of them overseas. For women in regional and rural Australia, there's no quick trip down the road for the practical things you need in those first weeks.

So we made a one-stop box. Everything in it is here because I've lived those "what has happened to my body" moments, and because our clients told us, over and over, that they wished they'd had it. Every birth and every recovery is different, and yours will be your own. You just don't have to piece it together alone.

Jess, women's health physiotherapist and co-owner, Fit 2 Function