Postpartum on Purpose with Anne Marie Anne Marie, the host of Postpartum on Purpose and a mom of five with a nursing background, shares a practical and hopeful approach to the postpartum season. Key topics Anne Marie shares the biggest cultural lie about postpartum - that every mom is destined to drown, and that postpartum will inevitably be terribleThe value of creating a postpartum plan during pregnancy, starting with a simple question: who can help me, and what can they help me with?Why it helps to play to other people’s strengths instead of asking for vague help that becomes hard to sustainHow to think about help in concrete terms, like meal trains, scheduled family visits, and identifying what only you can doWhy first-time moms often outsource their thinking to the internet, and how to hold advice loosely while checking what actually works for your familyThe danger of overresearching every possible answer, especially in an algorithm-driven culture that makes every parenting choice feel high stakesAnne Marie shares how a difficult fourth postpartum experience, including an unexpected and stressful hospital birth, shaped her desire to encourage other momsHow counseling helped her recognize postpartum OCD tendencies and separate herself from intrusive thoughtsThe “daily dose of discomfort” habit, which means intentionally welcoming small amounts of uncertainty or imperfection to build resilienceA practical and theological view of body image after birth - honoring what the body has done, while also taking practical steps like pelvic floor physical therapy and dressing for the body you have now Timestamps 00:00 - Anne Marie and the purpose of Postpartum on Purpose01:32 - Start the postpartum plan before birth02:06 - Ask who can help and what they can help with03:36 - Match support tasks to people’s strengths05:20 - Decide what can be shelved in early postpartum07:45 - Stop outsourcing all your parenting decisions09:13 - Why overresearching can create paralysis10:37 - Learn enough, then course correct as needed13:07 - How her postpartum perspective began to change14:18 - The NICU birth and return-to-work unraveling15:48 - Counseling and the shift in her thinking16:18 - Reframing postpartum from threat to opportunity17:28 - The stressful fourth birth and what went wrong18:25 - An unmedicated hospital birth that escalated fast20:41 - When a routine birth was treated like an emergency22:11 - From grit, growth, and grace to postpartum on purpose23:33 - Matrescence and postpartum neuroplasticity24:03 - Why the podcast mixes stories and practical advice25:18 - Discovering postpartum OCD through counseling27:23 - The four Cs of OCD and the need for certainty28:18 - What the daily dose of discomfort means29:41 - Real-life examples of practicing discomfort31:17 - Going to bed with something unfinished on purpose33:28 - How to know whether you need structure or flexibility35:37 - Confidence, body image, and postpartum identity39:20 - Pelvic floor PT and dressing for your current body42:03 - “Getting your body back” versus integrating change43:26 - Why moms deserve care for their own sake45:55 - Prioritizing marriage after baby46:36 - Staying on the same team with humor48:37 - Free things, one small change, and daily discomfort49:07 - Gratitude as protection against postpartum despair50:07 - The hormonal reality for new dads53:58 - The one thing every pregnant mom should know54:18 - Postpartum as a time of grace, grit, and growth55:17 - “Good is always coming towards us”55:48 - Where to find Postpartum on Purpose Contact Anne Marie Visit postpartumonpurpose.com to find Anne Marie’s blog, full episode show notes, and podcast resources. Listen to Postpartum on Purpose through Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart, and other major podcast platforms.
