For single moms and solo parents
You should not need a partner to have a support system. Practical ways to build one.
Solo parents are often solving childcare, work, recovery, money and care access all at once, and much of the standard postpartum advice assumes there is someone else at home. Postpartum+ tries not to make that assumption.
Build a support crew on purpose
- List everyone who could do one concrete thing: a neighbor who can hold the baby for a shower, a friend who can drive to an appointment, a relative who can text every morning.
- Ask for specific, bounded help. "Can you come Tuesday from 6 to 8?" gets more yeses than "let me know if you can help."
- Use the Postpartum+ shared space to give one trusted person visibility into appointments and tasks.
Care access
- Ask providers about virtual appointments and whether you can bring the baby.
- Some IOP and PHP programs offer or can point you to childcare help. Ask before assuming you cannot attend.
- The Family Assistance Fund is being built for exactly the gap between wanting care and being able to get to it.
Find your people
Community topics and events are open to everyone, and you will not be the only solo parent there. Postpartum Support International also runs free online support groups. Meeting one other person in the same situation changes a lot.
Drawn from public guidance including Postpartum Support International. Educational only; not medical advice.
Find care near you
Search real directories for perinatal therapists, psychiatry, lactation, pelvic floor and more.
Talk to people who get it
The community is organized by topic and always allows anonymous posting.
Keep reading
When your baby is in the NICU
Going home without your baby, pumping beside an incubator, learning a language of monitors and numbers. How to get through a NICU stay, look after the parent who just gave birth, and let your people help.
Read the guideAfter a pregnancy or infant loss
When a baby dies, before or after birth, the body still goes through postpartum and the whole family grieves. What to expect, what can help, and how the people around you can show up.
Read the guideAdoption, surrogacy and LGBTQ+ families: a postpartum that fits yours
Not every family begins with one mom giving birth and one dad helping. What the first months can look like for adoptive parents, intended parents, two-mom and two-dad families and non-birthing parents, and where to find support that fits.
Read the guideLived this, or work with families who have? Write a guide with us.


