Postpartum Shift & Feeding Log

What to record on a shift

The log follows the shape of postpartum work BBU’s training describes: household support, parent rest and recovery, hands-on newborn care, sleep and settling, feeding support, older siblings and resources or referrals shared. Tick the care areas you covered and the tasks you did, count feeds and wet and BM diapers with the plus and minus buttons, and add each stretch the parents slept. Shifts that run past midnight are handled automatically.

Writing a useful handover

A good handover tells the next person what they need in the first ten minutes: how the night went, where things stand with feeding and settling, anything the family asked for, and anything to follow up. The handover note is the one required field, because it is the part the family and the next doula read first. It prints in a box at the foot of the sheet.

What not to interpret

This log records; it does not judge. Feeds and diapers are your observations for this shift and are never compared with any range, unlike the family-facing feeding log. If you notice something the family should mention to their provider, write what you saw in the provider box, in plain words, and leave the interpretation to the provider. That keeps the record useful and keeps your role non-clinical.

Printing a shift sheet

Press Make the shift sheet, check it, then Print. Each sheet carries the date, shift times and length, counts, total parent rest, the care areas covered, the tasks you ticked, provider notes and the handover. Use initials or a nickname for the family; nothing you type is sent anywhere, so print it before you close the page or press “Save on this device” to keep it.

Using the log across an engagement

Print one sheet per shift and keep them in order for the family; the run of handover notes becomes a short record of the whole engagement. If you work with a team, everyone using the same sheet makes handovers quicker. The free Postpartum Care Plan Builder sets out the shift pattern and care areas at the start of an engagement; this log records what happened on each shift within it.