Postpartum Experts Recommend These 10 Hobbies for New Parents

You never wish to have more hands until you’re nap-trapped under a tiny human hours on end, day after day. That’s why when it comes to hobbies, hands-free and screen-free may be the most practical and beneficial choice. "While parenting books and podcasts are great, I also challenge new moms to find ones that align with their general interests since it allows them to connect with themselves," says Francesca Emma, LMHC-D, psychotherapist and group practice founder. It takes less energy than reading when you're exhausted but still lets you feel like a person who thinks about things other than feeding schedules.

Before the baby, before the career, before the to-do lists, what did you love to do? "Did you love art? Music? Dance as a child?" Carson asks. "Tapping into something that you know once brought you joy can be the gateway to accessing it again." It’s very easy to get lost in the mundane, often Groundhog Day-like experience of early parenthood. You go through the same motions, navigate new crises and take care of another being, all while running on little sleep. Though there may be pockets of joy (like those hilarious gassy smiles), it’s easy to feel very distant from yourself. When you think of "reconnecting with the younger you," focus on happiness. What made you feel alive and connected to yourself? This doesn't have to be elaborate: 15 minutes of painting, a dance class on YouTube, a sketch pad left open on the kitchen table. The point is to locate a version of yourself that existed before parenthood and spend a little time with them.

This one is less a solo hobby and more a relationship reset, and Dr. Patel recommends it to all her families starting at two weeks postpartum. Rather than going into the coffee date blindly, think of it as a way to create intentional space to connect during this new stage of life. She says the rules are simple: ten to twenty minutes, no fixing allowed, just listening. "Ask each other how having a baby or expanding your family is making you feel," she says. "In the next 48 hours, what do you need help with?" While this may sound small and something to skip over, it can cut back on brewing resentment, give you an opportunity to better support one another and make the family unit you’re currently nurturing stronger, right from the beginning.

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When was the last time you stepped outside? Or better yet: when was the last time you felt the sun on your face, closed your eyes, and took in a big, deep breath? An impactful hobby for a new parent is doing just this: escaping the stale, slightly diaper-scented air inside and venturing outdoors. This barely qualifies as a hobby and that is exactly the point: Fifteen minutes of sunlight helps the body produce vitamin D, which supports bone health, brain function, and immune health.

"In areas with limited sunlight, just stepping out into nature is mind-body-soul healing," Dr. Patel says. Stand on your porch with a coffee, sit on the front stoop, let the sun warm you and release your tension. You may be surprised what a difference this simple shift can make in your overall mood and perspective.

If you told your pre-baby self that one of the most therapeutic things you could do during maternity leave was pick up a pair of knitting needles, you might have laughed. But this one has real science behind it: the repetitive motions of knitting and crocheting have been shown to decrease cortisol and shift the body into a parasympathetic state—essentially the same physiological effect as a walk.

"These activities can also be stopped and started over time, so the pressure to finish after a short period isn’t there," Emma says. "This is wonderful for this season of life where long periods of free time are unavailable." Knitting and crocheting ask nothing of you except to keep moving your hands, and they will wait patiently in a basket on a shelf until the next nap window opens. Bonus: Whatever you make can be for the baby, which has a way of dissolving the guilt that comes with doing something purely for yourself, Emma adds.

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It sounds almost laughably simple, and yet for many new parents, carving out fifteen uninterrupted minutes for themselves feels like the most impossible task on the list. "Two things can be true at the same time," Emma says. "You can feel guilty for wanting to do something for themselves, yet also want and know the benefits of it."

If you can, think of alone time less as selfishness and more as maintenance: The same way you wouldn't expect your phone to keep running at two percent battery indefinitely, you cannot pour from a tank that's running on empty. "When women understand that their self-care creates a more stable environment for their baby, they can release some of the guilt they are holding onto," Emma says. It doesn't have to look like a spa day or an hour to yourself. It can be a shower without knocking, ten minutes with a cup of tea that you actually finish while it's hot, or sitting in your parked car in the driveway for a few minutes before you go inside.

The name of the game in early parenthood is managing your expectations, and that applies to hobbies too. Not every pocket of free time needs to result in a finished product, a new skill, or a meaningful personal breakthrough. Sometimes it just needs to feel like something other than survival. "Could you try a new recipe? Learn a new skill?" Carson asks. "Learning a new skill in general is a proven way to increase endorphins when we are feeling low."

The beauty of framing it this way is that it removes the stakes entirely. You are not training to become a pastry chef, you’re just wearing your sleeping baby while you try to see if you can make a lemon tart like the one you had in Italy years ago. Keep it simple, keep it fun and release any attachment to the outcome.

Of all the hobbies on this list, journaling may be the one that requires the least and gives back the most. You don't need a beautiful notebook, a structured practice, or even coherent sentences: a few words on your phone while the baby sleeps on your chest counts. "Writing, even for a few minutes, can help organize thoughts and emotions during a time when many parents feel mentally overloaded," Paulson says.

And mentally overloaded is putting it mildly: new parenthood brings with it a volume of feelings, from the expected exhaustion and overwhelm to the more complicated grief, identity loss and loneliness. Getting any of it out of your head and onto a page (yes, even just a single sentence that says “I am so tired and I don't know who I am right now”) can create enough distance from the feeling to make it survivable. You can also write to your baby via an app like Qeepsake or set them up a Gmail from your account that they can access and read when they’re older and maybe, a new parent for the first time, too.