How to start a postpartum journal

It's three in the morning, the baby finally went down, and somehow you're the one wide awake — head looping the thing you didn't get done today.

Rainku has a flow built for this exact moment. Open it and you get rain visuals and rain sound, a blank page in the middle, and an AI you can talk to on the side. One hand works. So does the gap between feeds.

Why Rainku helps during the postpartum stretch

• When your hands aren't free, you can talk. Full-screen voice-to-text. Works in English. Works in Chinese-English mix. Works while you're feeding or pacing the room at night.
• Things you can't say to your partner, and don't want to put on a friend, you can write down. Friends worry. Family has their own opinions. A journal has no audience. What happens to it after is in the privacy policy.
• A few months later, you can remember the first week. Postpartum memory goes blurry fast. Scrolling back to early entries shows you what that week was actually like.
• Slowly the line between "being a mom" and "what I actually want" gets clearer. Early entries are mostly about the baby. After a while, the entries fill up with things you care about for yourself.

5 things to try

1. Open Rainku and pick how you want to start today

• Speak. Full-screen voice-to-text, pauses don't cut you off. One hand works. Good for feeding or walking the baby at night.
• Type. Classic writing mode. Cursor on a blank page, every word deletable. Good when the baby is down and you're awake too.
• AI conversation. It asks one question at a time. You just answer. Use this when you're too tired to know where to begin.

2. Decide what this stretch is for

• Dump. Get out the things you didn't say today, the ones that have been turning over for hours. No order required.
• Keep. Save this stretch — first cry, first laugh, first night they slept through. For the kid one day. For yourself, too.

3. Seven questions for when the page is blank

1. What's the strongest emotion right now, and where do you feel it in your body?
2. Write to the version of yourself before the baby. What do you most want to tell her?
3. What was the hardest moment this week, and what did you most need then?
4. Who made you feel seen today? (Partner, family, friend, nurse, stranger — all count.)
5. What are you most afraid of losing in this stretch?
6. Write something for the baby: what happened today that you want them to know about one day?
7. Write to yourself one month from now: what do you want that version of you to remember about this week?

Tip. You don't have to answer all of them. Pick the one that lands hardest right now. One sentence counts.

4. Give it a small fixed slot

• During a feed, rain visuals on, voice for five minutes.
• Before bed, write down whatever you've been turning over today, then turn off the light.
• When you're up at night anyway, scroll less, write a paragraph instead.

5. Check your own progress

• Scroll back to early entries. The first week is easy to forget — the journal remembers it for you.
• Same emotion keeps showing up → mark it. You'll know which kinds of things still pull you under.
• At one month, a hundred days, six months — flip back through. A fixed time to take stock with yourself.

You won't be okay every day in the weeks after birth. The journal remembers this stretch, and that's enough.

One last line

Starting a journal during the postpartum stretch doesn't need you to be rested or sorted. Rainku opens the first page. What to write next is yours to decide.

Rainku also has dedicated entries for other moments: breakup, expat life, career pivot. And a broader getting-started guide.