Postpartum Recovery as a Service-Environmental Experience: An Experience-Annotated Service Blueprint Study of a Residential Postpartum Care Center
Postpartum recovery places mothers in a dual role of recovery and caregiving. Residential postpartum care centers integrate clinical support, daily routines, and physical environment over an extended stay. Yet little research has examined how service routines and environmental conditions shape recovery experience.Drawing on Attention Restoration Theory (ART) and service blueprinting, this qualitative single-case study combined 39 observations, 21 critical incidents, and 10 interviews to develop three Experience-Annotated Service Blueprints (EASBs) covering the pre- and post-stay journey and 24-hour in-stay cycle. Restorative experiences emerged when routines absorbed caregiving demand, sensory conditions were managed, and care was paced to mothers' readiness. Depleting experiences emerged when interruptions, poor timing, or environmental mismatch returned demand at vulnerable moments. The study reconceptualizes postpartum recovery as a service-environmental experience, recasts ART as a service-embedded evaluative framework, develops the EASB as a methodological extension of service blueprinting, and offers implications for postpartum care design.