Don't skimp on carrying your baby
I often find as I am reading and talking to people that I accumulate stories, anecdotes and facts that don’t fit into any category or are not a topic for a whole column but are still interesting and important. So I have decided to every now and again collect these together to share with you. I hope you enjoy them as I have done!
WEARING YOUR BABY? An American study found that a little more baby carrying results in a lot less crying. Babies carried 4|0xbd| hours per day cried 43 percent less than babies carried 2|0xbd| hours. It seems that because human babies are utterly dependent on others for their survival at birth, researchers have calculated that they actually need a 21 month gestation period, (No thank you!)— nine months inside the womb and another 12 months being comforted outside it.
There is no doubt that babies have an overwhelming need to be cuddled and soothed. The best way of carrying or wearing your baby for such long lengths of time is in an appropriate sling, which enables you to carry on doing what you need to as your hands are free——while having a contented baby!NONSENSE?>“What makes a happy child? Chocolate cake for breakfast! A ban on homework! Christmas every day! Or so my kids tell me anyway. No mother in their right mind would give all those things. And yet we find ourselves doing things that are just as irrational. Why worry whether to teach your baby sign language when you speak English? Why buy dolls called Bratz and play clothes emblazoned with the brand name B.U.M. when you’d slug a mother who used such words to describe your own child?
Why fear letting your kids walk two blocks to school by themselves down a quiet lane if you don’t thing twice about strapping them into two tons of steel and dialling Dad on the cell from behind the wheel while you’re hollering at them to quit pinching one another and sipping a caffe latte grande no foam to go?”
This is a short excerpt from the delightfully named ‘Momfidence: A Oreo never killed anybody and other secrets of happier parenting’ by Paula Spencer. She ends by saying: “I used to think nonsense was the province of kids. But all around I see evidence that this assumption is, well, nonsense!”
I tend to agreB>TOKOPHOBIA Have you heard of ‘tokophobia’? It is described as a morbid fear about giving birth. It is a fear so deep that ‘tokos’ or childbirth is avoided whenever possible.
For some women, even if they desperately want a baby, that means avoiding pregnancy altogether, through scrupulous use of contraception or by sterilisation. Others requests terminations or behave recklessly during pregnancy, exercising strenuously, abusing alcohol or punching their own abdomens.
It is a harrowing condition and can be the result of a traumatic or distressing previous birth, which is why it is so important to be properly prepared for your birth experience and to have the opportunity to talk through your fears, hopes and choices with all those that will be involved.>TAKE THE TIME TO PREPARE It is essential to recognise that pregnancy is a time of enormous change for a woman. Physically her body grows to accommodate the developing baby (did you know that a pregnant woman’s blood volume will increase by 1.5 litres?!). Emotionally she is affected by significant hormonal changes and the realisation that she is now responsible for another human being.
Spiritually she may find it is a time when she reassesses her life, her place in the world and within her community, family relationships and her relationship with her partner.
She may also find herself viewing her role differently. It can be a joyous time but also difficult, as often this transition is going on while life continues much as normal (for example: most pregnant women are expected to work up to the time of the birth) and the processing and necessary changing can be ignored by those around her (and often by the mother herself). It is so important to take the time to do this processing properly.
In my experience, as a childbirth educator and a doula, I have found that recognising these changes and working with them can have a significant impact on the birth experience, relationships once the baby is born and parenting succ.
It should be clear to straw-like in colour, and is 99 percent water, the rest consists of cells and fats shed from the baby and diluted substances found in the mother’s blood plasma.
In the early months of pregnancy it gives the baby room to move freely and develop while protecting him from any pressure from the mother’s internal organs and shielding him from injury from her movements. It starts being produced during the first week of pregnancy by cells lining the amniotic sac.
It also plays a key role in the development of his lungs and gut as once the baby 16 -17 weeks, it starts swallowing the fluid, which is then absorbed into his bloodstream and excreted by his kidneys—.so from this time your baby is essentially drinking his own urine and lung secretions!
Even so, it’s totally sterile and has characteristics that prevent bacteria from multiplying—what elief!!A LIE HUMOUR <$>Due to a power outage at the time, only one paramedic responded to the call that a woman was in labour. The house was very, very dark, so the paramedic asked Katelyn, a 3-year old girl, to hold a flashlight high over her mummy so he could see while he helped deliver the baby. Very diligently, Katelyn did as she was asked.
Heidi pushed and pushed, and after a while Connor was born. The paramedic lifted him by his little feet and spanked him on his bottom. Connor began to cry. The paramedic then thanked Katelyn for her help and asked the wide-eyed, 3-year old what she thought about what she had just witnessed.
Katelyn quickly responded: “What a silly boy. He shouldn’t have crawled in there in the first place. Smack him again!”
