Parents On The Blog

Besides being the optimal source of nutrition for your baby in her first year, nursing has obvious psychological benefits for both mother and baby. At birth, infants see only 12 to 15 inches, the distance between a nursing baby and its mother’s face. Studies have found that infants as young as 1 week prefer the smell of their own mother’s milk.

Many psychologists believe the nursing baby enjoys a sense of security from the warmth and presence of the mother, especially when there’s skin-to-skin contact during feeding. Parents of bottle-fed babies may be tempted to prop bottles in the baby’s mouth, with no human contact during feeding. But a nursing mother must cuddle her infant closely many times during the day. Nursing becomes more than a way to feed a baby; it’s a source of warmth and comfort.

When the baby is being fed and nurtured in this way, it’s natural for her to fall asleep quickly. When you know how much she can consume in one feeding, try to gently nudge her awake if she falls asleep too soon. You can easily rouse her with a little tickle of the feet. Otherwise, she’ll get hungry sooner and you’ll be feeding her more often.

Breast-feeding is good for new mothers as well as for their babies. There are no bottles to sterilize and no formula to buy, measure and mix. It may be easier for a nursing mother to lose the pounds of pregnancy as well, since nursing uses up extra calories. Lactation also stimulates the uterus to contract back to its original size.

A nursing mother is forced to get needed rest. She must sit down, put her feet up, and relax every few hours to nurse. Nursing at night is easy as well. No one has to stumble to the refrigerator for a bottle and warm it while the baby cries. If she’s lying down, a mother can doze while she nurses.

Having a baby - The start of parenting …

So you’re having a baby, Fantastic News! In no time at all you will be a member of the parenting club. It’s not a closed group, almost any person passed the point of puberty can be part of it but make no mistake it will alter your life forever. From the moment your baby is born your level of commitment to another person will change into something you have never experienced before. From now on, until at least your baby becomes an adult, parenting will be part of your existence and as your baby grows up first becoming a toddler, then a child, then a teenager and finally an adult your parenting must change to suit the different phases of life.

There are many theories on parenting and lots of books you can read on the subject. Once your baby is born you will be bombarded by advice from well meaning, friends, relatives and other random people who think they have the right to comment. Sometimes this advice will be useful but remember you are the only individuals who know your baby and it is vital that either on your own or as a couple you develop your own parenting style that will work with your baby’s personality. Mother Nature has made you the best person to identify the needs of your baby and to provide suitable parenting that can match his/her character

There are others who can help you to make decisions about parenting your baby. Midwives, Health Visitors and Family Doctors can advise you on the choices available. This support is detailed and more thorough during pregnancy and during the first few weeks after your baby is born. After that parenting is expected to become a way of life as your baby grows older it is likely you will need less parenting support most of the time.

Having a baby has been part of human existence since the beginning of human existence. The parenting role historically would have been shared within a couple but also within the wider family. Parenting was a skill before reading or writing or before professional medical care or anything as modern as the NHS. In today’s world with increasing longevity, better healthcare with an increasing amount of compulsory education, we doubt everything and have learned to question the basic facts of life and yet when faced with parenting at the birth of our first child, cradling a tiny baby in our arms then instinct, primeval and central to our parenting, connected to the circle of life, kicks in. How we allow that instinct to influence how we adapt to parenting and how we behave towards our baby will determine the shape of our lives and those of our children forever.

About the Author

Since the life changing birth of my first child I’ve been interested in modern day parenting from baby through to adult. Working in education I am keen to explore the effect that parenting has on our children and whether there are ways that our western societies could lead more fulfilling lives as we go about the business of parenting our children.