Care for your baby begins while you are pregnant. Your baby shares your body, and eats or drinks everything you do, so the things you do or don’t do during your pregnancy can have a great impact on your newborn’s health.
Prenatal Care:
Everyone knows that when expecting a newborn, it’s important to have regular prenatal checkups, to avoid cigarettes and alcohol, and to maintain a generally healthy diet. But here’s some information you may not be aware of.
- You can begin stimulating your baby’s mind while the baby is still in the womb. Speaking to your unborn baby, playing music for your unborn baby, and using pressure or vibrations to stimulate the baby are all aspects of prenatal stimulation, and can contribute to both bonding with the baby and developing the mind of the baby. Studies have shown that babies who received stimulation while still in the womb grow up to have higher IQs.
- It’s important for the mother to take care of her emotional health as well as her physical health. Since pregnant women and babies share hormones, there is a close relationship between the emotional well-being of the mother and the well-being of the newborn.
Breastfeeding newborns:
Once the baby is born, one of the first decisions that must be made is whether or not to breastfeed. Mother’s milk alone is uniquely designed to meet all the special needs of the newborn. Formula cannot provide the same quality level of nutrition. Infants that are bottle-fed are shown to have greater chances of becoming obese later in life. Infants that are bottle-fed are also more likely to have high cholesterol and/or asthma later in life.
Besides all the physical benefits, breastfeeding has the emotional advantage of ensuring mother-child interaction, and physical contact, which helps breastfeeding mothers bond with their newborns more.
Preventing SIDS:
SIDS, or sudden infant death syndrome, is the leading cause of death in infants between 1 month and 1 year old. Breast feeding may reduce the risk of SIDS, according to some studies, but the best way to prevent SIDS is to have your newborn sleep on his back. This reduces the risk of SIDS by 50%, and does not increase risk of choking on spit-up, contrary to myth. But while the newborn is awake, he should spend time on his stomach since this will help him develop his shoulder muscles, and prevent him from getting a flat or bald spot on the back of his head.
Ensuring the best sleep of the newborn and the parents:
For your newborn’s safety, his crib mattress should be firm, and should fit tightly within the crib rails. Paint on the crib should be lead-free. As mentioned earlier, the newborn should sleep on his back.
It is best for the newborn to sleep in the same room as his parents. This way, when the baby cries, the parents can respond immediately without having to go into the next room. Responding to a newborn’s cries right away is essential for the baby to grow up happy and secure. Newborns that are responded to immediately cry less, and are easier to calm. If your newborn’s sleeping patterns change drastically, you may want to consult the doctor since this may be indicative of illness.
Some other signs to watch for in newborns include change in the newborn’s eating or digestive patterns, and change in their temperature or skin color. Don’t hesitate to contact a doctor if you have any concerns.
A newborn is a life-changing event. Your newborn depends on you for a place to live, proper nutrition, intellectual guidance and love. It is a large responsibility, but also a fun and exciting one.
By Riannon Cutler