Category: Newborn Baby

Baby Feeding, choices, Information, Newborn Baby, postnatal

Five tips for increasing your milk supply

Informed Pregnancy, Birth and Beyond.

We all need to feel loved and held even when everything is going well.

Establishing and maintaining a good supply of milk is one of the top worries that many new parents have about breast/chestfeeding. Our society and the prevalence of formula advertising have made us think that this is a very common problem. But when you’re feeding in a supportive setting with access to knowledgeable support not having enough milk is pretty rare. What is common is to doubt yourself and feel worried. A supportive atmosphere is often a vital component to gaining confidence and knowledge that a small change can make a big difference.

Do you need to worry? Probably not. Keep reading for the signs your baby is getting a good amount of milk and always check with your healthcare provider or your local breastfeeding support group if you have questions or concerns. But remember overall you’re most likely to have nothing to worry about.

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choices, Newborn Baby, parenting, postnatal

Normal Newborn Crying

Informed Pregnancy, Birth and Beyond.

What’s a normal amount of crying for my baby to do?

This is almost an impossible question to answer because all babies are so different. The important thing to remember is crying is your baby communicating with you, not to complain or upset you but just to let you know something.

It’s completely normal to not know what it is your baby is trying to say, the idea that we will automatically instinctively know how to care for our baby is a myth. Learning to parent is very often about going through the list of possible reasons your baby might be crying, hungry, tired, need nappy changing, need to burp, need a cuddle, need to pass wind, need to poop, have a small piece of thread caught round their toe, etc, etc.

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choices, Information, Newborn Baby, parenting, postnatal

Normal for a New Parent

Informed Pregnancy, Birth and Beyond.

The original title of this blog was normal infant behaviour. But as I started to write it I realised that it’s not enough to just know what to expect your baby to be like.

As a team when we talked about what we would include in this post many of us reflected on how it feels to be a new parent, especially for the first time. What would we like expectant parents to know? That parenting is hard & however prepared you feel, it could still potentially hit you like a juggernaut.

You feel what you feel – There’s no such thing as a perfect parent

In modern western society, we’re often not really used to being around small babies. When you find yourself pregnant, especially for the first time, there’s so much information on what you should and shouldn’t do it can be very overwhelming and feel like you’re being expected to achieve some kind of perfect parent status without any actual practical support.

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Information, Newborn Baby

Normal Newborn Sleep

Informed Pregnancy, Birth and Beyond.

There are several phrases we would like to see banned and one is “sleeping like a baby”. The idea that babies should be seen and not heard, that they should have a feed and then sleep peacefully in a cot for a significant period of time has no basis in actual baby physiology and has so much potential to make new parents feel like they are failing.

The real-life situation is that everything in the world is new to a baby and all they have ever known is to be perfectly happy in the warm darkness listening to your heartbeat. So if your baby wants to only sleep on you and never be put down, congratulations they are normal.

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Newborn Baby, postnatal

Normal Newborn Care

Informed Pregnancy, Birth and Beyond.

There are lots of ‘basic baby care’ tasks you might be doing for the very first time when you have a new baby. It’s okay to feel you don’t know anything and normal to learn on the job. There is no such thing as a silly question. If you don’t have a reliable group of friends or a relative you can trust to support you, you’re more than welcome to come along to any of our meet-ups and know there will be someone there who has had the same questions as you, whatever is concerning or confusing you. Our Facebook group is also a great place for these questions especially as there’s often someone around at any time of day.

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