Transition to parenthood is probably the biggest change in life Test 2 study guide Because of changes in your body especially in the last month of pregnancy the baby takes up more room and presses against the gut back and belly It is hard to sleep momma gets weary and maybe even depressed occasionally When you finally go into labor you are already tired Labor is very exhausting and takes a lot out of you mentally and physically Maybe 30 minutes after birth the baby is yours to take care of You have to wash it There was a time when the mom and baby went into confinement They stayed in the hospital for a week and she didn t take care of the baby that much Now you get 48 hours after birth until you are kicked out You stay longer maybe 3 4 days if you have a C section It isn t really enough time to get back on your feet If the hospital has an extra bed you can stay an extra day but you have to pay out of pocket and the medical care ends so it s like staying at a hotel In the hospital you diaper the baby and feed it and its your job to spot unusual things and bring it to the attention of the nurse or doctor Mommas need to catch up on their sleep but the baby isn t sleeping through the night Newborns sleep 16 17 hours a day but they wake up randomly and when the baby cries you have to go deal with it Food in hospitals is bad and they are very busy Nurses are checking on you all the time even if you just fell asleep so it is irritating Everybody wants to come and see the baby and your family is there and you just want to go home to peace and quiet but you can t because you will have a crying newborn Some hospitals want the dad to sleep in the room too Hospitals have these buttons on the wall you press to call a nurse when you have a question or something scares you or you get a pain At the end of the 48 hours they discharge you but it can take hours so you have to sit around and wait They wheel you out and it s horrifying because now you are medically on your own with this baby Research 40 years ago men had little to do with the care of the baby after birth and they made no promises that they would be Today couples talk about how they are going to share responsibilities but guys know what to say and women believe what they want to hear So now men and women still aren t equally sharing responsibilities but men are making promises If you look at childcare today 6 9 months after birth the women are the primary caregivers Very little has changed over last 40 years This is even if the mom has gone back to work A decrease in marital satisfaction from before birth to 6 months after It isn t a big difference but the couple is less happy with each other Probably 45 of couples will divorce before their babies are out of grade school Maybe 20 are actually really happy And maybe 25 stay together for the kids The seed for divorce and the lack of satisfaction starts in the parking lot of the hospital and who changes the first diaper should be a coin flip If you go so long without much sleep you can start to get suicidal thoughts some men refuse to get up in the middle of the night with the baby Parents need to go to classes together during pregnancy and take child care classes together Learn together how to care for the baby If you are equally skilled you can split up the responsibilities equally Dads need to be able to brag about how much they care for the baby Some babies are calm and don t cry a lot some show a pattern of extreme crying called colic It starts at the end of the third week The baby starts to have fits of crying that last longer than 20 30 minutes and do it 6 10 times a day The crying is so annoying but you can t just leave the baby because it s dangerous and because you love it and feel the need to try to comfort it It starts to disappear around the 12 like their love should be enough to calm the baby but it isn t We don t really know what causes colic in babies Why they cry or how to cure it Swaddling can help but Krantz is not a fan because it is very constraining Some people try car rides or running the vacuum but what works one day may not work the next Maybe 10 of babies have colic not tested on It can last longer though Parents to colic babies feel th week Maybe 60 of mothers will show some degree of depression after birth Baby blues could be a few days or weeks May be due to hormones trying to balance themselves Maybe 5 10 will have a deep psychological depression called postpartum depression They can t get out of bed they cry a lot can t take care of the baby We don t understand it There is some tendency for women who have experienced depression before to get it A lot of the times the mom is so depressed that they can t get help or do anything about it She needs psychotherapy with a professional trained to deal with postpartum depression And maybe even medications It can last for a few weeks or much longer Where is the baby going to sleep Parents are concerned that their newborns are OK in the middle of the night Like if they are breathing because some newborns just stop breathing for a short period SIDS sudden infant death syndrome we don t know why but we think sometimes babies called apnea just stop breathing So some people only feel safe if their baby sleeps in the bed with them called co sleeping The downside is that the parent can roll on top of the baby or push the cover up against their face and suffocate it Most medical groups do not recommend co sleeping It runs a risk that you don t have the right to run Krantz is against co sleeping Others keep a separate sleeping device in the master bedroom like a crib or bassinette Other people create a separate room in the house for the baby to sleep in which can be very expensive If you take hand me down cribs and other furniture that has been in storage an attic or a basement then it has mold on it You have to scrub it really well NEVER take a crib mattress from storage If the cribs are old then they may not have the correct safety features on them Lots of parents end up co sleeping …
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