- A little nutrition lesson and snacks: Postpartum nutrition
- Fruit salad with Lactation Granola
- Spinach cheese and bacon tart
- After baby is born you must eat for:
- Energy to take care of your newborn!
- Healing
- Fiber
- Mood regulation
- Breastfeeding support
- What does your transition to parenthood look like?
- Interventions for baby and how to ask for what you want after baby is born.
- APGAR
- Measurements
- Vitamin K shot
- Antibiotic eye drops or ointment
- Pediatrician’s check up
- Circumcision
- Taking Baby Home
- baby care
- umbilical cord care
- bathing and hygiene
- breastfeeding
- sleep
- bonding with baby
- a fussy baby
- Introducing pets to baby
- Physical healing for Mom
- Understanding postpartum emotions and how to cope
- Your marriage/relationships
- Family and friends
- setting boundaries
- asking for help
- Pain coping strategy #5 – Touch
- Poem for parents
This is my favorite class to teach. Since my background is in Psychology, I’m fascinated by how people react to things and especially how relationships are affected by big life changes. Having a baby is one of the biggest, for sure. I don’t know if, as a society, we really prepare women for the postpartum time. The picture many people have is one of glowing love and tiny sleeping babies. Rocking chairs, cuddly blankets, and products galore usually make their way into this picture too. The glowing love part is definitely true, LOTS of that. The sleeping part may or may not be true. The rest is VERY optional.
What we don’t seem to see depicted or hear about as often are the harder, messier, more painful moments. There are plenty of these too. Learning how to be a parent to a tiny helpless human is difficult enough without all of the physical healing and emotional/hormonal upheaval we have to contend with as mothers. We’re not usually told that babies sometimes need us ALL THE TIME, and not on our schedule, or any schedule really. This can be very tough to adjust to when you’ve been living by clocks for all of your adult life.
So much of surviving, and more importantly enjoying, the postpartum period is acceptance.
- Accept that the baby will need what she needs when she needs it. Accept that this might mean staying home for a time. Let that be OK and revel in the exploration of this new relationship you are creating.
- Accept that your body will need time to heal. Believe that things are healing inside you that you can’t see, and that rest is good. Be gentle with yourself and you will be thankful that you did.
- Accept that there is some inherent wisdom in this design. Baby needs you close. Your body needs you to be still. You both need time to get to know each other. Follow these natural guideposts so that you can have the best introduction to life for your baby and to parenthood for you.
Here is the sweet poem we read at the end of class #5.
On Children
And a woman who held a babe against her bosom said,
“Speak to us of Children.”
And he said:
Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you, yet they belong not to you.
You may give them your love but not your thoughts.
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.
You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth.
The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite, and He bends you with His might that His arrows may go swift and far.
Let your bending in the archer’s hand be for gladness;
For even as he loves the arrow that flies, so He loves also the bow that is stable.
from THE PROPHET
by Kahlil Gibran
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