Introduction If you have already read some of our family life reports, you will not need to be told, but nevertheless, it is very important that you read and accept our disclaimer before acting on any of the parenting guide inside this report. This article, ‘What Expectant Parent Should Know’, is a further page in our program of reports on family life, parenting and pregnancy issues, authored to help improve understanding of the often confusing issues involved in this interesting area.

New parents face many problems and issues that they are expected to understand and deal with immediately. Unfortunately, newborns do not come with an instruction book so here are a few topics that you may need to know about.

* Bathing your baby: Until your baby’s umbilical cord falls off one to two weeks after their birth, only give her sponge baths. A cotton ball or cotton swab dampened with alcohol can help to dry the umbilical stump or follow your pediatrician’s directions. After the stump falls off, you can give him a bath in a sink or shallow tub.

* Caesarian delivery: A caesarian is usually performed to make delivery safer for you or your baby. C-sections can be done for many different reasons including stalled labor, complicated labor, problems with the baby that may make delivery difficult, or other problems. It does not matter if you deliver vaginally or by a caesarian section, you are still a mother with a beautiful new blessing.

If you liked this page, “What Expectant Parent Should Know”, then you may be interested in the following connected essays: A Perfect Mother’s Day Gift Caring for Elderly Parents

* Circumcision: Many doctors agree that there may be some benefit to circumcision, but it may not be absolutely necessary. It may help to lower the risk of urinary tract infections and eliminates just about any chance of penile cancer. Circumcision does not cause long-term emotional problems for your child.

* Crib death (SIDS): Many studies have been done regarding SIDS. Although the cause of SIDS has not been definitely defined, there are some correlations that have been made between SIDS and the following things:

o Male babies are more likely to die from SIDS than females
o Prematurity makes it more likely
o Minority children are affected by it more often than non-minorities
o More children of young, single mothers die from it
o Children who live in a home with one or more smokers are more likely to be affected

Some people say that sleeping with your baby can reduce the risk of SIDS, but the American Academy of Pediatrics disagree with this statement and go on to say that there is a greater risk of SIDS in babies who co-sleep.

Back sleeping is what most pediatricians recommend for babies to decrease the SIDS risk. The reason for this is widely debated between health experts. If you have concerns, talk to your pediatrician.

Disclaimer Even though ‘The Towlers’ makes every effort to try to make sure that the knowledge, in the article “What Expectant Parent Should Know”, or elsewhere on this website, is reliable, we are not able to offer any representation, express or implied on the matter of its accurateness, completeness or appropriateness for a stated requirement. In no way shall we be held responsible for any loss of any type as a result of, arising out of, or allied to, the understanding of, or misunderstanding of the family life material detailed inside this web page, except as is legally unavoidable. Sometimes this site may similarly offer links to other parenting sites. These extra links are used to afford even more family life knowledge supporting this “What Expectant Parent Should Know” article, or any of the other pregnancy intelligence on this internet site. and are not meant to signify that we endorse said web sites and their opinions. Under no circumstances will we accept liability for any suffering as a result of making use of the third party sites or the family life learning written in any of the pages of the third-party websites.

Tags: baby, family, mother, parenting, pregnancy

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 20th, 2009 at 7:15 pm and is filed under Family Life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.