Robin Elise Weiss, the About.com authority on pregnancy and birth and author of The Better Way to Care for Your Baby, has devoted her life as a top childbirth educator to teaching the best and latest techniques for raising your baby. As a certified doula and lactation counselor, Robin’s professional knowledge is backed by her personal experience as a mother of eight kids ranging from 18 months to 18 years, including one set of twins.
Robin shares her seven best baby raising tips:
1. Skin-to-skin time is the most underrated way to calm your baby and is nearly a cure-all for everything in the first few weeks. This works for dads, too.
2. A list of people to call for you specific needs (someone for a meal, for breastfeeding help, for a talk at 3 a.m., etc.) is a mommy and baby lifesaver.
3. It’s hugely beneficial to have dad work some half-days when he goes back to work, or start back mid-week so that it’s not long before you have help again.
4. It’s essential that you’re careful from whom and where you get breastfeeging advice – not all advice is equal and some is even harmful. Look for lactation professionals and mothers who have successfully breastfed.
5. Learning to cat nap will give you much-needed rest. This is crucial as babies tend to sleep a lot- just not in long segments of time.
6. Curl up on the couch with everything close by during the first weeks. Nurse, sleep, eat, and change baby from one location. DVR is optional but handy.
7. Never hesitate to call your baby’s doctor. Have baby’s symptoms and your questions ready when you call, as well as something to write with.
Robin Elise Weiss’ book, The Better Way to Care for Your Baby (Fairwinds Press), has been called “the most authoritative owner’s manual for your newborn.”
