Since Sep­tem­ber we’ve held two Sling Flings at Colum­bia Cen­ter because it’s an impor­tant topic and many folks don’t real­ize that using a sling, car­rier or wrap can be a great way to care for your baby. At both events we emphasized—just as we would with any other product—safety. In fact, we gave out “safety tip sheets” at the events. We believe that safety and babies is always pri­or­ity one.

I wasn’t sur­prised this week when I saw that the Con­sumer Prod­uct Safety Com­mis­sion (CPSC) will prob­a­bly be issu­ing a warn­ing on slings. After all, they are sup­posed to be the gov­ern­men­tal agency that is look­ing out for the safety of our most pre­cious resources. But since Tues­day, March 2, 2010 their head has been say­ing how dan­ger­ous these prod­ucts are and that their warn­ing would be com­ing out last week. I have seen noth­ing more than a week later from them that is infor­ma­tional, edu­ca­tional or helps par­ents to know what to do. I was taken aback that they didn’t empha­size that this is an issue of edu­cat­ing the pub­lic. To cre­ate this level of worry and then not fol­low through right away is irre­spon­si­ble. Read the rest of this entry »

Tonight, along with many Amer­i­cans, I watched “The Office” as Pam and Jim had their baby. I laughed a lot and thought about how com­edy is based on truth and how there was much to learn from this episode. Here’s my list of “Top 10 Things I Learned From Pam and Jim’s Birth”:

1. Labor and birth are nor­mal. It might not be your own “every­day” nor­mal, but it’s meant to work. And most of the time it does.
2. Dis­trac­tion can be help­ful in labor. Focus­ing on a movie, a game, going for a walk, etc., gives you a chance to let labor do its work and gives your mind a break.
3. Lis­ten to your body. Your body was so smart that it grew a whole other per­son. It doesn’t get “dumb” in labor. Your body will guide you to do what is needed to help your baby into the world.
4. It’s really a mir­a­cle. It sounds so corny, but it’s true: grow­ing a baby and giv­ing birth IS a mir­a­cle. How can you not believe it is when you see your incred­i­ble, gor­geous, and yummy baby in your arms?
5. Breast­feed­ing can have chal­lenges in the begin­ning. It’s a rela­tion­ship and it takes time to find the rhythm of give and take in any rela­tion­ship. Give your­self and your baby time.
6. One minute you feel on top of the world and the next you feel incom­pe­tent. Again, this is a new per­son in your life. Parts of par­ent­ing are so pre­cious and oth­ers are more frus­trat­ing than you ever imag­ined. In a few days you will be a cham­pion diaper-changer and baby-soother. In the mean­time, the more upset the baby gets, the calmer you will want to become. It really does help, I promise.
7. New­borns need to be held. A lot. Seriously——A LOT!!! They were held 24 hours a day prior to birth. They need your warmth, your voice and your heart­beat. You can’t spoil a new­born — they have needs, not wants.
8. Hav­ing a new baby means you will some­times snap at one another. It’s ok. Cou­ples often think that they will NEVER raise their voices or lose their tem­pers. Babies cre­ate amaz­ing highs as well as amaz­ing stress. Rec­og­nize that you can love one another and still get grumpy. Nobody’s per­fect, even if they want to be. You’ll laugh about it later — honest.
9. Allow friends and fam­ily to bring you food. You have a lot to learn in the early days and weeks. The peo­ple who care about you want to help and you need to eat. It’s per­fect! Let them bring you food. It may be the only way you get a hot meal in the first month.
10. Take a few moments just to enjoy it. The begin­ning of par­ent­hood has a really fast, steep learn­ing curve. Give your­selves per­mis­sion do noth­ing else but sit and stare at this sweet baby. You need to smell that incred­i­ble baby aroma every time you snug­gle them under your chin. Do what we here at Colum­bia Cen­ter rec­om­mend for par­ents and their babies: Cud­dle, Rock, Repeat…

One of the fates of being a new par­ent is that you can’t wait ’til your baby finally ___________ (fill in the blank). Finally smiles, finally sits up, finally crawls, finally walks. The other side of the “I can’t wait ’til” coin is the wist­ful thought, “OH! I wish he was still a lit­tle baby!”

If this rings true for you, imag­ine the feel­ings of this British fam­ily:
Their 6 month old son began walk­ing — before he could even crawl. Read the rest of this entry »

Today I went online to see what was new and found, yet again, that cribs are being recalled. And I felt nau­seous. That’s 500,000 cribs in the newest recall. Why do I say “newest”? Because in Novem­ber 2009  the Con­sumer Prod­uct Safety Com­mis­sion recalled 2.1 mil­lion cribs and just last month another 500,000 cribs were recalled. In fact, in the last 2–3 years alone there have been well over 7 mil­lion cribs, play yards and bassinets recalled. These cribs run the full range of prices — the least expen­sive to the most. Read the rest of this entry »

A lit­tle over a year ago, we started a sup­port group at Colum­bia Cen­ter for moms who were expe­ri­enc­ing mood dis­or­ders … “mood dis­or­der” … what a strange phrase. It sounds so odd, as if you were in a bad mood and if you just got all your ducks in a row, you’d be fine. If only it were that easy.

Here’s the thing: when you have a baby, a lot hap­pens really fast. And, there is some really inter­est­ing bio­chem­istry that hap­pens with­out your knowl­edge or per­mis­sion. And some of us have other issues that pop up at this time, too. There are life events that get in the way. Read the rest of this entry »

When you’re a new par­ent, you worry. I’ve always kid­ded the moms in our Moms Group that when your baby is placed on your abdomen after birth you should be told, “Here’s your baby and here’s your life­time of worry and guilt.” The truth is that biol­ogy has set moms up in gen­eral to be the Des­ig­nated Wor­rier (I rec­og­nize this isn’t true in all fam­i­lies, of course — dads can be equal wor­ri­ers). Babies needs some­one to notice when they’re uncom­fort­able, in need of being held, in need of a dia­per change, etc. Some­one has to be the wor­rier — it might as well be the woman who ges­tated this lit­tle cherub into being. Read the rest of this entry »

Recently at a movie the­ater I saw the trailer for the movie “Babies,” which is due to be released some­time in 2010. Imme­di­ately, my heart rate quick­ened and I found myself more excited about the trailer than the actual movie I was there to see. The film fol­lows the first year of life of four babies in Tokyo, Mon­go­lia, Namibia, and San Fran­cisco. What will we learn when we see the movie? I wonder.

Will we pos­si­bly learn that there is no one “right” way to par­ent a baby? Our cul­ture sends the mes­sage con­tin­u­ally to new par­ents that if they don’t do things the “right” way (read: what­ever way another per­son did it or what­ever prod­uct he or she used), they will fail as par­ents. And those of us who were born and raised in the U.S. think that we know the way babies should be par­ented, that our way is THE way. But would the Amer­i­can way of par­ent­ing work in any of those other three locations?

I remem­ber a few years ago when I first saw the book “Mam­a­toto.”  I found my thoughts and beliefs about how we approach preg­nancy, birth, and early par­ent­ing chal­lenged. This, by the way, is a book that if you ever find in a used book store you MUST buy! (And I never say “must.”) The pho­tos are deli­cious and the infor­ma­tion con­tained within is enjoy­able and enlightening.

I’m look­ing for­ward to see­ing this movie. Can’t wait to go into a dark­ened the­ater and be enveloped in the world that I love best: preg­nancy, birth, and early par­ent­ing. Maybe we can make it a date—want to join me?

In New York City restau­rants are begin­ning to feed the lit­tlest among us. I was intrigued when I saw an arti­cle in The New York Post about a Green­wich Vil­lage eatery that is serv­ing babies as well as their moms.

The Moms Group on Wednes­day has been talk­ing alot about baby food: when to start solids, what to serve, how to pre­pare, etc. I love hear­ing the moms describe what’s work­ing for their babies and them­selves. It’s the beauty of the Group—share a lit­tle, learn a lot. I can just pic­ture all of them cozy­ing over to a local restau­rant on some Wednes­day after Group and order­ing amaz­ing food for them­selves and whole­some food for their babes! But I will say this: our moms would never pay New York City prices for what they could do them­selves. They’re savvy as well as nur­tur­ing. And their babies are all the bet­ter for it.

Wel­come to the Colum­bia Cen­ter blogs.

These blogs offer a per­sonal view of Colum­bia Cen­ter, from sev­eral Colum­bia Cen­ter staff mem­bers. There cur­rently are two blogs:

• The Lit­tle Things — This is our “inside Colum­bia Cen­ter” blog, pro­vid­ing a behind-the-scenes glimpse of the birth center.
• Edu­ca­tion — This blog pro­vides the lat­est knowl­edge about preg­nancy and birth, whether that knowl­edge comes from the most cur­rent med­ical research or from the expe­ri­ence of count­less gen­er­a­tions of moms.

Our Colum­bia Cen­ter blog­gers cur­rently are writ­ing their intro­duc­tory posts and these blogs will offi­cially begin post­ing in late Jan­u­ary 2010. Please check back shortly!