Baby

Baby Original offers free advice for expecting parents and supporting family and friends. Main topical sections include pediatrician care, parenting, grandparenting, motherhood fitness and health, and social issues including pets, siblings, and schooling.

Pregnancy to Newborm

From moments of considering to have a baby to the first moments of life your little angel plays their part. Their little red face is all scrunched up, and the sounds that voice from her puckered little mouth are the most precious notes you could ever hope for. You ache any time the nurses take her for tests, and you deny offers from well meaning friends and family who offer to hold her while you get some sleep. All you want to do is be with your new baby, and you’ll forego food, water and sleep to do just that!

Parenting to Grandparenting

Parenting is often a thankless job. It is a difficult job, and a job that keeps parents up at night. From crying babies to whining toddlers, defiant teenagers to aloof young adults, parents constantly struggle to understand and positively affect the lives entrusted them. But in the end, it is a job every parent will say is the most amazing and wonderful adventure imaginable. It is the smiles, first steps, first homeruns, family trips, hugs and kisses that outshine the less appealing aspects of parenthood, and it is for these moments parents gladly lump the rest.

Day Care and Schooling

For many, it starts with the first day of kindergarten. For others, it begins a year or two earlier, with preschool. For all, it is a momentous occasion that marks the beginning of a learner’s journey that will never end. It's late summer, and it school is about to begin!

Eager little kids follow anxious parents through stores, buying back-to-school clothes, backpacks and sneakers. They get fresh haircuts, take extra bubbly baths the night before and are sent to bed extra early to ensure a good night's sleep. The next morning they're off to school. Be it kindergarten, middle school or college, the routine is mostly the same. May be by the time they’re in high school, the bubble bath is out of the question, and they can borrow the car and do their own shopping, and by college, parents can only wonder about that good night’s sleep, but these details are only minor. The first day of school is a blend of excitement, anxiety and curiosity for all students and parents as well.

Labor

Filed under: Labor — Baby Original @ 10:47 am

Labor Labor varies form woman to woman; even in the same woman labor each is different. Some labors are very fast, lasting only a few hours; some are average in length [about fifteen or sixteen hours for first time mothers and seven or eight hours for women who have had babies before]; some are very long, lasting a day or two. Some start slowly and then speed up unexpectedly; others start rapidly and then slow down. The amount of pain and fatigue varies also. It is best not to have definite expectations, but to prepare yourself for the wide range of possibilities.

Many factors play a part on how long and hard; labor will be. You can influence some of these factors but not others.

Factors Influencing Labor

Factors you cannot control

  • Size and shape of your pelvis
  • Size and shape of baby’s head and shoulders
  • Baby’s station, presentation, and position*
  • The condition of your cervix when contractions begin
  • The power of your contractions
  • The amount of rest you have between contractions
  • Some aspects of your general health and your baby’s well-being

Factors you control, to some extent

  • Your emotional state and attitude toward birth [anxiety, fear, and tension versus optimism, confidence, and relaxation]
  • Presence of helpful, caring partner[s]
  • Knowledge of what to expect
  • An environment and professional staff that help you feel secure and well cared for
  • Good care of yourself [including good nourishment and health habits]

* Station refers to how low the baby is in the pelvis.

Presentation refers to which part of the baby’s body will come first [usually it is the head, but on occasion it may be the buttocks, feet, or even a shoulder]

Position refers to location-on the right or left side of the mother-and the orientation-anterior [towards the mother’s front], posterior [toward the mother’s back], or transverse [lying crosswise]-of a given part of the baby, specifically, the occiput [back of the head], brow, chin, shoulder, or sacrum [the bone at the end of the spinal column]. For example, if the baby’s position is left occipitoanterior, the back of the head is on the left , pointing toward his mother’s front.

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