First trimester: Acceptance of the Pregnancy. Part of the developmental tasks,


Pregnancy confirmation may leave some couples with disbelief, shock, or amazement;

  • The woman and her partner must learn to accept the reality of the pregnancy;
  • Most couples experience some degree of ambivalence;
  • Feeling the fetus move or seeing the fetus on an ultrasound can help the couple achieve acceptance; and
  • In accepting the pregnancy, the partner also accepts the woman as she undergoes he changes associated with pregnancy

Informed choices …use your brain!

When pregnant and confronted with choices I would always suggest you use your BRAIN and ask a few questions to be able to make an informed decision.

B ~ What are the potential BENEFITS of the action?

R ~ What are the RISKS?

A ~ What are some ALTERNATIVES to this action?

I ~ What does my INTUITION suggest?

N ~ What happens if I decide to do NOTHING?

With the answers of your BRAIN questions you would be able to consider the pros and cons of each action and therefore make an educated decision.

A study on breastfeeding and sleep

The tryptophan in the breast milk presented a circadian rhythm with acrophase at around 03:00. This affected the 6-sulfatoxymelatonin circadian rhythm with acrophase at 06:00 in the breast-fed infants, and also promoted nocturnal sleep. Assumed sleep, actual sleep, and sleep efficiency were significantly increased in the breast fed infants with respect the formula fed infants.”

What …prolactin higher when you naps? Really!!

New-born’s often sleep longer during the day  and eat more at night, the reason is prolactin levels(milk making hormone) are higher at night when you sleep, and the prolactin surge in response to stimulation is higher at this time.Milk flows more easily when you are sleepy and relaxed.Make use of this in early days and you will have a reward later with more milk.

You need to find an easy position to be able to lie comfortable in the bed while doing night nursing.This may be easy to achieve but it can take time for a new mom to achieve. Speak to your lactation consultant about this.

Taking naps during the day is so important, easier said than done but listen to your body and act upon it. Short naps also help prolactin to rise.Ask family and friends to help you taking care of the baby in your house , they would love to.

we, ne mothers must change our attitude , if you are grumpy because of the night time feeds you will start to hate it, but if you change your attitude and know this is temporary , soon this too shall pass, and you would be amazed with the results.

Also remember the person saying I `ve slept like a baby don’t have a baby yet, babies don’t sleep well in the beginning

Did you know…. 22 different bones?

A new-born baby need to learn so much in the first few days after birth, and one of the most important things is to learn to coordinate their suck swallow and breathe cycle.

Babies use 6 cranial nerves, 22 different bones, 34 sutures ore coordination’s, 60 muscles some are voluntary others are involuntary and 40 to 60 cycles a minute for 10 to 30 minutes. They need to learn and practise this skill in the first day on average between 8 to 12 sessions.

By using all of these they sure do get tired even more reason to keep them in skin to skin contact

You want to get your milk supply of to a good start?

Most moms want to breastfeed but there is a lot of booby traps out there. Prepare yourself by reading as much as possible and follow a few steps to a good start. The early days help us to maintain production throughout. Unfortunately certain routines, myths and misconceptions might throw you of track but if you know the facts it speak for itself.

Feed the baby in the first hour.

Ideally breastfeeding should start as soon as possible after birth. Baby`s go through nine instinctive stages immediately after the birth of the baby, where if left on the mother he might start looking for his food. Smile be polite and firm if the baby is healthy he need to stay with his mother. If your baby is separated for health reasons don’t despair you just need to work a little harder. Start to hand express immediately or within the first hour after birth and at least every two hours thereafter. By expressing when baby is not able to remove the milk it helps to jump start the milk production process

Keep baby skin to skin

Skin to skin is so important, the moment you are able to do it , be like Nike just do it. Your breasts have the ability to heat up and cool down to the needs of the baby. With the baby in the breastaurant he would also latch easier as he smells and savour the sweet aroma that might take him back to the safe place of the uterus

Delay bathing

Consider delaying a bath or a shower for a long while. If your baby are placed between your breasts he actually leave his body prints via amniotic fluid and vernix on your body and this remind him later where to go. Cool hey.

Optimal milk production depends on optimal latch.
His ability to empty your breast efficiently is dependent on how well he is attached to your boob. If it hurts he is not latching well, ask a lactation consultant to observe the latch. The only essential measures of a good latch is mother and baby must be comfortable and milk need to transfer effectively. It may be tender the first few days, but if it hurts he is latching too shallow. If baby is not latching effectively after about six hours keep him skin to skin to stimulate his reflexes and express the colostrum with your hands watch

Ask for skin to skin, if it is not offered to you.

Please don’t seperate the mother and the baby after birth, parents ask for skin to skin the moment your baby is born. If mom and baby are separated causes stress for the baby up to the point of “shut down behaviours”. Our own dr Nils Bergman describes the protest despair as a fact for fact that lead to changes in the new-born’s heart rate, respiratory rate, blood pressure, oxygen saturation, which rea signs of stress.

Skin to skin contact means uninterrupted between mother and a healthy full-term new-born The best effect is when this skin to skin remain uninterrupted till at least after the baby have consumed an effective feed. Skin to skin is achieved when the baby is placed on the mother’s nude chest, either with or without a nappy. The mom and baby may be covered with a blanket.

Skin-to-skin results is absolutely amazing, their body temperature is more stable, if babies are cold mothers temperature actually go up in order to provide a higher temperature for baby .This process is called thermo synchronisation, respiration are stable, decreased crying, decreased infections and decrease blood cortisol levels from less stress.

Babies who received skin to skin contact have a more stable blood sugar, and their rooting and sucking are way better. Because of this contact babies are able to adapt better to extrauterine life. These effects persist afterwards as well.

Mothers experience better uterine contractions which aids in less bleeding, they rest better after this period and there is a vast difference in attachment. Fathers who do skin to skin contact as soon as possible after birth or when mom is unable experience less stress

“Depriving infants of this experience exerts a lasting impact on the infant’s growth and development”