I’ve just had my second baby and I’m finding things much easier second time round, but I can’t help but feel sorry for first time mums after the contact I’ve had with lots of healthcare professionals.
For example, the midwife who came to my home on the second day - when hearing I breastfed said ‘you must not drink alcohol - co-sleeping is not safe and shouldn’t be done’ she asked if I’d given baby a dummy and I said no and she said ‘good - we don’t recommend them’.
I couldn’t help but think especially as a new mum trying to do the right thing you could go crazy with this approach! I do co-sleep because I’ve found this is the ONLY way I get half decent sleep. I really wish they would say ‘co-sleeping is not as safe as baby being in a cot next to your bed - BUT if you do it it’s really important you don’t drink alcohol - you sleep between dad etc’.
I’ve got a number of friends who are so terrified of co-sleeping they’re sleeping sat upright with baby on their chest and obviously keep nearly falling asleep which is obviously not safe either!
Likewise for lots of other things. I’m really grateful for all the help I’ve had and know they have to stick to guidelines and give the best evidence based advice, but I’d so love them to say ‘here’s the guidance, but we know sometimes people can’t always follow it and if you need to co-sleep/give a dummy/make formula in advance here’s how you can do that as safely as possible’.
Sorry that got long!
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To think that new mums should be given more practical ‘common sense’ advice
72 replies
BrownBirdsFly · 15/10/2019 06:08
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