Relatives and Postpartum Doulas; The Perfect Balance
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With the holiday season upon us, we'll all be spending more time with family and friends.
If you just had a baby, there will be plenty of family offering their assistance with your new baby. And although you need all the help you can get, there's definitely some pros and cons to help from relatives when it comes to baby care.
Even with all this family around, parents can still benefit from postpartum doula care as they transition home with their new baby bundle.
Your doula is there to support your whole household.
Completely and on your terms.
With a doula there's never any bias or judgement on the parenting styles you choose to implement, just compassionate and professional care for your entire family. The main objective of a postpartum doula is to give you some peace of mind, confidence, and bring new parents up to date on baby care basics. Your doula isn't trying to replace the role of a family member, they're a professional in the baby industry and are there to keep parents, siblings and baby safe, comforted and tended to.
We love the support of family members and it's important to incorporate that into our children's lives. It can however be overwhelming for new parents to learn how to care for their baby with the opinions of their parents over their shoulder. It can be difficult for grandparents to separate from certain biases, but their intentions are good.
Creating a balance of the two will keep new parents feeling supported and cared for on this journey of discovery. A new baby is a lot to navigate and it doesn't have to be on their own. Doulas can offer baby education and support to supplement the warm love and care your relatives provide. Every family is different and everyone has different value systems about family help when a new baby arrives.
Sometimes families need to just get on the same page.
We feel passionately about the role of older generations supporting their children becoming first time parents. That's why we created the Grandparents Class at Maine Doulas. This program is launching in the new year and will give soon-to-be grandparents a course on newborn care, comfort measures and how to apply their parenting experience to their children's parenting decisions. This class is a great gift for grandparents to be, and can even help you break the news about your pregnancy!