Part 2: When you return home from the hospital
Now you have this new human to raise and everything feels really new, scary, exciting, hard and surreal all at the same time. As I mentioned in our previous post about connecting with baby, some parents experience an intense bond from pregnancy to delivery and other parents struggle to feel anything towards their newborn.
We gave you some tips in how to increase your connection with baby while they are still in the womb and during labor & delivery. Let’s dive in to some ways you can increase your bond with baby at home.
Tips for Bonding at Home:
1) Skin to Skin.
We are encouraging you to continue this practice of skin to skin once you have returned home. Studies support that skin to skin contact increases the development of organs, helps soothe mom and baby, increases the ability to breastfeed, acclimates baby to the outer world, etc. There is a large body of research that indicates skin to skin practice is a vital and
important part of baby and parent acclimating to this new stage.
2) Talk with your baby.
Singing, smiling, talking, using facial expressions with baby will help their brain development as they are making connections in their brain so quickly but it will also help build your fondness of them and your baby’s comfort with you.
3) Forgive your baby.
Sometimes labor can be really hard on both the mother and the father. Things most of the time do not go according to the birthing plan you so carefully crafted. Even if it is unintentional, we may carry resentment towards our baby for all of the hard work we put in and we are still not getting any recognition. Our reward is physical pain and sleep deprivation. This can lead to physical, emotional and mental resentment built up and creating walls between you and baby.
Have a conversation with your newborn and let them know how you are feeling and that you forgive them for any resentment you might have been holding. This may sound silly to some as baby does not understand language like we do quite yet, but the emotional shift in your own posture towards your baby is really transformational. I have seen mothers and fathers completely change their relationship with their newborn because of this conversation.
In Conclusion:
There are many things you can do to increase the love and connection you feel towards your baby once they are out of the womb and cradled in your arms. In the next part of this series, how to connect with baby, we will discuss how to bring other family members along on this bonding journey.
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