Parenting: 3 Reasons Why Healthcare Providers Aren’t Always Involved (And It’s Painful for Parents)

In the maternity ward your questions could fill a scroll. Okay, a childcare worker comes into your room. Your baby cried all night. To appease her constant need to suck, he invites you to offer her the pacifier (also called pacifier, tutu, etc.). No sooner said than done.

The next day, after a better night, one of his colleagues will take care of you. And she doesn’t seem to entirely agree:” It can delay the arrival of milk! Or worse, it causes a sucking problem! And then, he won’t be able to do without it anymore! » Ok, she won, you can already imagine how cute she no longer breastfeeds or still has a pacifier in college. Throw away the bone of contention immediately. But why don’t caregivers sometimes have the same opinions?

Our medical knowledge is constantly evolving

Reason no. 1: It is said that half of medical knowledge becomes obsolete in less than a decade. It’s crazy, right? Good practice recommendations based on recent scientific research are published regularly for the attention of healthcare professionals.

But they are constantly renewed. So you won’t necessarily get the same advice as your first child, and that’s normal! Is a recommendation older than the last one “outdated”? Not necessarily. They evolve over time, strengthened by clarifications, improvements and sometimes corrections, in light of what we know at the time.

Small example: about ten years ago, to care for the umbilical cord of a newborn, we used eosin (the red liquid that stains everything it encounters). This allowed for cleaning and drying. The current generation of parents probably had their belly buttons smeared red as children and are doing very well. We then moved on to chlorhexidine (biseptin) and its antiseptic properties. We recently agreed that soap and water are more than enough.

Your baby also progresses rapidly, very rapidly

Reason no. 2: What we advised you a few days earlier in the maternity ward is no longer necessarily relevant when you return home. Your child, his anatomy, his functioning, his skills, are no longer the same. If we advise you not to exceed 30 ml of milk per bottle on the 2nd day, should you still apply this advice 8 days later, knowing that your belly is growing visibly? Of course not, in the same way you wouldn’t put her in her birth-sized bodysuit anymore if the pressures didn’t burst with every movement!

There are a thousand good ways to do it

Reason no. 3: Cereal before milk or milk before cereal? Ask around, everyone has their own answer, more or less reasoned, but you’re not sure you’ll always get the same one. Nobody is right, but everyone is right. There is no general truth about ” how to properly prepare your cereal bowl » because after all we are having a lot of fun. Just as there is none for “ how to put pressure on a newborn’s back “. Some put it on their stomach, others on their hip, still others carry it vertically against them. All means are good as long as your baby ultimately wears the closed bodysuit, right?

There are a thousand good ways to do it

• MOVE UP: Surround yourself with a midwife to prepare in advance for birth and parenthood. This approach can really reassure you and offer you a space for personalized questions. If you plan to breastfeed, you can also consult a certified lactation consultant for prenatal care.

• DARE TO ASK PRECISE QUESTIONS: Ask for all the details to be explained to you – it will be much easier to apply the advice if you understand it. Red flag if a professional gets angry and doesn’t know how to argue his clear opinion.

• DISCOVER YOUR SIDE: But properly, not on some obscure parenting or health forum. The recommendations of the High Authority for Health and other expert consensuses are available online. In case of a very big dilemma, it can always be useful. And then as a bonus: brandishing the study that shows that carrying a child does not make him more dependent, on the contrary, it can close the valves.

• RELATIVE: It’s natural to marvel at the immensity of the unknown. Asking questions is already a sign that you are doing your best.

• TO ADAPT: The main thing is flexibility and adaptation. Nothing will go as planned. If a trick works, good, otherwise worse. It costs you nothing to try. Something that works today may not work tomorrow. And it doesn’t matter! You will find another solution.

• TRUST EACH OTHER: Don’t hesitate to listen to yourself and your baby. I’m not talking about maternal instinct, I’m talking about what you observe 24 hours a day in contact with her. You’d be surprised what he already knows how to convey. So, since there are a thousand ways of doing things, why not follow what speaks to you?

There are a thousand good ways to do it

In all this jungle of advice, some are precious; These are often the ones found in your child’s medical record. We know you have more to do than read, but they have the merit of being quite well listed. For example, today you will always be asked to make your baby sleep on his back for his safety. The most important thing is not to do anything that could put him in danger. The rest are details. When it comes to what really matters, healthcare professionals can often agree.

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