Kathy Fray is an award-winning best-selling parenting author, passionate promoter of mothers-to-be accessing empowering maternity education, holistically-minded Midwife, and thought-leader of Integrative Maternity Healthcare information.
Hi everybody, Kathy Fray here from MotherWise. And welcome to another webinar or podcast. What I want to talk to you today about is when it's around about a month postnatal. So your baby is about 4-5 weeks old and what is it that you need to know around that time. What we're doing here on this Facebook page is mini webinars and we also have a private MotherWise Masterclass inner circle and that's where I dive deep and go into a lot more detail on each topic. For more information, just look at the comments below where it talks about Essential basics packages, and if you join, you'll also have unlimited access to untold resources as well.
The interesting thing at around about 6 weeks, that's when your baby stops being a neonate. They are just a baby. At around 6 weeks they officially stop being a newborn. Obviously, that's a bit different for women who have given birth to premature babies. At 7 weeks they're just a regular baby and no longer called a newborn. Enjoy those few weeks of having a newborn.
Let's talk firstly about mum. This is typically when your relationship with your midwife, doula, or obstetrician or all 3 comes to a conclusion around this time. Usually around week 5 or so. That's a real bit of a teary-eyed moment. Oh my goodness, I have received so many presents myself as a midwife on that last visit over the years. It's so appreciated. Don't hesitate to give them a present, because we really do appreciate being appreciated.
Also, you want to think about your expectations going forward in that you have some very good community support. Now your baby, you should be more familiar with their feeding and behavioral patterns are and usually, there are also milestones coming around this time. Typically they'll be starting to coo, they'll start tummy time and hold their head up. At the back of my book "Oh, Baby" there's about a dozen pages that go through the milestones of what they should be achieving and at what time. Is your baby smiling at about 6 weeks, based on their due date? If you have a baby born at 42 weeks they will probably smile sooner than a baby born at 37 weeks.
Also around this time at a month old if you've been opting to use Vitamin K this would be the time for the third dose. They typically receive Vitamin K day 1, week 1 and month 1 old. Typically you might be looking to see your medical doctor locally for doing a 6 week check with your baby and for vaccinations. Soft music, lullaby's classical music, plain black and white patterns to look at are plenty to stimulate your baby at this time. Toys with too many colors and sounds may be overstimulating and make it hard for them to sleep.
One more thing, at about 5 weeks after being born they can go through a really stormy, clingy stage for a few days. There are theories is that it has to do with their sight altering and it can be scary. It can cause them to be upset for a few days. Mums who take their baby to the doctor asking what's wrong will find there isn't anything really wrong with the baby, and then in a few days the fussiness goes away and they are happy again.
That's all for today and I want to wish you a lovely rest of your week everybody and I'll see you later.
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