You know your baby best

In the months leading up to your baby’s birth, you may have had an increasing number of (probably well-intentioned) people sharing their words of parenting wisdom. Now that your baby is here, you might find even more advice coming your way. Some of this will be welcome, of course, but although it might not always feel like it during these first days and weeks, you are the expert on your baby.

Filtering and adapting advice for your family

Research can offer helpful insights, which is why we share relevant science and research in our app. However, your baby is unique and the knowledge and understanding you have about your baby is always an important part of the decisions you make.  

When you read articles or if you are given advice, think about how that research or experience fits with, or needs to be adapted for, your baby and family.  

Finding help with common concerns, like sleep and feeding

Many parents share concerns in these early days about feeding, crying and sleeping. When you mention these, you might find a confusing mixture of opinions.  

Take sleep as an example: there's an almost unlimited amount of advice to be found about babies’ sleep and you will be sure to hear about it from lots of the people you know. 

Variations are huge, and knowing this can help

It's interesting to know, though, that when parents know more about how much variation exists in individual sleep patterns, their concerns about sleep reduce, and so does the negative impact of broken sleep on parents’ wellbeing.^[1]  

If you look for average sleep patterns for newborns, you might see people suggesting figures of 14 hours sleep in every 24 hours, however, the range between individual babies is wide, from 9.3 hours to 20 hours.[2] So, your friends' baby might have a very different sleep pattern to your baby, and what works for them might not work for you.  

In these first weeks and months, as you're finding your way, read our articles, hints and tips and think about how they apply to your baby and your family. You'll find people who offer the support you need – this might not always be sharing advice but simply acknowledging that we all have good days and bad days – and we're here alongside you for both. 

References:

[1] Douglas, P. (2018). The possums sleep program: supporting easy, healthy parent-infant sleep. International Journal of Birth and Parent Education, 6(1), pp13-16.   

[2] Rudzik, A.E.F. (2018) Infant sleep and feeding in evolutionary perspective. International Journal of Birth and Parent Education, 6(1), pp.9-12.