by Natalie Ivanov

Created on: September 29, 2009

Using common sense and instinct to bring up a baby

I was a young mother of a new born baby and did not get much support from my mother or any of my friends in bringing up my daughter, who is now 11 years of age. Of course I am not saying that my mother was not around at all, she was. What I am saying, is that she was not there to tell me how to deal with a crying baby, to tell me why she was crying. She was not there to tell me how to deal with nappy rash or teething problems. She was not there to tell me how to hold my baby while I bathed her. She was not there to tell me how, when or what to feed my baby.

I had to simply learn to cope on my own. I bought a book, a very good book in fact, Child and baby care, by Marina Patropolis. I learned a lot from this particular book and it did assist me extensively. I did however have to rely on my natural motherly instinct. You cannot learn from a book alone, how to bath a new born baby. You have to physically do it to experience what it is that you should be doing. It is common sense and instinct that tell you that a baby has not developed its muscles properly and is unable to hold up its own head, so the instinctive thing to do is to support the baby's head and neck, and at the same time be a contortionist and hold it body and wash the baby using your other hand.

When she cried, I would instinctively try process of illumination, starting by checking her nappy, as a dirty nappy causes discomfort. I would then try feeding her, and if the crying persisted I would check her clothing for something that may be causing discomfort. If this was still not the cause, then I would give her a bath and try and get her to sleep, as a baby gets really miserable when it is tired. I would eventually get to the source of the problem, and I started to get to know the type of cry related to the problem.

A mother is blessed with the amazing power of instinct or mother's intuition. You can almost see something happening before it happens. When your child climbs up on something high, you are there to catch them, when they are touching something that they shouldn't as it may fall and break, you are there to catch it. Your reflexes are far quicker and precise, in comparison to before you had children.

Instinct plays a huge roll in life and in taking care of your babies or children. It is a gift, use it.

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