Many New Moms Feel Unprepared
Thoughts of leaving the hospital prompt worry
 (HealthDay News) -- Worried that you won't be prepared to care for your new baby when it's time to leave the hospital?
You're not alone.
In fact, research published in the journal Pediatrics found that 17 percent of new moms were not ready for the tasks of child-rearing.
Reviewing data on 4,300 mother-infant pairs, the researchers found that often it was the mother who felt she wasn't ready just yet for the demands of a newborn. About 11 percent of the mothers said they felt unready, 5 percent of the mothers were dubbed unready by their babies' pediatricians and 1 percent were judged not ready by their obstetricians, the study found.
"We wanted to address the lack of information regarding the postpartum decision-making process for healthy term newborns and its consequences during the neonatal period, after federal legislation that went into effect in 1998 established a minimum postpartum length of stay of 48 hours after vaginal deliveries and 96 hours after Caesarean deliveries, unless a mother and a physician decide otherwise," the study's lead author, Dr. Henry Bernstein, chief of general academic pediatrics at Children's Hospital at Dartmouth in Lebanon, N.H., told HealthDay .
Regardless of how much time a woman spent in the hospital, there were numerous factors that correlated with feeling unready, including:
- Maternal history of chronic disease
- First-time parenthood
- Lack of prenatal care
- Late-night or early-morning delivery
- A baby's medical problems
- Plans to breast-feed
- Limited in-hospital education
- The mother's race (with black women 40 percent more likely to feel unready than white women)
"This study shows that the time in the hospital is not the issue; education is a more important issue," Dr. Robert Welch, chairman and program director of obstetrics and gynecology at St. John Health's Providence Hospital in Southfield, Mich., told HealthDay .
Bernstein also indicated that discharge instructions need improvement.
"To increase readiness, it's critical to emphasize personalized discharge plans for that infant and his or her family," he said.
Experts from Rush Medical Center in Chicago also offered some tips to help new mothers adjust. Although getting eight hours straight of sleep is probably unlikely, it's important that new mothers try to sleep when the baby is sleeping, they said.
They also advise returning to some sort of exercise routine, such as walking for at least a few minutes each day, as soon as your physician says it's OK.
Additionally, they suggest taking help whenever it's offered. Let someone else do the dirty dishes for awhile so you can take a nap while the baby's sleeping. If someone offers help, let them know what tasks would be most helpful to you.
"From the time that they have the first inkling that they want to have a baby, women should start building a support system," Welch said.
On the Web
To learn more about what's normal in a newborn, check out information provided by the Nemours Foundation.
SOURCES:
HealthDay News ; Henry Bernstein, D.O., professor of pediatrics, Dartmouth Medical School, and chief of general academic pediatrics, Children's Hospital at Dartmouth, Lebanon, N.H.; Robert Welch, M.D., chairman and program director of obstetrics and gynecology, St. John Health's Providence Hospital, Southfield, Mich.; August 2007, Pediatrics ; Rush University Medical Center, Chicago (www.rush.edu)
Author:
Serena Gordon
Publication Date:
Aug. 31, 2008
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