What I Learned From My Baby’s Homecoming

Becoming a mother is a wonderful feeling and experience in a woman’s life but it is full of changes and challenges too. Every day one learns new things. Everything is new especially for a first time mom. After being through a nine-month pregnancy, which sometimes in itself is very physically and emotionally draining and also childbirth, which is not easy in any way, one is bound to feel exhausted. Whether it’s a C-section delivery or normal one in both cases a new mom’s body is in pain and needs care and recovery. Besides, now the baby is no longer in the womb he or she needs care too. It takes time before everything settles down well.

When I became a mom, 9 years back through a C-section delivery, even when I was relieved to come back home from the hospital after 5 days I and my family both felt that there were few things which we should have planned and prepared for in advance. It would have saved us many small and big troubles which we faced later. Also, there were many things we learned.

I have tried to compile and share as many tips as I can recollect from my experience,  which  can help new mom’s and families to get better prepared for the new babies homecoming.

Please keep in mind these few points first.

• All new mom’s and families want to give our newborns the latest and the fanciest of things when they are born but easy and comfortable are the two keywords around which everything will revolve for at least a couple of months. Feed, sleep, pee, poop, hygiene maintenance and crying for N number of reasons (hunger, getting wet, colic, insecurities etc) will be most important, so buy things which are most needed and comfortable. Else many things will be wasted and left unused.

• Each family has a different set of rituals and traditions for a newborn and new mom’s homecoming but keeping them to a minimal on a babies arrival as giving time for things to settle is what is most needed. Rest and recovery for mom and settlement for a baby should be the top priority.

• A newborn brings lots of happiness to a family and even relatives, friends, neighbors are really excited to meet the baby and gift him or her things too. If possible one should try and initially let only a few close people know about the baby birth as this helps fewer people visiting the hospital, thereby reducing chances of infections and undue disturbance and comments which sometimes are very hard for a new mother to accept. Also, even after coming back home, if many people are visiting daily, it becomes a difficult situation to handle. So, once the baby and new mother settle down well is when people should come and meet them. Also when visitors come it’s better to ask them politely to use hygiene measures like sanitizing hands before carrying the baby and not trying to kiss and all.

• It is well-known fact that many families in our country refrain from buying anything new for an unborn baby. Usually, for the first 40 days, babies wear old clothes etc. It’s up to personal choice to follow this rule and also family pressure is there but one thing is sure that once baby is born a new mom or even dad or many people can’t just rush to the market for everything. In that case, one needs to know what is the bare minimum essential that will be needed in the first few days. According to me clothes (jhablas or even onesies and small sweaters as per the season), cloth nappies, diapers, toiletries, towels, napkins, cap, mittens, socks, rough clothes, baby wrapper, small bedsheets (for above and below the bed), mustard pillow, support pillows, feeding and sterilizing equipment, mosquito net etc are essential. These days one can actually order many things online so one can search for good options and buy from there or else someone has to physically buy these things before the new mom and infant comes back from the hospital.

#babycare