In simple words, it’s when the mother and baby sleep on the same surface together in close proximity.
Is it safe to co-sleep with your baby? and can it be done safely?
As a midwife, I always recommend babies to be put in their moses basket or cot to sleep, as Babies should have a clear sleep space, which is easy to create in a cot or Moses basket. I know however that families also wish to bed share, therefore we recommend making your bed a safer place for baby whether you doze off accidentally, or choose to bed share. Our advice on co-sleeping with your baby will tell you how. For safer co-sleeping:
Keep pillows, sheets, blankets away from your baby or any other items that could obstruct your baby’s breathing or cause them to overheat. A high proportion of infants who die as a result of SIDS are found with their head covered by loose bedding.
Follow all of our other safer sleep advice to reduce the risk of SIDS such as sleeping baby on their back
Avoid letting pets or other children in the bed
Make sure baby won’t fall out of bed or get trapped between the mattress and the wall
Answers to the most common questions about Mastitis in lactating women.
Q. Is it OK to breastfeed with mastitis?
A. Yes, midwives and lactation consultants encourage feeding with mastitis to ensure the breasts are fully empty. Not emptying the breasts will increase the severity of mastitis.
Q. How common is mastitis while breastfeeding?
A. Mastitis is common, occurring in approximately 1 in 5 women. Mastitis most often happens in the first 4 weeks of breastfeeding when cracked nipples, positioning problems and breast engorgement are most common.
However by seeking the correct support and guidance from your midwife/lactation consultant then this number can be decreased.
Q. What does the beginning of mastitis feel like?
A. The beginning of mastitis may have fever symptoms, redness on breasts, engorgement, tingling sensation, and pain.
Q. What are the main causes of mastitis?
Milk that is trapped within the breast/milk ducts caused by Ineffective feeding, incorrect positioning, having a shallow latch, and going long periods without feeding.
It can also be caused by bacteria build up on the skin/saliva which enters milk ducts through cracks in the skin/nipple.
Q. Does mastitis go away on its own?
Sometimes regular effective feeding/expressing is enough. However, depending on the severity may require antibiotics/ readmission into hospital.
Q. What are the best treatment for Mastitis?
The best treatment for mastitis are;
Warm Compress
Pain killers (anti-inflammatory)
Antibiotics (if required)
Rest
Fluids
Regular Feeding/Expressing
Note: You should consult your Doctor before taking any medications.
One of the biggest worries for many new parents is sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), which refers to the sudden unexplained death of an otherwise healthy baby under the age of one, usually during their sleep. Premature babies, or those with a low birth weight, are at greater risk, and it tends to be slightly more common in baby boys. Thankfully, SIDS is rare, and the prevalence has fallen significantly over the past few decades as advice about reducing the risks is more widely shared. While healthcare professionals don’t know exactly what causes SIDS, a lot of research has been done into the things parents and caregivers can do to create a safer sleeping environment for their little one.
Do’s for reducing SIDS
WHAT ARE SIDS CAUSES & RISK FACTORS
Based on advice from the NHS UK, recommendations are as follows:
always place your baby on their back to sleep
place your baby in the “feet to foot” position – with their feet touching the end of the cot, Moses basket, or pram
keep your baby’s head uncovered – their blanket should be tucked in no higher than their shoulders
let your baby sleep in a cot or Moses basket in the same room as you for the first six months
use a mattress that’s firm, flat, waterproof, and in good condition
recent studies have found that using a pacifier while the baby is sleeping reduces the risk of SIDS
Dont’s for SIDS
smoke during pregnancy or let anyone smoke in the same room as your baby – both before and after birth
sleep on a bed, sofa, or armchair with your baby
share a bed with your baby if you or your partner smoke, or if you’ve been drinking alcohol, taking any sedative pain relief-medication or sleeping pills
let your baby get too hot or too cold – a room temperature of 16C to 20C, with light bedding or a lightweight baby sleeping bag, will provide a comfortable sleeping environment for your baby. NB. here in the UAE, we’re used to much warmer temperatures, and the recommendation is 22 to 24 degrees Celsius. Signs your baby may be getting too hot include sweating, or their chest feels hot.
You should also visit your pediatrician and/or midwife for regular check-ups to assess their health and development. At Nightingale, we provide a wide range of postnatal support at home or in our clinic, provided by fully-trained nurses.
Dubai being a global hub of professionals and a cosmopolitan mingling pot of expats, it’s needless to mention that here families come to stay from all over the world. And often without the security and comfort of their own immediate family. In stages of motherhood, when it is imperative for a new mother and the newborn to get optimal nurturing and Cesarean post-operative care at home, one needs to choose the best maternity nurse from the top-rated postnatal care clinics in Dubai.
While motherhood is surely the experience of joy and excitement and enriches the mother and the family’s life, the new mother is also worried about post-operative care and recovery.
So, the wonderful experience of welcoming the little bundle of joy to one’s home must be simultaneously followed up with a sound medical guidance and postnatal care at home. Since the real cause of worry starts after being discharged from the hospital, it’s best to have a reliable and recommended maternity nurse a little before time. This will ensure that parents of the newborn will not fret over handling the new list of dos and don’ts or about sleepless nights, rather enjoy the bonding with the baby.
So, what are the most common duties of a maternity nurse?
Handling day-to-day chores of baby care is definitely a basic parameter that they need to take care of. This covers the activities of changing nappies, breastfeeding, dealing with sudden cries and hunger pangs. This also helps new mothers to get ample resting period to recover fully and regain composure of mind, as sometimes new mothers naturally tend to slip into stress owing to concerns regarding the new physiological and psychological changes as well changes in self-perception.
Monitoring during the first few months is vital for babies as that ensures healthy growth. Regular check-ups, supervision of diet chart, supervision of skin and hair conditions, baby massages and baby health counseling at clinics are all part of postnatal care. Healthy mothers and healthy babies–both from the physical and psychological point of view–are essential points of agreement for any postnatal care to be counted as a quality one.
At Nightingale Dubai, our competent maternity nurses are equipped to handle post-delivery care. They can guide a mother through the motherhood process via a well-packaged capsule of motherhood education. They also cover a vast range of experience to handle different kinds of families as per their cultural expectations or are adaptive towards the same. The motherhood capsule course provided by a trained maternity nurse attunes the new mother towards the varied and complex needs of a newborn while also letting her learn to respect her own body and not neglect its own demands.
Then there are the intimate details broken down to their practical aspects. Aspects like holding and handling a baby and responding to her changing moods.
Apart from providing sound motherhood education and counseling, a maternity nurse should be able to adopt a hands-down approach towards creating the right environment of nurture and safety for the baby.
Most fundamentally, maternity care nurses must maintain a daily medical log of the vital parameters of the baby and the observations noted during the day. This log should cover the basics of clinical assessment of the baby during the most critical postnatal period that is generally counted as the first six weeks post birth.
For newborns, such a clinical assessment service should aim at providing a routine health check-up and monitoring of baby weighing, imparting training for settling techniques, monitoring sleep patterns, assessment of neonatal conditions and prevention of outbreak of infections.
Mothers post Cesarean deliveries must also be included under this clinical assessment process. It should cover a thorough check-up of the vital parameters like blood pressure, monitoring of stitches, and prevention of any infection, dietary support to make up for the blood loss, post-cesarean care, and advice on family relationships.
Apart from the above-listed, Quality Postnatal Care at Home should include:
Lactation Guide
Baby Massaging Pattern
Baby Feeding
Breastfeeding Manual
Baby Hygiene Care
New Mothers Counseling
Lactation Guide: Guiding a lactating mother on the right nutritional value-oriented meals to follow is important as her nutrition is important for the baby’s growth.
Baby Massaging Pattern: Hand-holding parents with the important and memorable process of bathing the baby and teaching them the correct methods and strokes for massaging babies is also an important feature of this.
Baby Feeding: Guiding mothers with proper handling and cleaning of baby feeding apparatus.
Breastfeeding Manual: Tons of concerns pop up in a lactating mother’s mind. From correct breastfeeding techniques to questions of the pressure it has on women, there’s a whole training session on breastfeeding that trained maternity nurses should conduct.
Baby Hygiene Care: This is very important for both babies and mothers. Babies are susceptible to contract infections easily from their mothers due to the close proximity. Maternity nurses train mothers to maintain supreme quality of hygiene.
New Mothers Counseling: Post childbirth often leads to depression among new mothers. In the medical parlance, it is known as post-partum depression. It is generally caused when the excitement of anticipating childbirth and the feeling of being at the center of everyone’s attention gets over. Then there are issues like body weight, self-perception, perceived problems in conjugal life, getting back to normal life etc. Experienced at-home maternity nurses can provide sensitive counseling to mothers regarding this.
At Nightingale Dubai, we understand that maternity nurses are more than just provides of home postnatal care services. They are also effective trainers and guides.
The sight and smell of a newborn is most heartwarming to any parent. The tiny features resembling that of the baby’s birth-givers bring genuine tears of joy to the parents. There are parents who get their baby room painted and stuffed with toys ahead of the precious little thing’s official first day as a newborn.
While the entire experience of childbirth is incredible and phenomenal for parents, all the excitement of welcoming the bundle of joy to this world must follow a sound medical procedure for complete and holistic postnatal care at home for both the mother and the baby.
In fact, for most mothers the dreaded part begins after being discharged from the hospital. Suddenly, there’s a platterful to deal with and that too not with much knowledge or preparedness.
The spell of sleepless nights can be taxing for new mothers or parents. Changing nappies, breastfeeding, dealing with sudden cries etc. Can be daunting for a new mother, especially when she herself needs care, rest, and medical supervision to recover.
Most new parents require education on immunizations, lactation care, and the terrifying prospect of giving the first baby bath and massage. Everything related to the baby in the first few months is crucial as that paves the way for healthy growth. Apart from regular check-ups and counseling at clinics, at-home postnatal care ensures speedy recovery of mothers and healthy growth of babies.
At-home postnatal services ensure that the new mother also gets ample rest and care without worrying about her baby, apart from gaining knowledge and awareness about raising a newborn.
Postnatal care is critical for Caesarian-section deliveries.
Home maternity care nurses who are trained to provide postnatal care provide the following specialized services.
They provide you a basic, yet comprehensive motherhood education bouquet that has a hands-down approach towards the day-to-day details such as settling the baby in the right place and environment, understanding and monitoring the sleep cycles of the baby, and becoming aware of her feeding cycles and patterns.
In short, the motherhood capsule course provided by a trained professional helps the new mother at becoming sensitive towards the baby’s needs without compromising her own health as she also gets attention from the nurse.
The intimate and conversational approach of the at-home nurses ensure that a mother gets an all-round view of all the practical aspects of holding and handling a baby and catering to her varied moods.
They provide a thorough clinical assessment of the baby during the conventional postnatal period that, generally, lasts for six weeks after birth.
For the newborns, the medical assessment service covers: a general health check-up, baby weighing, settling techniques, sleep patterns, assessment of neonatal conditions, infections and more.
For mothers, it includes a complete check-up of the vital parameters like blood pressure, monitoring of stitches, and prevention of any infection, dietary support to make up for the blood loss, post-caesarian care, and advice on family relationships.
Holding the newborn: Teaching parents the proper way to hold a newborn by our newborn babycare nurses .
Dietary care for lactation: Guiding a lactating mother on the right diet chart to follow for getting all the vital sources of nutrition for herself and her baby.
Baby bathing and massaging guide: Assisting parents with baby bathing and baby massaging and teaching them the correct ways to do so.
Baby feeding and maintaining feeding tools: Assisting mothers with handling and cleaning baby pump bottles.
Breastfeeding: There are a zillion questions that come to a lactating mother’s mind. From correct breastfeeding techniques to questions that range on the toll that it takes on women, there’s a whole Q&A session on breastfeeding that trained nurses are able to deliver.
Baby hygiene maintenance: This is very important for both babies. Babies contract infections easily from their mothers due to the close proximity and hence, it is important for mothers to maintain strong hygiene standards and professional home nurses are able to guide on the dos and don’ts.
Counselling to new mothers: Post-childbirth is a critical time for mothers as they often deal with depression, commonly referred to as post-partum depression, once the anticipation and wait is over. The bubble bursts and new mothers, sometimes, start fretting over issues like body weight, self-perception, perceived problems in conjugal life, getting back to normal life etc. Experienced and caring maternity nurses provide the right kind of counselling to mothers helping them counter symptoms and signs of anxiety with positive thoughts and an engaging schedule.
At Nightingale Dubai, we understand the need for a helping hand, a non-judgmental, patient friend, and a professional caregiver. Our well-versed maternity nurses provide world-class at-home postnatal services by combining updated knowledge with intuitive care.
