Sep 21 2008
Weekend News: The Most Obvious Study Ever
A recent study concluded that a majority of women felt unprepared for the physical and emotional challenges they faced after the birth of their first baby.
According to the Australian study, 35 percent of women felt unprepared for the physical post-baby challenge and 20 percent did not feel emotionally prepared. A majority of women stated they wished they had more information on concepts like breastfeeding, infant sleep patterns, and how to cope with their own sleep loss. Women complained that child birth classes focused only on labor and delivery and not at all on newborn care. The study suggested that childbirth classes be reoriented to include more information on post delivery expectations.
Did someone pay for this study? Really? I had a newborn care class that went with my childbirth classes that addressed some of these issues but to some degree isn’t it impossible to tell someone about the amount of sleep deprivation that will occur once the baby is born? Issues like breastfeeding should, of course, be covered by doctors as well as nurses in the hospital and in labor classes. My doctor’s office also gave out free copies of What to Expect When You’re Expecting which was extremely helpful.
I suppose if we needed a study to tell us that post-childbirth can be overwhelming then it’s a good thing someone did it. However, I could have saved them a ton of money and told them that myself.
