Preparing Yourself for a Second Birth

With a few days of anticipation, the doctors will let you know the date in which your baby can go home to be with you. It’s likely that during this period, the doctor will explain to you a little more about the things you will need to have in mind or that they will tell you that you will need to take a monitor home with you. This should not worry you though, since surely you will have learned to control some things and will know how to act in an accidental situation.

It is also possible that your baby will need some form of medication or special indication, such as if the baby drinks special artificial milk for premature babies.

Three or four days before leaving, you will see your baby, who will probably no longer be in an incubator but rather in a crib, to control which are the baby’s reactions to the outside world, although very rarely it can sometimes occur that if the intensive care unit is too saturated with babies, the baby will go directly from being in the incubator to your home.

During the first weeks, it would be important for you to get some extra help, especially if you, the mother, are the one that normally takes care of the things in the house such as cleaning and cooking, if you have other children etc. And when you are not taking care of the affective needs, feeding or hygienic needs of your baby, please, make sure you get some rest.

Keep in mind that your baby will face a new environment and will have to continue on with his or her process of adaptation. Since the baby will be the one who will be in charge that your relationship is the most urgent need, you will always have to be willing and available. Sometimes, however, it is positive to have some inconveniences foreseen, and talk with your partner about the topics referring to the organization of the home, meaning that things might not always turn out the way they were planned. Both of you, from now on, will feel the presence of your child in the home as something sacred, so allow yourself to go along with your intuition but also follow your heart. The last thing you need right now is to want to be the perfect parents: perfect parents only exist in the imagination. What your baby most wants is that you hold him or her and that you show your love. In these moments, I can assure you, when the baby is already home, you will feel that that is the moment that miracles happen.