Archive for the ‘Baby’ Category
What Your Baby Will Enjoy Looking At
At birth, babies prefer high contrast. Black and white designs provide the most contrast. At first, babies prefer geometric patterns with stripes and angles. Soon they will shift their preference to circular patterns, such as bull’s eyes.
Within three weeks, the most exciting image in his visual field is the human face. Because your hairline and your eyes offer the most contrast, he will at first concentrate his gaze between your nose and your forehead. Between four and eight weeks, your baby may break into his first social smile while studying your face. At three months, he will be able to distinguish your face from a stranger’s. By rewarding you with a special smile, he lets you know that he recognizes you. By four months, his vision has matured. Like you, he enjoys looking at things that are colorful, novel, and in motion.
How do you know when your baby finds something visually interesting? An alert, calm, baby will respond to a pleasing object in his visual field by brightening his face and moving his arms and legs rhythmically. An active baby will stop moving and carefully scan the object with his eyes. He will signal to you when an object doesn’t interest him or when he has had enough stimulation by turning away and withdrawing.
Avoid bombarding your baby with visual input during the first two months of his life. During this time, while he’s getting settled, all stimuli should be low key. In these first weeks he is becoming familiar with his hands and should not be exposed to a lot of jazzy stimuli that will distract him from that familiarization process. Later, when he has begun to master basic visual skills and has gained control over his head and hand movements, he will be ready to explore his visual environment. As always, take your cues from him.
Things That Stimulate Visual Development
- Black and white geometric patterns.
- Your face.
- Toys with faces.
- Out of reach mobiles [remove them when the baby can sit to avoid entanglement].
- Mirrors [choose stainless steel mirrors he can’t break].
- Being carried about by you.
- Being placed in an infant seat [always fasten the lap belt and never leave him unattended].
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Natural vs Medicated Childbirth
Before leaving the subject of birth and going on to the newborn, we should discuss an important choice; the choice between natural childbirth and medicated childbirth. Your preparation and decision-making and the course of your labor will differ depending on what you prefer.
Having read the previous discussion of labor, you now have some sense of the physical and emotional events of normal spontaneous labor. It is concern about a tear or labor pain that influences many women to choose to use pain-relieving medication in labor.
The Use of Pain Medications or Anesthesia in Childbirth
Pain medication in childbirth has been used for centuries. Alcohol. Opium, and other drugs have been used, though how extensively is not known.
When using pain medications, you make a trade-off in return for relief of pain and tension and possible speeding up of labor, you accept the side effects on labor progress, your mental and physical well-being, or on your baby. You should balance the advantages and disadvantages as they apply in your situation before using or not using a particular medication.
What are the kinds of medications available, how do they work, and what are their risks and benefits? This section provides an overview that will assist you in discussing the subject with your doctor and making a decision on your preferences.
First of all, the choice of natural and medicated childbirth only exists as long as the labor remains normal. Some interventions are painful or stressful and increase the need for pain medications. If, however, you or your baby requires intervention [such as induction of labor, use of forceps, or cesarean section] for medical reasons, you will need pain medication.
Medication for Early Labor
Because the medications that provide the greatest pain relief also tend to interfere with early labor progress, they cannot be used too early, unless you want to stop labor. There are medications available if a very prolonged and exhausting pre-labor or early labor has caused excessive anxiety and worry. Sedatives or barbiturates [sleeping pills or medication] may help you rest. These are given in pill form or by injection, They may temporarily halt your labor while relaxing you or allowing you some sleep. These drugs reach your baby, who cannot easily excrete them, so it is important not to receive large doses. Because babies born with such drugs still in their bodies may have problems breathing or sucking, your doctor will probably only use small doses and will try to be sure that they have worn off before birth.
Tranquilizers are also used in long pre-labors to reduce muscle tension and anxiety. Some also help if you have severe nausea or vomiting. Depending on the drug chosen, you may feel dizzy and confused, your mouth could feel dry, and your blood pressure altered. These drugs also cross the placenta to the baby and may have effects on fetal heart rate, and newborn muscle tone, suckling and attentiveness.
Morphine, a narcotic, may be used in an attempt to stop a long, non-progressing labor. While it may cause you nausea, dizziness, and confusion, it may also do just what you need-put you to sleep and stop your labor temporarily. Narcotics can linger in the baby and can have some effects on behavior and breathing after birth. The greater the amount of the drug given the greater the effect on the baby.
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