Newborn Care: 10 Tips for Stressed-out Parents
The coming of a newborn baby brings so much fun and excitement to your home and rightfully so. The newest member of your family deserves all the attention it will be getting but sometimes this attention can cause stress for the parents.
In some cases, the stress from caring for a newborn is minimal while in some other cases you may have a full-blown crisis with parents having severe cases of stress and fatigue.
It doesn’t matter if this is your first time or you’ve already had other kids, caring for a newborn can be stressful but having a plan and knowing what to do can significantly reduce stress.
Here are 10 tips to relieve stress from newborns:
- Keep Your Work Stress Away from the Home
One of the major compounders of stress with newborns is the added stress from other aspects of our lives most especially work-stress.
Learn how to keep work stress away from the home so you do not add an extra stress layer when you have to focus on your newborn.
This is where compartmentalizing becomes critical; you get to keep different parts of your lives separate which gives your body and mind better control and less stress.
- Get Parental Leave from Your Work
Most jobs allow for parental leave for both parents to take care of their newborns. You should explore this option to give you a few months of rest from work and focus on your newborn. This way the stress is reduced and you can better manage your time to rest and do other fun, stress-relieving activities with family.
The number of parental leave months you can get is dependent on your type of work with some jobs offering up to 6 months of parental leave.
- Plan Your Activities
Make a plan of your activities so you can have ample time to take care of your baby while not losing out on personal targets.
Having the feeling that your baby is depriving you of time for other personal activities can increase the stress you’ll feel when taking care of newborns. So, make plans to incorporate other personal activities into your schedule.
- Purchase Helping Baby Products
Technology has made caring for a newborn so much easier with so many products to ease the stress and make your activities more enjoyable.
Products like baby carriers including the ones you can hang on your shoulders, push on the ground and baby car seats can make movement easier. Other products like baby bathtubs will make bathing your newborn less stressful.
Purchase these baby products to help you reduce stress and fatigue.
- Get a Help
Sometimes, no matter how hard you try, the activities will just be too much for you to handle, especially if you have to work. When this is the case, you should consider getting help.
A caregiver can come in to take care of your newborn while you’re away or even when you’re home busy with other things.
This is a good way to relieve some stress and put yourself in order.
- Delegate Tasks
Delegation would be possible in a two-parent household. Here you can share some caregiving activities between yourself and your spouse and even between your kids if you already have grownups.
Share some of the activities so everybody does their part and reduce stress on a particular parent.
- Get Enough Rest
Now, I know this can be quite difficult when dealing with a newborn but without rest yourself; you won’t be able to adequately care for your baby.
This is another reason why getting help and delegating is important; you get time to take a rest when a caregiver or your spouse is with the baby.
- Incorporate Exercise into Your Routine
One of the most popular stress relievers, exercise helps the body relieve stress by releasing feel-good hormones to boost your state of mind.
Exercise will also take your mind away from stressful activities for a while and give you a chance to recharge. For women, before engaging in exercise, seek the approval of your doctor for suitable postpartum exercises to try.
- Set Out a Visitation Plan
After delivery, you’ll most likely have to entertain a lot of visitors who will come to congratulate you and admire your baby.
Set out visitation days and let visitors know which days are available for them to come to visit. Also set rules, like washing of hands before holding the baby, and not kissing the baby.
This will not only keep the baby healthy but will also help you stay organized and not having to carter to visitors every day.
- Get personal Time with Your Spouse
The coming of a newborn can be so overwhelming that spouses forget each other in the thick of things. Do not neglect your relationship with your spouse when taking care of newborns.
Seek out time to have personal time like date nights and other fun activities to relieve stress and foster stronger bonds.
Summary
Having a newborn join your family shouldn’t have to be this stressful. Incorporate fun activities to brighten your day and give you a better state of mind to care for your baby.
