I have absolutely found that the more time parents spend trying to understand their newborn before they even arrive, the smoother and calmer the transition is for everyone involved. There are tons of articles and books you can read, but I'm going to leave these five here:
1. This is an article about baby's six states, synchrony and how we as adults can best connect with and care for infants.
If I could convince you to read one of these articles, this would probably be it.
2. This is an article that briefly goes over everything I would want a parent to know about their baby's social, emotional, physical development and how they communicate. Now you know your baby's cues, but there's always more to learn about why they are doing what they're doing (hint: they often have no idea that they're doing it at all and their actions are often both involuntary/reflexive and they can't connect them with a cause-effect model).
3. Last but not least, this is a great jumping-off place to read about baby's 'leaps'; it's kind of a backwards way about learning about baby and their needs (for example, you might learn that they are now developing their ability to see depth which means they had no depth perception before) but an amazing resource to flip through before baby gets here for forward-learning and to have handy after baby's arrival too (because it's impossible to remember all of this! Don't put much/any pressure on yourself to memorize any of this; there are tons of resources and tons of people here to support you as you figure all this out).
4. I might have mentioned an infant's temperament in class, and you can find more information about the 9 traits here. I find this to be an invaluable resource to help parents figure out where their frustrations or difficulties lie in picking up baby's cues or syncing up with their needs. Watch your baby, try to use the different traits to figure out what kind of temperament your baby has and how you can help them feel best + most secure.
5. And if you're only going to watch one thing, let it be this.
1. This is an article about baby's six states, synchrony and how we as adults can best connect with and care for infants.
If I could convince you to read one of these articles, this would probably be it.
2. This is an article that briefly goes over everything I would want a parent to know about their baby's social, emotional, physical development and how they communicate. Now you know your baby's cues, but there's always more to learn about why they are doing what they're doing (hint: they often have no idea that they're doing it at all and their actions are often both involuntary/reflexive and they can't connect them with a cause-effect model).
3. Last but not least, this is a great jumping-off place to read about baby's 'leaps'; it's kind of a backwards way about learning about baby and their needs (for example, you might learn that they are now developing their ability to see depth which means they had no depth perception before) but an amazing resource to flip through before baby gets here for forward-learning and to have handy after baby's arrival too (because it's impossible to remember all of this! Don't put much/any pressure on yourself to memorize any of this; there are tons of resources and tons of people here to support you as you figure all this out).
4. I might have mentioned an infant's temperament in class, and you can find more information about the 9 traits here. I find this to be an invaluable resource to help parents figure out where their frustrations or difficulties lie in picking up baby's cues or syncing up with their needs. Watch your baby, try to use the different traits to figure out what kind of temperament your baby has and how you can help them feel best + most secure.
5. And if you're only going to watch one thing, let it be this.