Partners Are Parents, Too! 3 Ways to Promote Bonding with Newborns
It’s best for your baby to nurse directly at your breast.
This allows your brain, body and baby to regulate how much milk is needed. (Your partner can take this job once your babe isn’t a newborn anymore.)
All that being said, there are definite times when you, as a new mother, need a break. And your partner wants to have special moments with his/her new baby, too!
So what can they do to establish a healthy bond?
Skin-to-skin/Kangaroo care.
We talk about this a lot because it’s wonderful, on so many levels. Our postpartum doulas have the experience and training to assist with this parenting skill. Dad/Partner can take off his/her shirt, strip baby to her diaper and boom! Nothing else needed.
“Wear” your baby.
(Another popular topic for our postpartum doulas, by the way. We’re happy to help both parents get comfortable putting baby in and out of a carrier and sharing safe babywearing tips and techniques.)
Not only does wearing your baby in a carrier give you some much needed hands-free time, but research suggests that babywearing is a great way to facilitate bonding and attachment.
Diaper duty.
This blog post is from a practitioner of RIE, a parenting philosophy. Whether you embrace any or all of its tenets, she shares great info on turning a mundane activity like changing your baby’s diaper into a lovely bonding moment.
Mothers, don’t hesitate to give this time to your partner and your newborn. The sooner that they have this bond, the sooner you’ll both have parenting skills and experience to manage fussing, upset baby, putting baby to bed or soothing back to sleep and solo-parenting when needed.