Looking after a baby is one of those things that seems like other people have all figured out. You’ll talk to expectant or new parents who just seem to know what to do with a baby, from holding to feeding to changing to grooming. But what about the rest of us who are horribly inept and clueless? Thankfully, there are classes for that.
Baby Girl’s father and I are both busy professionals who didn’t grow up with many children in our immediate families. Neither of us have ever spent much time (if at all) with babies. Now, just weeks away from the arrival of our own baby, we realised that we should probably go beyond paying attention to product marketing and reading books on parenting philosophy and look into the practicals of what to actually do with a baby – you know, day to day stuff to keep her alive and thriving.
Thank goodness for Tribeca Pediatrics and its Pregnancy & Parenting educational resource. With locations in Manhattan, Queens, Brooklyn and New Jersey, this practice offers loads of pregnancy and parenting classes for soon-to-be and existing parents. Whether you’re interested in childbirth education, baby care or CPR courses, they’ve got it all.
We signed up for the Essential Babycare Class, which consisted of 3 hours of run-through of basic topics like holding, feeding, bonding, grooming and caring for your baby. It sounds really simple but the session contained invaluably useful, foundational information.
Regardless of how you plan on parenting your child, you need to now how to care for them first and this class does just that. There are no judgments about breastfeeding versus bottle feeding or sleep training – it’s all rudimentary information to get you through the first weeks and months. The instructor was knowledgeable and full of straightforward advice.
I highly recommend this course to all new parents-to-be. After completing it, Baby Girl’s father and I both felt much more confident about our abilities to bring this little girl into the world and be able to adequately care for her. Now, we just need to work on that whole ‘no sleep anymore, ever’ thing…
