So Many Parenting Books, So Little Time

A first time pregnant lady starts her maternal education, typically, with a pregnancy book.  Makes sense.  I've previously given you a list and some reviews of not-so-serious pregnancy books (here).  Eventually the education turns to the actual labor and delivery, then parenting.  Also makes sense.  At a certain point one can become saturated with pregnancy knowledge.  A mom-to-be is naturally freaked out curious about the next step (aka the arrival of the baby) and a little knowledge can prevent curiosity from turning into anxiety.

What does a newbie mom-to-be read when she wants to learn about childbirth and parenting?  Well, turns out that childbirth is usually covered in the pregnancy books.  Easy enough.  It's the how-to-parent guides that come in separate manuals.  There are many books and many theories about the perfect techniques for helping babies smoothly transition from womb to world.  So, choosing the right guide can be a little overwhelming.

In a previous post, I (briefly) covered the method of attachment parenting (more on that here).  But even for this one parenting style there are a bazillion book choices...one of which is entitled Beyond the Sling and written by Blossom.

Side note: Blossom currently stars on The Big Bang Theory.  

Remember when Blossom was on Blossom?

Back to the topic at hand - how can you successfully sift through all these parenting styles much less all these books about parenting styles?  I have no idea.  Yeah, not the answer you were hoping for.  I can share that my circle of friends recommends The Happiest Baby on the Block by Harvey Karp.  I've heard it called the sleep bible.  Apparently it helps your baby be happy (hence the title), which in turns helps your baby sleep.  

There's also Bringing Up Bebe by Pamela Druckerman, which is SO hot right now.  Even if you're not a first time mom-to-be you probably know about this book because it's been all over the news this year (here, here and here).  Apparently it's the next Tiger Mom style, a reference that will only make sense to you if you remember how hot the Tiger Mom book was last year.

Starting with personal recommendations is a great tool.  General surveys work, but make sure to ask those friends whose parenting style you admire.  Peruse the reviews on Amazon.com.  People are overly detailed and often brutal in their Amazon reviews, which is quite helpful.  Use your local library to test the waters on a couple books that seem like good fits.  Or be the obnoxious person in Barnes & Noble who basically reads the book before purchasing.  Keep in mind that there's no wrong choice.  The idea is to get you excited for the next step, so if it takes a couple tries then so be it.  

If you've read a parenting book and have some solid advice - Leave A Comment!  Sharing is caring.  

    

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A Helping Hand From the Start

Mothers help their children.  They start helping from conception and keep helping...forever.  That's the ideal, of course.

This timeless and instinctive behavior, to nurture one's child, has taken intense (and arguably extreme) forms in modern times.  We all remember the recent TIME magazine article about attachment parenting.  And even if you don't remember the article, you most certainly remember the cover photo...

from May 21, 2012

And if that imagine doesn't jog anything, google the words "TIME magazine breastfeeding", then google the words "attachment parenting".  You'll be caught up in no time.

As I did in my response post to the TIME Magazine article, I'll again reiterate that I don't support or not support attachment parenting.  I do, however, think it exemplifies a hands on approach to parenting.  Say (or think) what you want about attachment parenting, you can't successfully argue that parents who subscribe to its tenets are laissez faire about child rearing.  Quite the opposite, it's an active, considered, and deliberate way of parenting.

Many women start parenting during pregnancy.  This is done with diet, exercise, meditation and other life style choices.  Eating certain foods allegedly prepares the unborn child's developing palate (more on that here).  There's labor preparation through prenatal yoga and labor preparation through childbirth classes.  Some mothers-to-be talk, read and sing to their unborn baby in a specific way so as to communicate in utero.

With all the parenting methods used before the baby arrives and after the baby arrives, it's no surprise that a way to parent during the baby's arrival has emerged.  In comes the mother assisted Cesarean section.  Who knows what I'm talking about?  I know at least one of you does (because one of you emailed me about this topic, thanks again!).  A mother assisted c-section is when the mother pulls the baby out of her uterus all by herself.  Why leave the delivery to the doctors when you can get your own mitts in there?  And by "in there" I mean inside your abdominal cavity.

When I first heard about mother assisted c-sections, my mind immediately went to that episode of Keeping Up With the Kardashians when Kourtney Kardashian gave birth to Mason.  Kourtney K. didn't have a c-section, but she did pull Mason out of her own cookie (cookie = vagina).  If you have more respectable taste in television than I, watch this clip below to see it all unfold (the action is around minute 4):

I remember being slightly freaked out and slightly impressed when Kourtney grabbed Mason and literally yanked him out of her.  I also remember wondering whether it was planned or spontaneous.  I'd wager on the latter only because who could plan that and effectively execute it?  With a mother assisted c-section, there is a specific plan for the mother to yank her baby out.  Or so I've read (here).  In the context of being an active participant in your child's life, I sort of get it.  In the context of being an active participant in your own surgery, I'm not a huge fan...but maybe that's because I'm squeamish and not a doctor.

Thoughts?

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