A teen parent is likely to need help during her baby's first weeks - when she and her baby aren't even in school. Here, in compact, inexpensive, attractive, and reader-friendly format is the information she/they need during this special period of bonding with baby.
Many of you tell us you can't send textbooks home with students as freely as you'd like - if the books vanish, there goes your budget. So we've developed a far less expensive (25+ copies/$4 each) book focusing on what a young parent needs/wants to know during that special - and sometimes frustrating - postpartum homestay.
Content
Contents:
- Coming Home with Your Baby
- Feeding and Loving Your Newborn
- Observing Your Wonderful Newborn
- Baby's Goal- To Be Comfortable
- Guarding Your Infant's Health and Safety
- Dad's a Parent Too
- Focus on Mom and Extended Family
- Baby and Parents-Changing Rapidly
More Information
The first month after birth can be tough for a baby — and perhaps even tougher for her parents. This tiny creature from inner space has arrived. She cries, she screams. She seems hungry but refuses to nurse (latch-on, in breastfeeding jargon). Are those mustard-colored stools diarrhea? Why does she snort and make other weird noises in her sleep? And the next instant — is she breathing?
For many new parents, there’s a lot of mystery in this tiny baby. Because they can’t figure out immediately what she needs, they panic. Baby senses their panic and cries harder. Everybody needs help!
Yet this is the time most school-age parents are not in school. If they were, their teacher could provide support, encouragement, and the advice they want and need. Even if a young mom misses class for only two or three weeks, she needs her parenting education to continue during this crucial period.
Nurturing Your Newborn: Young Parents’ Guide to Baby’s First Month by Jeanne Warren Lindsay and Jean Brunelli, PHN, is especially for teen parents facing that first month after delivery. It’s written directly to the parents, expressing empathy for their tiredness, possible frustrations, and great love for their infant. A slim book (96 pages), it can be read quickly in the hospital, then used as a friendly, information-packed guide through the postpartum period. Emphasis is on both the needs of the newborn and of the young parents. The mother’s care during this all-important "fourth trimester" is discussed. The importance of Dad’s involvement with the baby is stressed — whether or not the young parents are still together.
Comfort is of primary importance to a newborn — and a big part of that comfort is being fed often and with love. A strong bias for breastfeeding instead of bottles is expressed. More important, clear guidelines are provided on breastfeeding successfully — how to start, the importance of baby latching on properly, the need to feed baby whenever he’s hungry even if this means a dozen or more times a day during those first weeks. How to avoid getting sore nipples, treatment if soreness does occur, and, of course, a description of the tremendous benefits to baby and mom of breastfeeding are included.
A detailed description of newborns answers those "Is this normal?" questions. The impossibility of "spoiling" a newborn is stressed. Techniques for keeping baby healthy are discussed.
The authors stick mostly to first-month care. When they write about health care, however, they provide a brief list of immunizations baby will need by two months, and suggest the parents schedule those immunizations soon. Other newborn health issues are discussed, such as jaundice, thrush, colic, diaper rash, colds, and fever, together with suggested treatment. Many very young parents still live with baby’s grandparents. How does one handle being somebody’s mother and at the same time, someone’s child? Suggestions are included to help three-generation-living get a good start that first month.
The last chapter, "What’s ahead?" encourages young parents to continue their education and workforce preparation. Reasons and techniques for planning the next baby are offered.
Frequent comments from and photos of very young parents of newborns add an important support-group feeling to the book. The comments validate the feelings of new parents and add a sense of homespun wisdom to the author’s well-researched guidance.
Nurturing Your Newborn was adapted from relevant chapters in Your Pregnancy and Newborn Journey and Your Baby’s First Year, although Nurturing Your Newborn contains additional information and new quotes about parenting during the postpartum period.
Author & Illustrator
Jeanne Warren Lindsay Jeanne Warren Lindsay Jeanne Warren Lindsay is the author or co-author of sixteen books for and about pregnant and parenting teens. Half a million copies of her books have been sold. Lindsay's books deal with teenage pregnancy, parenting, adoption from the birthfamily's perspective, and teen relationships. Her Teen Dads: Rights, Responsibilities and Joys was selected by the American Library Association as a Recommended Book for Reluctant Young Adult Readers. Her other books include Nurturing You Newborn; Your Pregnancy and Newborn Journey; Your Baby's First Year; The Challenge of Toddlers; Discipline from Birth to Three; Books, Babies, and School-age Parents; Do I Have a Daddy?; School-Age Parents: The Challenge of Three-Generation Living; Pregnant? Adoption Is an Option; Parents, Pregnant Teens, and the Adoption Option; Teenage Couples: Caring, Commitment and Change; Teenage Couples: Coping with Reality; Teenage Couples: Expectations and Reality; Five Teens Parenting Comprehensive Curriculum Notebooks; and Teenage Couples Curriculum Guide. Lindsay has worked with hundreds of pregnant and parenting teenagers. She developed the Teen Parent Program at Tracy High School, Cerritos, California, and coordinated the program for many years. Most of her books are written for pregnant and parenting teens, and quotes from interviewees are frequently used to illustrate concepts. Lindsay grew up on a farm in Kansas. She has lived in the same house in Buena Park, California, for 36 years. She loves to visit the Middle West, but says she's now addicted to life in southern California. She and her husband, Bob, have five children and seven grandchildren. Lindsay is the editor of PPT Express, a quarterly newsletter for teachers and others working with pregnant and parenting teens. She speaks frequently at conferences across the country, but says she is happiest while interviewing young people for her books or writing under the big avocado tree in her backyard. You can reach Jeanne Lindsay by email. Jean Brunelli, PHN Jean Brunelli, PHN, has worked with hundreds of pregnant teenagers. For fifteen years she taught prenatal health and parenting in the Teen Mother Program, ABC Unified School District, Cerritos, California. She worked with pregnant teens as nurse for the school's child care center. Brunelli was also the director of the Handicapped Infant Program at the same school until her retirement in 1999. Brunelli is co-author of Your Pregnancy and Newborn Journey. Total sales, including the Spanish edition, have reached over 60,000. She is also the co-author of the new (1999) Nurturing Your Newborn: Young Parents' Guide to Baby's First Month. Brunelli is a graduate of Mt. St. Mary's College, Los Angeles. She and Mike have two grown children and two grandchildren. David Crawford illustrator, Teen Dads and other Teens Parenting Books; also Teenage Couples Series: David Crawford, M.A., has been a teacher, counselor, program administrator, and photographer of family life for 30 years. He has worked with thousands of pregnant and parenting teens as the director of the Program for Pregnant and Parenting Students, William Daylor High School, Elk Grove Unified School District, Sacramento, California. David uses photography as a teaching aid, blending the art of photography with education and enhancement of students' self-esteem. He is a leader in the field of digital photography as part of the Digital High School Program. David and his wife, Peggy, have two sons, Alton and christopher, both 31, and a daughter, Terrica, 23, who has given David and Peggy a granddaughter. Teaching Help
Nurturing Your Newborn offers an independent study approach to the important task of learning about a newborn. The Teachers Guide of Nurturing Your Newborn includes a description of a possible course based on the book and the lab work the student does with her own child. Remember shes learning a lot more the first month at home with her baby than she could learn in a full semester of working in a childcare center. The workbook focuses on the readers own infant. Questions, writing assignments, and projects are designed to encourage interaction and bonding between parent and baby. Because of the low price (25+ copies, $4 each), youll want to see that each student has a copy when she delivers.
A teacher suggested the workbook approach requires too much writing for new mothers. The workbook assignments should be flexible, depending on the need of the individual parent and the credit requirements of the school program, with the parents needs taking first priority. One student may complete all assignments and even need additional enrichment activities. Another new mom could be so overwhelmed with baby care that she might have very little time for "book work." You, the teacher, choose how much she must do to earn credit during this time. We provide options.
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