From being a couple to Parents!

I have had opportunities to watch birds becoming a pair  and later parents in our garden. In fact on two occasions, a Bulbul pair made nest in our rear veranda. On one occasions we watched the chicks leave the nest with its parents. 

During the recent years, there were occasions of conversations with parents while they shared their preparation process for becoming parents. I came across three patterns. 

Some parents do not plan and welcome pregnancy as it occurs and go through the child birth and infancy of the child without planning actively. 

A second group of parents take time to space having their children and so plan that it is synchronous with all the circumstances needed for the optimum wellness during pregnancy and early childhood. 

A third group of couples are those who go through a phase of considering  a Parenting Readiness Plan, which involves reading about parenting, listening to others about parenting readiness and conversing between themselves to think about the needs during pregnancy and the needs of the child  to be born. They have a conscious orientation and therefore some readiness to anticipate and go through situations from conception to child birth and thereafter for nurturing their child. Many details about pregnancy and early childhood are well known and therefore a plan for parenting readiness is possible for most families. 

A child arrives in a home. So the readiness of the home to welcome a baby and for his her her nurture is a dimension to attend to. 

The mother has a birthing experience to consider and become ready. Most mothers are likely to breast feed their baby for a year or so. A mother would experience changes in her body during pregnancy, lactation, and  while stopping to feed the baby with re-commencement of her monthly cycles. 

If both parents are working parents, then there is a work related adjustments to make. 

There are special experiences when a couple become parents for the first time. 

If they have already a child or more, then their needs and responses need to be understood, while preparing for the arrival of the next child. 

The Parenting Readiness Plan is therefore an essential component of the transition from being a couple to parents. 

I shall pick up these issues in this weekly notes I hope to make!

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)