Something else that conspires against new parents finding out the facts about babies and sleep before they find themselves in the sleep-deprivation trenches is the fact they have a hard time focusing on anything beyond childbirth until they get past that particular hurdle.
In her book, Talking with Mothers, Dana Breen talks about how expectant mothers tend to apply “the hurdle model” to preparing for childbirth.
They focus so much energy on trying to prepare for what they perceive to be the marathon of mother- hood—giving birth—that they tend to momentarily overlook the fact that they’re actually going to need to know what to do with the baby after the birth.
“All of the books I read before I gave birth were about pregnancy,” says Michelle, 31, who gave birth to her first child nine months ago.
“In retrospect, I should have been reading about sleep habits and other aspects of baby care before he was born.” And even those parents who do manage to hit the baby books prior to giving birth tend to gravitate toward subjects other than sleep.
“We never had a game plan for encouraging healthy sleep patterns for our baby, even though we were conscientious about everything else, like safety and nutrition—even the toys she played with and the books we read to her,” recalls Sarah, the 32-year-old mother of 13-month-old Lilith. “I guess we thought sleep was something that would happen naturally.”
In her book, Talking with Mothers, Dana Breen talks about how expectant mothers tend to apply “the hurdle model” to preparing for childbirth.
They focus so much energy on trying to prepare for what they perceive to be the marathon of mother- hood—giving birth—that they tend to momentarily overlook the fact that they’re actually going to need to know what to do with the baby after the birth.
“All of the books I read before I gave birth were about pregnancy,” says Michelle, 31, who gave birth to her first child nine months ago.
“In retrospect, I should have been reading about sleep habits and other aspects of baby care before he was born.” And even those parents who do manage to hit the baby books prior to giving birth tend to gravitate toward subjects other than sleep.
“We never had a game plan for encouraging healthy sleep patterns for our baby, even though we were conscientious about everything else, like safety and nutrition—even the toys she played with and the books we read to her,” recalls Sarah, the 32-year-old mother of 13-month-old Lilith. “I guess we thought sleep was something that would happen naturally.”
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