Are you ready emotionally?

Being a parent is a full-time job. Before you get pregnant, think about the emotional and lifestyle issues you will face as a parent. It’s important for you and your partner to agree on most of the major issues, or begin discussing your differences, before you conceive. Only you can decide if you're emotionally ready for a baby.

Ask yourself these 10 questions:

  1. Why do you want to have a baby? Do you want to have a baby or is your partner, parent or someone pressuring you? 
  2. How will a child affect your relationship with your partner? Are you both ready to become parents?
  3. If you’re not in a relationship, are you prepared to raise a child alone? Who will help you?
  4. How will a baby affect your education or career plans?
  5. Do you and your partner have religious or ethnic differences? Have you discussed how you'll handle these differences and how they might affect your child?
  6. What will you do for child care?
  7. Are you prepared to parent a child who is sick or has special needs?
  8. Are you ready for your free time to become limited? Are you ready to give up sleeping late on weekends? Or find child care when you want to go out without your baby?
  9. Do you enjoy spending time with children? Can you see yourself as a parent?
  10. What did you like about your childhood? What didn’t you like? What do you want for your child?

Courtesy of the March of Dimes

 
 

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Encouragement + An Assist = Success

Nine days past her due date, Sara Howe was awakened at 3:00AM when her water broke. Thrilled that the long wait was finally over, Sara and her husband David packed up and headed to PeaceHealth Southwest Medical Center. By 5:00AM they were comfortably settled into one of PeaceHealth Southwest’s Labor Delivery Recovery and Postpartum rooms, ready for action. But four hours later, Sara contractions had still not progressed so her midwife started her on Pitocin. Soon the contractions kicked in and Sara was well on her way.

At around eight o’clock the next morning, it was time for Sara to start pushing. So she pushed. And she pushed, and she pushed, and she pushed. "The first few hours of pushing went by without me realizing the time," remarked Sara. "But around the fourth hour I started to wonder if I was still making progress. That is when the encouragement of my midwife, husband and the PeaceHealth Southwest nursing staff kept me going. It was like I had my own cheering section."

Unfortunately, even with all the support and encouragement, Sara’s labor was not progressing because her baby’s head was tilted in the birth canal. Neither Sara or her midwife wanted her to have a Cesarean section after all that work, so her midwife suggested an assisted delivery. Read more >

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