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Your First Grandchild
How to Help
Without Becoming a Hindrance By Katherine Bontrager
Do Your ResearchDr. Ari Brown is a pediatrician in private practice and the co-author of Baby 411: Clear Answers and Smart Advice for Your Baby's First Year (Windsor Peak Press, 2003), and her favorite mantra is, "Babies haven't changed in the past 30 years, but what we have learned about them has."
Without Becoming a Hindrance
Dr. Brown says that some of the new technology may give grandparents pause: car seats, metabolic screening, cord blood banking and countless other revolutions in how we care for, and prevent harm to, our new little ones.
"One of the biggest changes: feeding! Breastfeeding and introduction of solid foods at 6 months are 'new' trends that grandparents do not relate to well," Dr. Brown says. "My advice for grandparents do some reading."
For the more difficult hands-on experiences, grandparents can now turn to their local hospitals, many of which now offer classes specifically tailored to alleviate fears of first-timers. The Atlantic Health System in New Jersey offers classes at Overlook Hospital, Morristown Memorial and Mountainside Hospital for parents and grandparents to ease the gap between the generations.
"We started the classes two years ago," says Amy Gole, the manager of all three parent-education departments at Atlantic Health System. "Over the years we would often hear from our students in both prenatal and postpartum classes that there was a need for their parents to 'hear the latest' on not only products, but accepted norms of pregnancy and infant care practices (i.e. weight gain during pregnancy, involvement of fathers in labor, positioning infants on their backs to sleep, the importance of breastfeeding, etc.)."
Gole says the classes rely on a variety of learning modules including lecture, group discussion, videos, hands-on teaching with lifelike dolls and a tour of the maternity center.
"The post program evaluations on these programs are some of the best we receive," Gole says. "Although this is a testament to the wonderful instructors, it also says something about the attendees: They are excited and engaged, grateful for any information and insight to help them as they transition into their new roles."
