Advice for First-Time Parents

Shauna Hicks, MD OB/GYN: So it's really normal to feel overwhelmed after delivery. You have this new baby at home that's keeping you awake all night long and you have all these new responsibilities that maybe you've never experienced before. Some things that you can do to help take care of yourself after delivery are to make sure you drink lots of fluid if you're breastfeeding. You're never gonna be thirstier than you've ever been in your whole life than when you're breastfeeding. Your body needs a lot of fluids to make that milk for your baby.

Vicki Cohen, CNM Certified Nurse-Midwife: I would say, when you're home with your newborn, the best piece of advice, and you'll hear this from everyone, I think, is sleep when your baby sleeps.

Kevin Overbeck, MD OB/GYN: When somebody offers help, take all the help you can get. As a father of twins, we did that and it made all the difference for our life in the first few weeks of parenting.

Shauna Hicks, MD OB/GYN: Engage your partner. Get help from him or her whenever you can. Engage your family. You have family that's probably very excited to meet this new grandbaby, and use your mom or your mother-in-law to help out with some extra laundry, or ask friends or family who wanna help to make some frozen meals for you that you can throw in the freezer and use later when you're just overwhelmed and exhausted a few weeks out.

Adam & Mandy, New Parents: Someone else told me something really smart, which I passed along, is to, you know, give an hour every, at least one hour, when you come home from work every evening, tell your wife to go do something, you know, and be there for, you know, your daughter. And even if it's go take a shower or go, you know, go, if you wanna just go in the kitchen and it's therapeutic to make dinner, do that, whatever it may be.

Shauna Hicks, MD OB/GYN: Another thing you can do is if you have an older child or children at home is that you can get some childcare for them to just get a little bit of extra help so that you can either focus on the baby or you can focus on yourself during that time and you don't have to worry about your older kids. And finally, it's important to try to get out of the house once in awhile. Even just something like going to the grocery store or going for a walk to the park is helpful to sort of reset your mind and get some fresh air and get you out of the house.