Review: The Essential Baby Care Guide
See what The National Childbirth Trust have to say about this must-have parenting companion
5 March 2013
Editor
A recent survey revealed that 8 out of 10 new parents felt they didn’t have the practical skills to care for their newborn.
On 11 October, Harry and I should have been at the launch of the Essential Baby Care Guide at the Mamas and Papas flagship store on Regents Street.
Unfortunately, a mini baby crisis meant that we not only missed the opportunity to grill a room full of experts on how to increase sleep and reduce tantrums but we also missed a wonderfully insightful talk on brain development by Professor Robert Winston (presenter of multi BAFTA winning documentaries and owner of an impressively bushy moustache). N.B. On the “wonderfully, insightful” I’m not just being gushy. I was able to get hold of a recording.
The Guide is the first offering from Dr Rebecca Chicot and Diana Hill, founders of The Essential Parent Company. It is broken up into four DVDs focusing on issues that new parents find most stressful during the first year of their baby’s life: Feeding, Care and Development, Sleep and First Aid. Each topic is presented by an expert, illustrated with lots of visual demonstrations and features clips of parents talking about the challenges they faced with their babies and how they overcame them.
Feeding
The Feeding DVD is broken down into three sections: breastfeeding, formula feeding and introducing solids. Personally, I found the breastfeeding section incredibly thorough. It is presented by a Midwife and Breastfeeding Educator and it covers everything from expressing to colic to mastitis.
The visual demonstrations mean that you get to see lots of different mums latching their babies on in different positions, as well as what the different kinds of milk look like and how to identify thrush. There are also clips of parents talking through the challenges they faced such as breastfeeding in public or ‘the baby blues’.
The sections on formula feeding and introducing solids are equally comprehensive and the overall feel of the DVD is that most of the issues that new parents face are common and, with support from family, friends and health workers, can be fixed.
Care & Development
The Care & Development DVD includes practical baby care advice on things like bathing, changing nappies, common ailments (such as coughs and colds, eczema and wind) and medical emergencies such as difficulty breathing and meningitis.
There are also great sections on soothing and reducing crying, baby massage and games you can play to help develop hand-eye coordination.
Sleep
The Sleep DVD starts by setting out the science of sleep and provides lots of advice on how to deal with common sleep problems. It also includes a really interesting sleep case study in which Mandy Gurney, the sleep expert, puts together a plan for a sleep-deprived mum.
First Aid and Accident Prevention
The final DVD on First Aid and Accident Prevention is presented by first aid trainers from St John’s Ambulance and Katrina Phillips, the Chief Executive of the Child Accident Prevention Trust. Personally, I think that all parents-to-be should think about some form of first aid training and if you can’t get to a course then this is a great alternative.
The DVDs are beautifully shot and packed full of information. I can definitely see a place for them alongside the other tools available to new (and old) parents. They can’t provide the quick reference of a book or the human contact and ongoing support network of a weekly pregnancy yoga or NCT course, but they do deliver a vast amount of useful information, full of practical demonstrations, and all from the comfort of your sofa.
Reviewed by the NCT- The National Childbirth Trust
