You just brought home a new baby. Are you really ready for visitors?
"It's just such an intense time," says licensed midwife K. Michelle Doyle, owner of Local Care Midwifery in Troy. She has written a chapter on this topic in the book Nobody Told Me About That: The First Six Weeks, compiled by midwife Ginger Breedlove.
The first six weeks are a time when parents are getting to know their new baby and adjusting to the major lifesyle change that comes with it, Doyle says. But they also may have to learn to balance that with an influx family and friends eager to see the baby and help out.
"It's really important that a client I'm working with is really honest in assessing for herself what her needs for support are in those first couple weeks," Doyle says, "But also her needs for privacy."
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