Sarah McKay is a recent graduate of the Certified HUG Teacher training. Sarah works as a doula near Nashville, TN where she is eager to share her new HUG skills and knowledge with new moms and dads! She describes a recent home visit with a brand new mom and her baby.
"I arrived at Traci's house for a postpartum visit after the birth of her daughter two weeks prior. The birth had been a beautiful drug-free birth, and when I had left her just 2 hours after the birth, her daughter was already breastfeeding like a champ.
At this postpartum visit we talked about how she and her baby were doing. Her biggest concern was that, "My baby is not sleeping well". As we talked, I watched the little one start to squirm. Traci explained, “I just nursed her and laid her down 30 minutes ago. Look at her squirm and wiggle. Sometimes her eyes flash open, and she even makes some sounds.”
Traci's remarks were no surprise to me. I convinced this new mom to sit and watch her baby a moment. And as she and I continued to talk, Molly transitioned from the "active sleep" back into her "deep sleep" state I had learned about in my HUG training. Traci looked amazed. This was the perfect opportunity to explain to this new mom the different sleep states, and also about the three Newborn Zone, "The Resting, Ready, and Rebooting Zone". Sharing the HUG information gave this new mom and baby just what they needed – more than 30 minutes of uninterrupted rest!"
© HUG Your Baby 2010