For the Week Ending February 23, 2020.
Home visits in NYC
All first time parents in New York City can now get six home visits from social services or health care providers who will assess their mental health and set them up with the support they need. Read more here.
This is important for you because it indeed does take a village to raise a child. It’s great that New York is taking its role as that village seriously.
America prides itself on its diversity, and the experience of being pregnant here can vary enormously depending on a million factors: your age, your income, your state, and your race being just an obvious few. The Guardian wants to know what your experience has been like. Tell them here.
This is important for you because sharing your pregnancy story through this journalistic powerhouse may help others through their own journeys.
Heritable cravings?
The sense of taste is developed in the womb; the fetus can taste what mom is eating in the amniotic fluid, and of course nursing babies absorb the flavors in breast milk. But that doesn’t mean that preferences are biologically inherited. People may grow up to like what their mom ate simply because if their mom liked it, it was probably around the house a lot and they got served it frequently as kids. Read more here.
This is important for you because no matter how weird your craving, it may turn out to be something you bond with your child over!
Breast is best
Gestational diabetes can increase the chances of developing Type 2 diabetes later in life. A new analysis of data from the Nurses Health Study II, a long-term study of women’s health, suggests that breastfeeding may mitigate this risk. And the longer the women nursed, the more their risk was decreased. Read more here.
This is important for you because regardless of if you have gestational diabetes, breastfeeding is super healthy for you and your baby (if you can manage it).
The most popular article on The Pulse this week was Establishing a Good Bedtime Routine for Your Baby, the importance of which for your sanity and your baby’s long-term sleep habits cannot be overstated. Read it here.
