Parents
Getting through the first year: what nobody tells you
A collection of things that are true, are widely experienced, and are almost never said aloud.
Parents
Recovery, mental health, childcare and dividing the load.
Parents
Preparing for a second baby
The logistics are different, the older child needs preparing, and the second time is genuinely easier in some respects and harder in others.
Parents
Single parenting in the first year
The practical problem is that everything falls to one person, and the solutions are structural rather than motivational.
Parents
Looking after yourself in the first year
Parental wellbeing affects infant outcomes directly, which makes it a clinical consideration rather than an indulgence.
Parents
Money, benefits and the cost of a baby
A large share of the spending is avoidable, and a substantial share of the available support goes unclaimed.
Parents
Grandparents, advice and family pressure
Guidance has changed substantially in a generation, which is why the advice conflicts, and the conversation is mostly about authority.
Parents
Relationships after a baby
Relationship satisfaction declines for most couples after a first child, which is predictable and partly preventable.
Parents
Going back to work
The logistics, the feeding, the guilt and the negotiation are all separate problems, and most people prepare for only one.
Parents
Sleep deprivation and how to survive it
Chronic fragmented sleep has measurable effects on judgement, mood and safety, and there are things that genuinely help.
Parents
Dividing the work of a new baby
Household labour redistributes sharply after a first child, generally in one direction, and the arrangement made in the first months tends to persist.
Parents
Postnatal mental health
Postnatal depression is common, treatable and frequently missed, and several other conditions are missed more often still.
Parents
Recovery after birth, physically
The postnatal body needs weeks to months rather than the fortnight the discharge letter implies, and several symptoms are urgent.