Baby Development Facts

There are so many fascinating things related to baby development and pregnancy, I thought I'd post a couple of the things I'm learning here.

• Breast fed babies have a lower rate of childhood obesity. The theory is that they have to work for the milk where a bottle fed baby essentially gets milk poured in.

• At 29 weeks (where we are) the vocal cords are completely developed, but the baby can't make any noise in the womb because he's breathing in the amniotic fluid (getting those muscles ready for air!).

More after the jump...

• You shouldn't mix bottle feeding, pacifiers and breast feeding for the first 4 weeks or so because the baby will get confused and usually will stop breast feeding.
• Theory on that is that the bottle feeding and pacifiers are different types of sucking and especially the bottle is so much easier it can make the baby a 'lazy' breast feeder.
• A Doula is a woman who provides non-medical support during the prenatal, labor and postnatal periods. One of the biggest benefits to a first time mother is that she understands the normal flow of labor and can help couples stay at home longer. The longer you stay at home, the less likely it is to receive unnecessary medical intervention.
• The average first time labor is 30 hours.
• Full term for a single baby is considered 37 weeks though the goal is 40 weeks and labor is usually induced after 42 weeks. We will be 30 weeks on Easter, April 24.
• Twins and other multiples develop faster than a single baby and are usually considered full term earlier. Their bodies just know they have less time so step it up!
• Breast feeding is actually a two way street and the baby's saliva tells the mom's body what germs the baby has and she makes antibodies in her milk for the next time the baby feeds. As a result, breast fed babies get sick less often.