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“Once you’re pregnant, you may have all kinds of questions about what you’re going to do about work. Are you going to continue work? Are you going to cut back? How are you and your partner going to negotiate? All of those challenges around childcare, around caring for the baby, being up with the baby at night, feeding the baby through the night, all of those things that create sleepless nights, all those things that create stress. Those are the kinds of conversations you would want to have preferably before you get pregnant. And definitely before you have the baby. So having a baby is teamwork, and it involves a lot of teamwork between both parents. So if you have a partner and that partner is participating in the care of the baby, make sure you have those conversations. How will you manage when the baby’s up at night, what will you do when the baby’s sick during the day, who’s going to stay home from work.
Who’s going to go into work all of the considerations around maintaining that relationship with your partner, but also the financial considerations about how are you going to continue to pay the bills, continue to draw an income when you have this other human being to look after. So these are not meant to be very stressful times, but they can be. And being prepared is the best medicine. You can have to make sure that you are set and that you know what you and your partner are going to do to have the best health of this baby and this family front of mind. Now, if you are a single parent that raises all kinds of issues around the stress of, do you stay home from work? Do you go to work? How do you find childcare? Who do you trust to take care of the baby too, while you’re going to work? And if you’re a single parent, it’s very likely that you’re going to work in order to be able to continue to pay those bills. And as a single parent, it’s very important that you consider before the baby’s born, how you’re going to deal with making those very, very important decisions for you, for your baby and for your family.”
