Guest Speaker: Being the best grandparent ever with Sarah Johnson

Liz Miller

Guest Speaker: Being the best grandparent ever with Sarah Johnson
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Guest Speaker: Being the best grandparent ever with Sarah Johnson
Guest Speaker: Being the best grandparent ever with Sarah Johnson
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Becoming a new grandparent is an exciting time in anyone’s life. However, a lot has changed over the past 30 years and it’s a good idea for grandparents to brush up on how to best support their children as they take on the challenges of parenthood. That’s why Sarah Johnson created Grantenatal Workshops. These workshops are designed to help prepare expectant grandparents for their role and update them on new concepts and discoveries about babies and early parenting.

Sarah Johnson leads these Grantenatal workshops, which came out of her work as a holistic birthing consultant. Formerly an education correspondent and children’s book columnist for national newspapers, in the early 2000s she decided to devote her life to caring for mothers and their families in the perinatal period. She became a doula, birth educator, and holistic sleep consultant. She runs a monthly workshop for new grandparents and grandparents-to-be called the Grantenatal Workshop.

“All my old friends from university are gradually becoming grandparents too. That's when I realized how much the best practices around pregnancy, birthing, and feeding babies have changed since I had my kids.”

Sarah’s eldest child is now 31, but even when she was a new mother, a lot was already changing from one child to the next. With her first child, she was told children should sleep on their stomachs, but by baby two that was no longer considered healthy.

Sarah brings evidence-based ideas and insights to her workshops. Together, grandparents-to-be look at the most recent science and research on feeding, infant sleep, and birth choices.

“People who come to my workshops really want to be fantastic grandparents. They know there is stuff they don’t know. Yet, they have wisdom too. They have been parents that's irreplaceable. People who probably aren’t aware of these changes are the ones who most need to update their wisdom.”

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Help your children be the best parents

Few things are as stressful as having a child. The best way to  support new parents is to bring together the generations so that everyone has the same plan around pregnancy, birthing, and post-partum.

Many traditional societies have regarded the 1-2 months after birth as pretty much restrictive and the mother doesn’t do anything at all. In some parts of China, a new mother shouldn’t put her feet on the floor in these initial months. The new mom’s main job is bonding with the baby during that time. It shouldn’t be cooking, cleaning, and working. Grandparents have the power to enable that bonding. It’s more important that new moms hold their baby initially than that grandparents are holding the baby in those initial months. Don’t worry though, grandparents: you will have plenty of time to be with the grandkids as they grow older.

Plus lots of things that were bought in the past and used with babies are no longer recommended. Thus it’s important for grandparents to get on board and get up-to-date.

Changes to parenting in the last few decades

  • Understand Pregnancy Better -  People are much more knowledgeable about pregnancy than 30 years ago. Parents are told about the woman’s health and the baby’s health before the baby is even born. Managing this health is another factor that previous generations often didn’t deal with on the same level.
  • Home Birth - Research shows that planning to have your baby at home is as safe or safer than a hospital in many cases.
  • Breast Feeding - It is important to know why breastfeeding matters, that it provides essential vitamins, minerals, and other important assets to babies, and how to support women who are breastfeeding.
  • Infant Sleep - Babies should sleep on their backs to avoid Sudden Infant Death Syndrome
  • Sleep Cycles Will Change - A little baby is not biologically capable of sleeping 12 hours. It can be important to help assure parents are getting enough sleep too as they get up to attend to a baby’s needs throughout the night.
  • Baby’s Don’t Need Soap -Water alone is enough to wash newborns in. Using soap takes away important access to beneficial bacterias.
  • Mother’s Need Support - Women who just gave birth are in recovery. They need time to rest, heal, and bond with the baby. It can be a difficult time for them both physically and mentally; they need all the support they can get.

Learn more tips and tricks on how to be the best grandparent ever when Sarah comes to Guest Speak on GetSetUp Thursday, September 2nd. She will go over how to best support new mothers, explain what “bonding” really means and why it matters, and identify three “do’s” and three “don’t’s” for family members. Participants will have a chance to ask questions and get them answered live.

Join the event by signing up for Guest Speaker: Being the Best Grandparent Ever with Sarah Johnson

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Guest Speaker: Being the best grandparent ever with Sarah Johnson
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