Emotional Changes for Newly Expectant Mothers and Parents

We exist, courtesy of pregnancy. At some point, there was some biological activity involving two adults, male and female and the result was a life. I would not go into the scientific process of conception. This has been documented a lot.

• Pregnancy, whether planned or unplanned, comes with a lot of demands for the people involved. The parents to be have many physiological and psychological issues to grapple with. The mother to be may suddenly become irritable, crave for some unique foods, develop likes and dislikes for various things and people. During pregnancy it is important that we give women all the emotional support they need, after or it is not for ever. After delivery, her former self resumes.
• Men equally experience a lot of emotional drain when their spouses are expecting. They have to bear with the emotional and physical changes their spouses go through. All in all, they are supposed to provide comfort and understand their spouses’ change of behaviour. Most men get weighed down by this but still they have to be strong and walk their spouses to delivery.
• Child birth is one of the most dreaded stages in pregnancy. There is always uncertainty on whether the mother and the baby will be safe, whether the process would be natural, the sex of the baby and the excruciating intermittent pains not-withstanding. However, with the technological advancements, it has nowadays become very easy to tell the health status and the sex of the foetus. This gives the expecting parents easier time with regards to birth plan. Nevertheless, even with the improved technology, there have been cases of mothers and/or babies dying immediately after birth. These deaths have mainly been attributed to negligence by the medical officers. All in all, it is everybody’s wish that no mother should die when giving birth. At the same time, no baby should die when being given birth to.
• Immediately after birth parenting starts. Studies have shown that this is the most difficult phase of life. Babies totally depend on the parents for everything. The parents at some points have to engage the services of care givers to assist, especially if both parents are working outside home. Some unlucky parents have had their babies go through horrendous experiences in the hands of these care givers. There have been cases of these babies being starved, caused bodily harm, being stolen, among many evils. This has resulted in a new crop of baby care services, known as day care. Most working mothers would be seen with their babies leave their residences every morning. These young ones are usually left at some nursery schools, located in urban areas. These nursery schools have established what we call day care wings. These centres then take care of the babies until they are picked by their mothers in the evening after work. This method would be very convenient if at all the resources at such facilities could be satisfactory. However, some of these facilities are dilapidated, lack adequate care givers etc and thus pauses the young ones to a lot of danger. It has also been observed that at such centres, communicable diseases spread at a very high rate, putting every child at a high risk of getting infected. However, the day care centres are still a better option. They are fairly cheap and the mother is relieved off the expenses of employing a home care giver.
• As time goes by, these babies grow older, they soon join primary schools, secondary schools and eventually colleges and universities. During all these stages, parents still play major roles in the lives of their children. The roles would be different at every stage. They meet all their financial, material, emotional and also guide them in their spiritual needs. It is always every parent’s wish that his/her child becomes the best and therefore no parent would hold back anything that may make his/her child successful.
• The children soon become adults and move out of their parents’ homes. Some move out when they are getting married while others do so because they have got jobs or have stable businesses and therefore are able to take care of themselves. Whichever way, parents never relinquish their parenting roles. They would always want to know how their children are doing. Always sending them gifts, encouraging them to visit and generally being concerned about their welfare.
• There is a new form of parenting that is cropping up in third world countries. This is where parents turn to rearing their children’s children ie their grandchildren. This could happen as a result of a natural catastrophe like death or where the grandparents feel that their children are not well endowed materially to bring up their children comfortably. These modern day parents have done a good job. However, out of this, some children choose to become irresponsible, therefore leaving their aging parents to shoulder all the responsibilities of bringing up the grandchildren. It also denies the children the opportunity of being brought up by their biological parents as would be the most natural way. In some cases, these grandparents are too old to discipline these grandchildren. A number of these children therefore turn out to be social misfits. Some of them choose to run away from home to become street children, drop out of school, and engage in social evils.

In conclusion, I would say that good parenting is every child’s right. There are those children who are not fortunate to be brought up by their biological parents, but somehow, they are attached to an adult, who can be a relative or a Good Samaritan. It is important that these guardians play the roles that the biological parents could have played in the lives of such children. Those children should also learn to appreciate the efforts such a guardians make to improve their lives. Where one feels that he/she is not in a position to love someone else’s child, the most noble thing to do is to never get involved in taking care of that child as love is intrinsic in such a relationship.