The prenatal books and articles emphasized “prioritizing my peace” by setting boundaries with family and friends who may have stressful opinions about my pregnancy and how I was going to raise my child. “Avoid unsolicited advice and comments! Stress is bad for you and the baby!” I took this advice so seriously that toward the end of pregnancy I began to isolate. My husband and I even sent an email to our family detailing how no one could visit for the first two months of our baby’s life, and how no one other than my husband would be welcomed at the hospital during delivery.
This one’s short and sweet with an increasingly current, relevant message about mental health and community, one that applies to everyone.
What do you folks think of hospital policies that only allow family members to visit?
Is there any substance to advice about isolating during a pregnancy or in the first few months after giving birth?
What’s the best/worst advice you’ve seen from a reputable source about pregnancy?
Having a kid is hard. Like super hard - the warnings do not adequately prepare you. I think you should do whatever allows you and the baby to make it to the next day, week, month. For me, I took all the help I could get as soon as possible. I had people over the day we came home from the hospital (they brought us food). 🤷
I had my baby in 2022. They were just letting up on Covid restrictions. My appointments during my pregnancy my husband wasn’t allowed to attend so I was alone. He was allowed at the hospital, but we still didn’t have any family.
Our situation was a little bit different because we live far from family so I wasn’t expecting anyone anyway. What hurt was that months in advance we told everyone that we were requesting all visitors to be up to date on vaccines, including Covid. My family waited until I was 2 days postpartum to tell me they weren’t getting any vaccines, even the tdap. Nobody in my immediate family met her for 7 months.
I think every individual person is different. I liked just having my husband and my child for the first several weeks before we had visitors. But that’s not what’s best for everyone. It’s definitely challenging at times living far away from family but we’ve lived away for over a decade at this point.
As for the hospital I think it’s okay to have a policy limiting the number of visitors at a time and the number in the birthing room but the parents should get to decide who.
