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At least 5 years, unless you plan to have your baby raised by daycare.
Yes, so harsh... after all, early education is KEY.
Daycare/preschool beginning at the age of 4-6 weeks (as seems the consensus with so many career moms these days) really gives a child a leg up. If they can't learn to drool properly by the age of 7 weeks, they'll never learn to socialize properly.
As you can tell, that "early education" carp just gets on my nerves!
So many women hand their 1 month old babies over to a person/institution they have spent less than 30 minutes with/in, leave them there for 9-10 hours a day, 5 days a week for 5+ years and then yank them out and throw them in a different school, with different before/after care and then WONDER why their children are suddenly having issues...
if you take your child away from it's PRIMARY CAREGIVER after 5 years, they are going to have problems. If you constantly change your child's daycare for 5 years, they will have problems bonding for life.
These things are the reasons so many mental disorders are being common... so many more kids are ADD or ADHD or depressed, etc now than they were 20/30/40+ years ago. Doctors do take these things into consideration, which is why most forms ask for a child's PRIMARY CAREGIVER vs parent's name. Most parents just put themselves down though, never realizing that their child actually spends more AWAKE hours (generally more than twice) with someone ELSE.
As to the OPs question... physically, it can take 18 months for your body to "bounce back". Some folks go back to work after a couple of days some never do.
#1- Seemed to take forever to recover. She was a regular vaginal birth with NO complications. My mental state was just totally weird though. I had PPD and was regularly suicidal.
#2- Despite having complications and a very near C-section, I recovered fairly well. I was up and around pretty regular in a week. No PPD this time and that seemed to make a HUGE difference.
Yeah, I think for me it took more time to recover mentally than physically.
I wish I'd taken more time to get my head on straight before I jumped back into work, even though my body was ready to go-go-go.
Of course neither one of my birth experiences was precisely typical, in that I didn't have to care for a baby immediately after either one.
My first child was relinquished for adoption at birth, and my second was premature, and so small that he needed to stay in an isolette in the infant ICU for several weeks before I was able to take him home.
This made it easier on me physically (since I didn't immediately have to take on full responsibility for caring for a baby), but more difficult mentally, since in both cases I wanted my baby, and he wasn't there.
Oh RECOVERY....I thought you said vacation!? Trust me, no woman is on VACATION after giving birth. Recovery, OTOH depends on the woman, the birth etc etc etc. Everyone is different.
That's what I was thinking;the vacation was the past. Its sleep deprivation now.The nights of the walking dead.
I had my one and only child at 40 - natural child birth - 24 hours of labor - went from 2cm to 9cm dilation in less than two hours when pitossin (sp) finally kicked in - went home 36 hrs later. Other than being exhausted and getting used to a new schedule - I did take 8 weeks leave from work and then slowly went back - working from home Mon & Fri and in the office T/W/T. Then eventually back full time.
As for c-sections - you can have natural birth even if you've had a c-section. The trends towards more c-sections is due to it being more convenient for folks. They can plan it, schedule it - I personally loved the excitement of the unknown. Hospitals/Dr's like to push them as well because they are more profitable (this is according to my midwife).
I had my one and only child at 40 - natural child birth - 24 hours of labor - went from 2cm to 9cm dilation in less than two hours when pitossin (sp) finally kicked in - went home 36 hrs later. Other than being exhausted and getting used to a new schedule - I did take 8 weeks leave from work and then slowly went back - working from home Mon & Fri and in the office T/W/T. Then eventually back full time.
As for c-sections - you can have natural birth even if you've had a c-section. The trends towards more c-sections is due to it being more convenient for folks. They can plan it, schedule it - I personally loved the excitement of the unknown. Hospitals/Dr's like to push them as well because they are more profitable (this is according to my midwife).
I like to think it has more to do with danger to the baby and/or mother, even if only because the doctor and hospital want to avoid being sued for malpractice.
With my first, I had mastitis twice and it took a good two months before I felt normal again. When I had mastitis the first time (about 11 days postpartum) I was very sick- all I did was feed the baby and sleep with him - I hardly had the energy to feed myself. I was worn out from that for weeks.
With my others, I felt better sooner.
I am a SAHM, and I am not sure when I would have felt like going back to work. With #1, at least 3 mos before I physically could handle getting up and working full-time, with the others sooner if I had to but definitely would not want to.
I had my one and only child at 40 - natural child birth - 24 hours of labor - went from 2cm to 9cm dilation in less than two hours when pitossin (sp) finally kicked in - went home 36 hrs later. Other than being exhausted and getting used to a new schedule - I did take 8 weeks leave from work and then slowly went back - working from home Mon & Fri and in the office T/W/T. Then eventually back full time.
As for c-sections - you can have natural birth even if you've had a c-section. The trends towards more c-sections is due to it being more convenient for folks. They can plan it, schedule it - I personally loved the excitement of the unknown. Hospitals/Dr's like to push them as well because they are more profitable (this is according to my midwife).
I had to have pitocin both deliveries. GOD I HATE THAT STUFF but it does work if you need it.
The only Women's Clinic in Muskogee, Oklahoma will not VBAC due to their insurance. It really is a bad thing but I guess THEIR costs are important also. Since they are the only game in town, they can make the rules. Yes there are other doctors that do deliveries...but they are not OB/GYN's. They are General Family Practices... not what I want catching my baby or sewing up my C-Section if I need one.
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