What does a baby actually need in the first year? Jeanne-Marie Paynel, Montessori guide and doula, starts with a simple answer: they need you, the way you are. In this LiveTalk she talks about planning for the weeks after the birth, what a good postpartum plan covers, and why the mother needs to be mothered too.
Jeanne-Marie walks through the four places a baby uses at home (somewhere to sleep, to feed, for care and to move), how to prepare a toddler for a new baby, including the candle story she borrows from Jane Nelsen, how to read your baby’s cues before the crying starts, why you cannot spoil a newborn by holding them, and why she prefers an open floor to exersaucers and other contraptions. In the Q&A she talks about an older sibling with a big age gap and about swaddling, and at the end about what to do when apps leave you second guessing yourself.
