Frequently asked questions: New Mother's Journal

Q:  Why write things down all the time?

Knowledge is power. Knowledge is confidence. By recording what your unique baby is saying to you through his/her actions, sleep patterns, feeding and crying, you can start to gather information, which may start to tell you something about your baby. 

Armed with ‘black and white’ logical notes from listening to your baby, plus advice from books, the Internet, health practitioners and people whose opinion you choose to consider, what is captured in your New Mother’s Journal may actually help you make informed decisions about the mother you want to be to your child.

Q:  Isn’t this tool a bit ‘clinical’ and ‘business-like’?  Shouldn’t the first few weeks with my baby be as ‘natural’ as possible?

You won’t (or shouldn’t) be carrying your New Mother’s Journal and a pen in your hands all the time, instead of baby!  Nor will you be walking around recording every movement, thought and event. 

The New Mother’s Journal is a tool. We have designed it to compliment the affectionate partnership that begins between mother and baby. You utilise this tool to record things as soon as possible after they come to mind or your attention. It’s a place to write details down so you don’t forget them.

Remember, you’ll probably be exhausted from baby’s delivery (whatever your experience) and sleep deprived as baby begins his/her first few days of life with round the clock feeds. But the very thing about having your first baby is that it brings an entire load of new information – data if you like – about nappy changes, feeds, sleeps, visitors, medical appointments, maintaining your own health. 

How much of it will you remember when you’ve had two hours sleep, a few phone calls and some visitors?

Q: Are the feeding schedule pages for breast or bottle feeding?

The New Mother’s Journal allows for either forms of newborn feeding:  breast feeding and/or bottle feeding. 

Q: Does the Journal try to encourage my baby into a structured ‘routine’?

That is up to you and your parenting style. The New Mother's Journal is all about instinct and the individuality of each newborn and his/her parents. It is designed to assist and support whatever parenting style is desired – whether you like to follow a routine or choose to be spontaneous (respond as baby communicates his/her needs). 

This Journal in no way advocates one parenting style over another. For support and advice on parenting speak to your health professional or midwife. It is a good idea to also consult parenting and baby references readily available in the form of books, leaflets and the Internet, among other sources.

Q: How would recording my baby’s feed, nappy and sleep times help me?

The Baby Well-being section of the New Mother’s Journal provides space to record newborn’s behaviour such as feeding, sleep and nappy changes, play and stimulation, and health observations. 

Babies cry for a reason. Baby may even have different cries depending on what he/she wants. Hunger, discomfort, fatigue are distinct from one another and newborns typically have just one way of getting your attention: “Waaaaa…”!

Even if this baby is not your first child, your newborn will almost certainly communicate with you differently from other babies. Reading your notations about what soothed baby previously when he/she was crying (communicating with you) may assist your response to him/her.  Get to know your baby faster, respond promptly and with confidence.  You may begin to interpret what baby needs from you next a lot faster than if you relied on memory alone.

Q:  Can I trust that your organiser is helpful? 

There is no exact recipe for successful parenting because what works for one baby and his/her parents won’t necessarily be right for another family.  

The New Mother’s Journal is inspired by actual child birth experiences of two mothers. Our development phase involved testing by mothers with newborn babies, including a mother whose prematurely born baby was hospitalised for the first five weeks of life. All testing scenarios resulted in praise for the New Mother’s Journal.

Group and one-on-one consultation was also held with first-time mothers, mothers of multiple children, grandmothers, fathers, midwives and nurses specialising in post natal care at Belmont Private Hospital, Brisbane Centre for Post Natal Disorders.

Learnings from collective interviews, focus groups and testing experiences were incorporated within the New Mother’s Journal prior to publication.

Q: Can I use New Mother’s Journal if my premature or unwell baby remains in hospital?

Absolutely! Parents of prematurely born babies have used and loved our Journal*. One particular mother, whose baby remained in hospital five (5) weeks after early arrival, raved about the journal making life easier for her:

“…all the information I needed was at my fingertips. It really helped me to be organised at a time when I felt anything but. It…helped to take the guesswork and the worry out of our day and nights. I was able to plan ahead…The journal is practical, multipurpose and really made things easier for me in those first few sleep deprived months!” 
(ME Rodda, Wavell Heights, Australia)

There are so many tools in this one organiser, you will find plenty of ways to continue being organised post-delivery, even if baby cannot be home with you immediately. Inclusions such as checklists, borrowed/loaned items, website subscriptions, gift register and three convenient contacts categories will all remain invaluable at this frenetic time. 

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