Amanda Wilde (Host):
Being a new parent comes with lots of questions, expectations, and adjustments.
So today we'll focus on five things every new mother should know. This is Your
Best Life Podcast, Women's Health from Holy Cross Health. I'm Amanda Wilde. My
guest is Dr. Trashawn Thornton-Davis, a Kaiser Permanente physician
specializing in Obstetrics and Gynecology who sees patients and delivers babies
at Holy Cross Health. Dr. Thornton-Davis, thank you so much for being here and
sharing your insights.

Trashawn Thornton-Davis, MD: Thank you so much for
having me. Excited to do so.

Host: Let's start with bonding. As a new mother, can you
suggest ways to bond with your baby?

Trashawn Thornton-Davis, MD: Sure, yes. Bonding is so
very important. And when we think of bonding, bonding often begins with skin to
skin contact. So you want to make sure that you talk to your baby and you want
to talk to your baby as often as you can, using a soothing, reassuring tone.
You want to touch your baby's skin. Look into your baby's eyes and definitely
respond and soothe them when they cry.

So these types of physical contact can help your bond grow with
your baby. We also know that breastfeeding can help to increase the bond that
you have with your baby, but of course, if you're unable to breastfeed or can't
breastfeed, you can definitely allow baby to sit at the breast, as another form
of bonding. Swaddling your baby or carrying your baby, keeping your baby close
can also encourage bonding and in all, if you're having trouble bonding with
your baby, you might want to talk to your OBGYN. That's why we're here. The
first few weeks after a delivery, a lot of women can feel down, or we call that
baby blues.

A little depression, can creep in. So if you have problems or
you feel like bonding is not really happening in the way that you want it to,
don't hesitate to reach out to your OBGYN or even your pediatrician.

Host: So baby is adjusting from transitioning from womb
to physical world, but you're talking about voice and interactions. Does your
baby sort of know you because your baby has heard your voice while in the womb?

Trashawn Thornton-Davis, MD: Absolutely. Your baby
communicates. Well we all know the best way that babies communicate is through
crying, right? So crying is sort of the baby's language. And, crying serves
many useful purposes. They let the baby tell us when they need help, when
they're hungry or when they might be uncomfortable.

Crying also can help babies to release tension and extra
energy. Most newborns will cry for food when they wake up. And as they grow,
the cries become more varied and you'll be able to learn your baby as the baby
grows, and you'll know what this cry means or what that cry means. So crying is
one way that babies communicate until they develop language.

Host: Well, speaking of crying, sometimes crying can
really be unnerving for a new parent. What are some newborn conditions that
really shouldn't cause alarm?

Trashawn Thornton-Davis, MD: So there are several
newborn conditions that really shouldn't cause alarm for new moms and new
parents in general. And excessive crying is one of those. So some babies cry,
and that's the way that they communicate. So if you've made sure that your baby
is fed and you've made sure that you've burped your baby, you've made sure your
baby is warm and has a clean diaper, you just want to hold your baby.

Rock them until they calm down. Try wrapping them, swaddling
them and singing to them, or just soothing them. So excessive crying shouldn't
really be of an alarming thing, unless the cry is a piercing shrieking cry,
like there's something happening, then in that instance, you might want to
check out and see if there's something else going on.

Other things that new parents may experience is cradle cap. So
cradle cap is just crusting white, yellow scales that can form in your baby's
head. It almost looks like baby dandruff. And this is a result of excessive oil
production by the skin glands that are in the follicles of the head. So this
will usually clear up on its own.

No need to take any drastic measures, it will go away, even
though it's a bit unsightly when you see it for the first time. Some other
things that you might see are if you had an instrumented delivery. So if you
had like a forceps delivery or if you had a vacuum delivery, you might notice
that the baby has red marks or some bruising.

And that's actually something that will go away. It usually can
take a month or two. But it's just some minor tissue disruption and it'll
usually go away on its own. And then another thing that I can think of is
jaundice. Jaundice, many newborns will have slightly yellow tinge to their
skin, and in most instances, jaundice is harmless. It's the buildup of
bilirubin in the blood. But of course, take your baby into the pediatrician to
be evaluated, but once your pediatrician has cleared the baby, most cases of
jaundice will go away in time and most mild jaundice is harmless.

Host: Well, on the flip side of that question, what not
to worry too much about, how do you know when to call the doctor or when baby
needs to be seen or even taken to emergency?

Trashawn Thornton-Davis, MD: Yeah, so there are some
instances that you want to be on alert about with regards to when exactly to
take the baby in. So some things are like vomiting and diarrhea. Now vomiting
and diarrhea, usually these symptoms are indicative of a viral infection. So on
their own, they're really nothing to worry about, but when they're really
intense, they can be a problem.

And the thing that you're concerned about with vomiting and
diarrhea in the baby, is dehydration, right? So if your baby is having fewer
wet diapers, like usually fewer than six wet diapers a day, if the urine's very
dark, if you think your baby's kind of cranky or the eyes are sunken, then you
want to take your baby in to be seen by their pediatrician just to make sure
that there's nothing that needs to happen. They don't need to be hydrated. So
that's something that you want to look for. Other things that you would want to
call your doctor immediately for is if your baby has blood in their stool or in
their vomit. So, any blood that you see, you want to make sure that there's not
something more severe that's happening there.

If your baby is having problems breathing, of course,
immediately take your baby in. That's not something that we want to wait for.
If your baby has a seizure, you want to take your baby in to be seen. If your
baby is just limp, or the overall tone is lethargic and limp, you want to take
your baby to be seen.

 Other things to think of
is if your baby has a temperature and usually temperature, we are wondering
what is a temperature? If your baby has a fever, fever that's a 100.4 or
higher, you want to take your baby in to see the pediatrician. If your baby has
a rash. Rashes can be benign, but rashes can also be indicative of other
things, especially if it's accompanied with a fever. So you want to take your
baby in for something like that. And if your baby isn't eating or refusing to
eat; you want to have your baby checked out. Those are just a couple things to
think about when to bring your baby in.

Host: As a new mom, I might be myself needing some
medical attention. What are some signs that moms need to call their doctor when
they're dealing with being a new parent?

Trashawn Thornton-Davis, MD: It is very common. Most
women will probably have some form of baby blues after delivering a baby, and
this is totally normal because not only are we sleep deprived following
delivery, but you're also having or experiencing a huge life transition. You're
going from maybe having no kids to having a kid or having one kid to having two
kids. And that's a big life transition. The key thing to know though, is that
that's something that typically will go away in a couple weeks. If your
symptoms are lasting longer than six weeks, if you just can't get out of bed,
if you don't feel like doing things that you might normally want to do and you
don't feel like you're turning the corner, then in that instance, you
definitely want to seek help and see someone. Because postpartum depression is
usually those baby blue symptoms that are kind of exacerbated and last longer
than about six weeks postpartum.

 So if you're not able to
eat or don't feel like you want to eat or drink, you don't really like things
that you used to like or you don't want to do anything, you don't want to be
involved. You overall feel kind of sad or down and out, definitely talk to your
OBGYN because we have resources and things that we can do to kind of help you
in that stage. And in most instances, this will pass. But don't be afraid to
ask for help if you need it.

Host: And related to that, what are other reputable
resources to turn to online, both for baby and for moms, outside of the doctor?

Trashawn Thornton-Davis, MD: Yeah, so outside of the
pediatrician, there are some really great reputable resources that you can turn
to online and Healthychildren.org is a website from the American Academy of
Pediatrics, and it has lots of great information on prenatal care and tips for
caring for babies, toddlers, and children at each stage of their life. So
that's a really great online resource. I personally like the support groups and
talking to other mothers, but if you have a question you'll hear some things
that may or may not be accurate, go to a site like healthy children or, you
know, of course speak to your pediatrician or your OBGYN if you have further
questions.

Host: And one last question related to health is safety.
Do you have any tips on how to keep baby safe? I know baby proofing is
something, but you have to know what that is, and how to do it. And I wonder if
you have other tips as well.

Trashawn Thornton-Davis, MD: Oh, absolutely. So baby
proofing since you said that first, baby proofing your house can consist of
installing gates by staircases. So if you have a stairwell, you want to make
sure you have gates there so baby doesn't fall down the steps accidentally. You
want to make sure that you secure any outlets or cords that you may have around
the house and stow away any hazardous cleaning materials or chemicals that you
may have. You can even take items that aren't considered safe and find a
designated room in your home and lock them away so baby can't get to them. If
you had really nice furniture before you had children, you want to make sure
that that furniture doesn't have any pointed or sharp edges.

And if it does, you might want to baby proof that a bit and or
move those things out of the room that a baby would be playing in. So that's
some of the things you could do to kind of baby proof your house. Other ways to
keep your baby safe, is making sure that your car seat is properly installed.

You want to definitely make sure you follow the directions that
came with the car seat and lots of the baby stores, will check your car seats
to make sure you've installed them properly. But, an infant car seat should be
rear facing. And you want to make sure it's installed at a correct angle so
your baby's head's not slumping down while riding in the car.

The other thing that we forget sometimes is we think young
infants don't move much, right? So we can leave them alone. So you don't want
to do that. You don't want to ever leave your baby alone on a changing table,
on a bed, on a sofa or chair because just when you do that, your baby will
decide to turn and you can avoid accidents by not leaving your babies alone.

If you can't hold your baby, you want to put the baby in a crib
or a playpen, just to make sure baby's okay. And I think one important thing I
do want to put in there is you want to make sure your babies go back to sleep.
So you want to place your baby on their back in the crib, to decrease incidence
of SIDS.

And you want to make sure that the crib doesn't have any
pillows or stuffed animals or quilts or bumper pads. Just you want it to be a
firm tight fitting mattress and your baby nothing else in the crib with the
baby. And always, always lay your baby back to sleep.

Host: Great tips and advice. Dr. Thornton-Davis, thank
you so much for sharing your expertise on bonding, health, safety, self-care,
and resources.

Trashawn Thornton-Davis, MD: Thank you so much for
having me. I really enjoyed it.

Host: That was Dr. Trashawn Thornton-Davis, a Kaiser
Permanente physician specializing in Obstetrics and Gynecology,

Amanda Wilde (Host): Who sees patients and delivers
babies at Holy Cross Health

Host: For more information, visit
HolyCrosshealth.org/maternity. I'm Amanda Wilde. Until next time, thanks for
listening and be well.