Getting started as a First Time Mother
As a new mother, it is natural to have concerns about your baby's growth and development.
You are so eager to receive and embrace your baby whom you have carried in your body for at least 200 days. Hence, the reason we have written this guide for you as a mother to have adequate knowledge and rightly equip yourself on how to address any challenges during your baby's first 12 months on earth. By understanding and actively monitoring your baby's developmental milestones, you can ensure their healthy progress.
Understanding Baby Developmental Milestones
What Are Baby Developmental Milestones?
Baby Developmental milestones are specific skills or abilities that babies acquire as they grow. These milestones can be categorized into motor, cognitive, social, and emotional development. From lifting their head to walking, from visual tracking to language acquisition, each milestone is an important step in your baby's development.
Motor skills are certain abilities a baby is supposed to accomplish as they grow. Every child is supposed to sit, stand, walk, run, and jump as they grow. However, for the first 12 months the motor skills encompass the following: lifting the head (usually observed between 2-3 months), rolling over (usually observed between 4-6 months), sitting up without support, crawling and scooting (usually achieved around 6 – 8 months), standing and walking (often achieved from 9 – 12 months).
Cognitive skills are skills that involve the use of their brain. It is meant to equip a baby to comprehend the words and actions of people and their immediate environment. At 2 – 3 months babies are meant to follow objects with their eyes, this is called visual tracking. Then around 6 – 9 months, babies are supposed to remember what an object is supposed to look like and understand its use as well as recognize the sounds that emanate from an object.
Communication and Language skills are visual and vocal skills used to inform you as a mother of their needs and every good or bad experience per time. This involves babbling and cooing (usually between 2 – 4 months); and speaking their first words and responding to instructions (usually between 9 – 12months).
Social and emotional skills: These are abilities that equips a baby to showcase their response to other people and their immediate environment. Hence babies smile between 2-3months, show their anxieties and fears when they are between 6 – 9 months, and form strong bonds with you and other caregivers within their immediate family this commences between 6 months and one year.
Why are these milestones important?
Early detection of developmental delays allows for early intervention and support. As a mother, your instincts play a crucial role in recognizing any concerns. By combining your natural instincts with knowledge about developmental milestones, you can actively monitor your baby's progress and seek professional advice if needed.
Ways to monitor these milestones
· Manual/Electronic Documentation: Use apps, charts, or journals to document each milestone.
· Play/Fun Time: Engage in playtime to observe your baby's responses to stimuli and assess their development.
· Professional Consultations: Regularly consult with your baby's doctor to address any concerns and receive guidance.
· Safe Environment: Create a nurturing environment filled with love and care to encourage healthy interactions and discovery.
When a mother should be concerned about these milestones
· Slow or delayed response to stimuli and immediate surroundings especially when it relates to sound and light.
· Stiffness or floppiness in relation to mobility of joints starting from the neck down to the toes.
· Progressive regression in acquired skills per time.
· Continuous or persistent irritability.
Baby items for tracking these milestones
Interactive toys with feedback mechanisms, pictorial and auditory books, developmental charts/trackers.
There are many online websites where you can purchase according to your baby’s age and needs. If you are tech savvy mother, you can also visit the Android Play Store or IOS App Store to download a milestone tracker. If you are more of a bookie mother, you can also find useful reading resources at the Pediatric wing of your favorite hospital.
And of course, as helpers of your joy, Motherfare has officially launched her maiden edition of baebee box which is specially curated to assist a new mother to keep track of her baby’s milestones from day one to year one. Kindly visit our website for more information.
Building awareness going forward
The right insight to your baby’s growth and development is significant to how well that baby fares as they grow.
As a mother, being aware of the necessary milestones and being able to assist in your baby’s development is paramount to your happiness as well as to the success of your baby’s journey to adulthood. Remember, each baby is unique, and their growth and development timelines may differ.
The times and seasons of each baby’s growth and development differ for each baby. No mother should ever feel compelled to compare her baby with another baby’s growth rate rather every mother should embrace the uniqueness of her little one.