While bringing new life into the world is an undeniably exciting and heart-warming experience, becoming a mom for the first time can be very intimidating. While you'll gather a lot of information from your own mother, she'll probably stick to the basics: how to soothe the baby while crying, lessons for helping your young one sleep through the night, etc.

Here are a few of the less common tips your mother never told you that can be incredibly useful during this new chapter of your life:

Make time for yourself

Your mom probably told you your child will be attached to your hip the first year of its life, but you need to remember to prioritize time for yourself. According to the American Psychological Association, 1 in 7 women experiences postpartum depression, which could result in feelings of lost self-identity. Take time to explore your interests and indulge in the things you enjoy, whether it's hanging out with loved ones or scheduling a night every week for a hobby. 

Expect interesting eating habits at first

The average newborn baby eats every two to three hours, but that doesn't mean your child will follow suit. Some babies will cluster feed, or indulge in short feeds close together over a few hours, instead of only eating a few times a day. This is likely caused by a growth spurt. Talk to your pediatrician if you're having issues keeping up with your baby.

Let your partner take over for a while

You carried the baby for nine months on your own, but that doesn't mean you're in this alone. Your baby might favor you in the first couple of months, but your partner can pitch in so you can take a break.

"He's all in, so encourage him to be in charge of bathing, reading, or tummy time (or all three)," David L. Hill, M.D., author of "Dad to Dad: Parenting Like a Pro" told Parents magazine. "They're great bonding activities—and an opportunity for you to take a breather."

Don't be afraid to let your baby cry while you get a break – this time period is important for the baby to learn who the other parent is.

Turn kangaroo care into an opportunity to multitask

Skin-to-skin contact is essential for transitioning your newborn from the womb to the real world. While sitting in your rocking chair and letting your baby nap on your chest all day every day sounds relaxing, it's not always an efficient use of your time. That's where the NuRoo Pocket comes in handy.

It's a babywearing shirt that offers full coverage and mobility so you can practice kangaroo care whether you're out in public or around the house. This newborn carrier involves no wrapping, tying or knotting; just cross and hug your baby in the soft, breathable fabric and get back to chores or taking advantage of this new form of "me" time.

Learn more about the NuRoo products offered by Brownmed today.

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Mothers can agree that bringing a baby into the world is one of the most incredible feelings, but having the opportunity to be the No. 1 source of nutrition for your child is even more amazing. While breastfeeding is a choice that not everyone decides to take, it's an advantageous option for both you and your baby.

According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, mothers who decide to breastfeed should exclusively do so for at least the first six months of the baby's life. That being said, no mom and baby are identical to the next, so those who breastfeed less shouldn't feel defeated. Any amount of breast milk fed to your child counts as an incredible source of nutrition.

So what else gives breastfeeding its great reputation? Here are some of the many benefits of breastfeeding your baby:

The nutritional content
As stated earlier, breastfeeding is nutritional gold for infants. For starters, it's loaded with the vitamins, protein and fat your baby needs to grow. It also contains antibodies that allow your baby to fight off viruses and bacteria, and it has been shown to reduce risk for ear infection, respiratory illness and more.

The mother-to-baby bond
For many mothers, creating a bond with your baby as soon as possible is a huge priority. Breastfeeding offers a simple way to strengthen the bond between you and your child. Skin-to-skin touching and close eye contact offer your baby a sense of security after leaving the womb.

The postpartum weight loss
Because breast milk is loaded with calories and fat to nourish your baby, you're ultimately burning those calories and fat every time you nurse! In fact, according to what infant-nutrition expert Ruth A. Lawrence, M.D. shared with lifestyle blog Fit Pregnancy, you burn dozens of calories during every solid breastfeeding session.

"Breast milk contains 20 calories per ounce," Lawrence said. "If you feed your baby 20 ounces a day, that's 400 calories you've swept out of your body."

This also counts for mothers who exclusively pump breast milk. Burning those calories can help you lose those pounds you gained during your pregnancy.

The feeling of empowerment
There's something ever-so empowering about watching your baby grow and thrive on milk that you supplied. So on top of losing pregnancy weight and developing a strong bond with your loved one, you may feel liberated – and let's be honest, it's well deserved.

If you're not so comfortable breastfeeding in public, you can try the NuRoo Multi-Use Cover. Created with breathable fabric that prevents overheating and provides coverage and protection from germs, the cover can be used while nursing and pumping. It can also be used over car seats, shopping carts and high chairs.

Anyone who has breastfed in the past or currently nurses knows how taxing it can be, from a physical, mental and emotional standpoint. It's common to feel overwhelmed during this time, but these benefits can push you to the end! However long you choose to breastfeed, just remember how truly advantageous it can be for both you and your little one.

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According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1 in every 10 infants in the U.S. in 2015 was born prematurely. Premature birth, which occurs anytime prior to 37 weeks of pregnancy, can result in a number of complications for the baby, including vision and hearing problems, breathing difficulties, feeding problems and developmental delays. The CDC reported that in 2013, 36 percent of infant deaths were related to preterm causes. 

However, a simple method has been found to help these infants who arrive too soon.

When you have a new baby at home, snuggling him or her close is probably second nature. It turns out that there's a reason for that. Research has found that skin-to-skin contact while holding your infant close offers a number of benefits for the child, particularly in the case of premature babies. This strategy has developed into a method called kangaroo mother care. 

Whether your baby is born early or full-term, kangaroo mother care is a strategy that can provide important benefits for your baby now and later in life.   

The origins of kangaroo mother care
Kangaroo mother care is the method by which an infant is held involving skin-to-skin contact. The baby is positioned against a care giver's bare skin, naked other than a diaper and perhaps a covering on the back if necessary, usually a thin blanket or the parent's shirt. The child is held upright and snuggled against the chest for extended periods of time, typically at least one hour. 

Kangaroo mother care was developed in the 1970s in Bogota, Colombia. According to The Atlantic, pediatrician Edgar Rey introduced the strategy to the Instituto Materno Infantil in 1978 in a desperate effort to reduce high mortality rates among premature infants. Instead of putting the premature babies into incubators, where they were rarely touched, the doctors and nurses taught mothers how to hold their babies upright against their chest under their shirt, skin-to-skin. Rey was inspired by the behavior of kangaroos, who carry their underdeveloped babies in their pouch. This parallel inspired the strategy's name. 

A 2017 study that followed-up on kangaroo mother care babies 20 years later found that the method in a group of preemies led to lower levels of behavioral problems and greater growth in areas of the brain related to memory and learning. 

"This study drives home the point how important simple interventions in the NICU are to long term outcome," Dr. Amy Hair, a neonatologist at Texas Children's Hospital in Houston, told Forbes. "This is a simple intervention. It doesn't have any harmful effects. If anything, we should make it universal standard of care."   

Studies such as this have encouraged many health care professionals to promote the method for both premature and full-term babies immediately after birth and in the weeks that follow. 

Premature infants can especially benefit from the skin-to-skin contact provided by kangaroo mother care after birth.

The benefits of kangaroo mother care
As the providers in Bogota found in the 1970s, skin-to-skin contact through kangaroo mother care offers numerous benefits to preemies. 

"Physiology and research provide overwhelming evidence that kangaroo mother care is not only safe but superior to the use of technology such as incubators,"  Dr. Nils Bergman, senior medical superintendent at Mowbray Maternity Hospital, told Parents magazine. "Depriving babies of skin-to-skin makes alternative stress pathways in the brain, which can lead to ADD, colic, sleep disorders, among other things."  

Though this method is especially beneficial to premature babies, it offers benefits to full-term infants as well. According to the Cleveland Clinic, benefits of kangaroo mother care include:

• Improved patterns of breathing.
• Decreased crying.
• Increased sleep time.
• "More rapid" weight gain.
• Stabilized heart rate.
• Increased success in breastfeeding.
• "Improved" oxygen saturation levels. 

Cleveland Clinic reported that the method also offers benefits to the child's caregiver, such as:

• Improved supply of breast milk.
• Increased feeling of being in control.
• Greater bonding with the baby.
• Improved confidence in the child's care.  

In short, prolonged skin-to-skin contact makes both the baby and the parent or guardian feel more secure, leading to both physical and emotional benefits. 

However, in daily life, you don't always have extended periods where you can sit uninterrupted with your baby. To make kangaroo mother care simple, consider using the NuRoo Pocket. The babywearing shirt, created from soft, breathable fabric, allows you to hold your baby close while keeping your hands free. The simple style of the shirt means that no wrapping or knotting is required. You simply put on the Pocket, insert your child and fold the wings. The NuRoo Pocket is available on Amazon.com and Target.com. Order today to experience the benefits of simplified kangaroo mother care for yourself.    

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The first days of a child's life are some of the most important, not just for the infant but for the mother as well. This is a time when much of the most important bonding happens, and each individual becomes accustomed to the new reality of their world. Sadly, for some, there is an added difficulty that makes navigating this time even harder: drug dependency. 

Dependency can affect both mother and child. When a pregnant woman takes drugs such as heroin, codeine, oxycodone, methadone or buprenorphine, they can pass through the placenta and enter the womb. Over time, the baby can become addicted to the chemicals, much in the same way as an adult would. If the mother uses drugs within seven days of the birth, her child could be born with an addiction to them. 

After birth, that child will no longer be receiving the chemicals they have become accustomed to. This leads to intense withdrawal symptoms, which are agonizing for a newborn, and can last anywhere from several days to multiple months. The condition is known as Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome or NAS. 

Lisa Cleveland, a Ph.D and registered nurse with San Antonio's U.T. Health Science Center, is researching the symptoms exhibited.

"Very high-pitched inconsolable crying, a lot of stomach issues, so vomiting, diarrhea," Cleveland explained to Texas Public Radio. "These babies don't sleep well. They don't feel good."

In many cases, the ordeal takes a toll on the moms as well. Many feel a combination of shame, guilt and distance from their child, which makes those first critical bonding days even more difficult. When a young infant is crying, it is natural to feel frustrated and wonder what it is possible to do.

While there is no failsafe solution, one of the things that Cleveland and her team are looking at is the potential impact of Kangaroo Care. She believes that the skin-to-skin contact it promotes can have a discernibly positive effect on the ability of mother and child to connect. 

"Several of them (the mothers) have said that they feel when their baby was skin to skin that their baby was forgiving them. And they felt that some of the shame and the guilt was going away," Cleveland said. "So that's really powerful."

One of the people Cleveland spoke to, a 27-year old mother named Yolanda Aldana, echoed that sentiment. Aldana had turned to Vicodin to battle extreme pain after a botched epidural during her second birth. Over time, she progressed to heroin after finding Vicodin expensive and hard to get. Her third child was born suffering from NAS, causing her no small amount of guilt.

Ultimately, it was Kangaroo Care that helped her work through those feelings and bond with her daughter. "All my regrets and everything that I had went away. The bond that we have is unbreakable because of it. It made it all better just to have her on my chest. Just to have her skin to skin. Just to feel her little heartbeat, to have her feel my heartbeat," she told Cleveland.

Babies sleep better under the influence of Kangaroo Care.

How Kangaroo Care helps mother and child
Research has demonstrated the benefits of Kangaroo Care. Per the Cleveland Children's Clinic in Ohio, "skin-to-skin holding stabilizes heart and respiratory rates, improves oxygen saturation rates, better regulates an infant's body temperature, and conserves a baby's calories."

This creates a number of benefits for the child, including but not limited to:

• Stronger heart function, due to stabilization of the heart rate
• Improved breathing and respiratory function
• Better delivery of oxygen to vital organs
• Faster and more regular weight gain
• Decreased crying and better sleep
• Faster hospital discharge

However, the upsides of Kangaroo Care are not limited to the infants. In fact, both parents can gain from initiating skin to skin contact in the early parts of the child's life. Some of the benefits they might expect are:

• Improved bonding – simply being close to your baby can help with postpartum depression and feelings of isolation. 
• Increased breast milk supply and an easier time breastfeeding
• Increased confidence in ability to take care of your child. Especially for new fathers, who may not yet have forged a physical bond with the infant, this can be invaluable.
• Better sense of control over the care of their child. 

In many cases, these benefits are immediately visible, and last throughout childhood. Researchers from Bar-Ilan University performed a study and found that not only did infants who had skin-to-skin contact reap benefits within six months, but that they also were healthier up through age 10:

"Mothers in the KC group showed greater outward displays of maternal behavior with their children who themselves demonstrated stronger cognitive skills than those of the incubator group. These also included exercises requiring control and executive abilities, which the researchers observed all the way through the first 10 years," explained Medical Daily. 

The benefits of Kangaroo Care are available to all parents of young children. The NuRoo Pocket, a baby carrier specially designed for this type of care, allows you to stay close to your infant, reaping the benefits of skin-to-skin contact while you live your life. 

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