Life in our hands
IN April 2017 I became a dad for the first time.
Seeing my daughter being brought into the world was a truly wonderful, and quite frankly overwhelming, experience.
And the mental image of her staring up at me for the first time, with her gorgeous blue eyes, will remain with me forever.
Before, during and after the birth, my fiancée and I were completely blown away by the professionalism of the NHS staff at the Royal Glamorgan Hospital.
They did everything they could to make us feel welcome, at ease and confident about becoming new parents.
We were almost immediately given practical tips about breastfeeding by one of their specialists, and midwifery staff were on hand with any questions we had during our two-day stay on the ward.
But once we were discharged home we soon realised that everybody had an opinion on what was best for our newborn child.
We were bombarded with conflicting advice about how to change her, feed her and safely put her to sleep (to name just three).
There’s also a wealth of information in books, online and on social media which gives guidance on a countless range of different baby topics and taboos.
Don’t get me wrong, we were hugely grateful for people’s pearls of wisdom and they all came from a very loving place.
But sometimes we didn’t know whose advice to take.
We quickly learned to be selective over who we sought help from, such as our health visitor or GP, as guidance gets updated and changed all the time. And we felt it was sometimes best to follow our own instincts and trust our own judgements as, let’s face it, we knew our daughter’s little habits the best.
In this edition of Health Check Wales we have asked health professionals across the UK to offer their top tips on a range of different topics – which could come in handy if you’re not sure where to turn.
From overcoming back problems to brushing your teeth to spotting the signs and symptoms of various cancers, we’ve tried to cover all the bases.
And the edition wouldn’t be complete without some expert advice from a few parents who, like myself, are on the long, turbulent and wonderful journey through parenthood.