Art For Children
Prenatal - My To Do List
My To Do List (click on topics)
Figure out your Finances Babies are expensive. It's easy to get excited about buying baby supplies and stylish maternity wear, but the most important thing is the health cost of pregnancy. Make sure that you calculate for the cost of your health care provider, a healthy diet and vitamins. Can you afford to go private or are you going to use public clinics and the hospital for your delivery. There is a big difference in cost if you go to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital or if you use a private facility, a birth centre or your own home.
Do you have health insurance? Does it cover the cost of health care during pregnancy?
You also need to work out a costing for the baby during its first year
Check out the services available to you
Hospitals, Polyclinic, private doctors, midwives
Barbados Family Planning Association
Follow your baby's development
Your baby is growing and changing incredibly fast. Taking a peek at your baby's development every week can keep your spirits up in the face of those less-than-pleasant pregnancy symptoms. Ask your health care provider lots of questions and get answers.
Calculate my baby's due date
Follow this link to calculate your due date. http://www.webmd.com/baby/healthtool-due-date-calculator
What do I need during my pregnancy
The most important thing is keeping healty by following a good diet and exercising (talk to your health care provider about diet and exercise). With that taken care of you need to start looking for maternity wear and maternity underwear and bras. You will need comfortable shoes, put down the heels,
What do I need for my delivery?
Before your baby arrives, you might want to get ready for the hospital visit and many to be mums pack their bags early. Don't forget that you will need a bathrobe, pyjamas, maternity bras and underwear and house slippers. Some people might want socks and even an extra pillow. You would need to have your toiletries (tooth brush and tooth paste, soaps, lotions, powder, deodorant, comb & brush, etc).
You will also need to have your baby's first set of clothes, a blanket, pampers, wet ones, baby lotion, wash cloths, an outfit to wear home.
Do not take jewellry to the hospital. You might however want to have your cell phone well charged and a camera.
Baby names
Deciding on a baby name is fun. Today you have the internet that you can search, but many to be parents usually have a name that they like from way back or you might want to name the baby after a dear friend, family member or a celebrity. Some parents combine parts of their names to come up with a unique baby name. What ever you do, remember, your little one has to live with that name, so don't make it too complicated.
Choosing God parents
Parents usually choose best friends to be their child's God parent, but you also have to take into consideration the requirements of the church where your child will be baptisted or christened.
Announcing your pregnancy
This varies from couple to couple. Some wait until after the first trimester, when the risk of miscarriage drops, while others announce it right away. Some wait to tell their co-workers or boss to avoid being treated differently at work, while others want their work place to know right away. Also consider how you'll make the news public – in person, by phone, in writing, by picture or video or you might get a little creative and do something out of the ordinary. Of course, this should be a joint decision, you don't want to opt for secrecy only to discover that your partner's already announced the news to 400 Facebook friends.
