YOUR RELATIONSHIP
Belinda Farre Seymour-Wright, a psychologist who used to offer courses for partners becoming parents, points out that research and experience suggests that nine out of ten couples fight more after the baby is born, and one of the biggest fights is about who does what. But the soft focus world of happy baby commercials leads us to believe that we are perhaps the only parents with a problem.
Belinda says, “Research dating from as far back as the 1950s indicates that couples experience the birth of a first child as a kind of crisis.” Now a crisis is not necessarily a bad thing. The Chinese definition of a crisis is a “dangerous opportunity”. It all depends on how you handle it.
The birth of a baby can also be considered a traumatic life event. Using The Holmes and Rahe Stress Scale (easy to find online) you will find that once you add up the points allocated to the experience of pregnancy, the birth of your baby, a change in financial
