Congratulations youre going to be a mom! Whether its your first or sixth baby, there are things to ruminate on and plan for:

 Do you have your birth-plan worked out with your family and obstetrician (nurse-midwife)?

 Do you have your suitcase packed (or things organized if youre having a home-birth)?

 Do you have your emergency contacts in case you go in to labour at a less-than-convenient instant?

 Do you have the nursery ready for your babys arrival?

 Does your baby have a family?

That last point might seem odd, but inasmuch as we plan with such detail about every other aspect of our newborns life, sometimes we overlook the most basic thing: your baby needs a family. I am not going to delve in to the political hot-potato of single moms having kids, I am simply going to advocate for a family for your baby. If youre married, this means a husband for you and a daddy for your child.

The target of parenting is not to simply avoid excessive anxiety, but it is to create a world of confidence by what we do with each other as much as what we avoid doing. Weak marriages do not build strong families, nor do they infuse the hearts of children with confidence and security. And isnt that last phrase what we want most for our babies? The best months of parenting flow out of the best decades of a marriage. Protect your relationship and you will raise happy, healthy children as a result.

Too generally when a child enters a family (please note that you and your husband ARE a family even before you have children!), the marriage is set to the back-burner of the stove, be it due to exhaustion, lack of extra time, etc. The parents leave their first love: each other. Isnt that the reason you married and decided to have children in the first place?

So before you begin parenting this new little one who will be so precious to you and your family, take some measure to ponder the state of your marriage. If you positive need to work on it, beginning now: your baby will sense and respond to stress in your home and your body more than you might realize. You will not want to have your precious bundle of joy starting out life stressed, so do what you might now to eliminate that and keep your relationship with your husband on the front-burner. You wont regret it!