After Birth: Newborn Care and Parent & Baby Care Center

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After Delivery: What to Expect

The moments right after your baby is born are important for bonding, calming, and helping your baby transition to life outside the womb. Our team prioritizes keeping you and your baby together whenever it’s safe to do so.

The Golden Hour (first hours after birth)

During the first hour, our standard is to support uninterrupted family bonding and newborn transition, including:

• Skin-to-skin contact with the birthing parent (or partner, if needed) to support warmth, stability, and connection
• Delayed cord clamping, when appropriate
• Support for the first feeding, including helping with the first latch if you are breastfeeding

Routine newborn care

After the golden hour, we complete your baby’s routine newborn assessment in the room so families can stay together as much as possible. This typically includes:

• Newborn assessment.
• Weight and measurements.
• First diaper and routine newborn cares.
• Baby footprints.
• Routine newborn medications, which include vitamin K, erythromycin, and the Hepatitis B vaccine.

After the assessment, we encourage more skin-to-skin and continued feeding support. Babies often show interest in feeding early, and we’ll help you follow your baby’s cues.

Transition to postpartum recovery

Most families transfer to our postpartum unit for recovery a few hours after birth, once you and your baby are settled and doing well.

Timeframe for going home

• Vaginal birth: Most families go home the next day.
• Cesarean birth: Most families go home after a few days.

Parent & Baby Care Center

At the Overlake Childbirth Center, we are here to help with questions, from “Is this normal?” to “Should this be happening?” Through all the ups and downs of being a new parent, you can depend on us.

Our Parent and Baby Center provides comprehensive care from before birth through your child’s first birthday. We’re here to help you prepare for parenthood, recover after giving birth, transition into becoming a new parent and help your baby get a strong start in life. 

Programs and Services

Our Parent & Baby Care Center provides many programs and services, including:

• A check-up for you and your baby two or three days after birth, to help ensure that you are healing well and your baby is healthy.
• Breastfeeding support.
• A boutique stocked with supplies like postpartum essentials, newborn care items, baby clothes, pump parts and accessories. We also rent hospital-grade breast pumps and baby scales.
• Specialized expertise for feeding babies who are NICU graduates or born at a low birth weight.
• Frenotomy, a procedure to treat tongue-tie. This simple, in-office procedure can help some babies feed more easily.
• A psychiatric nurse practitioner who helps new parents navigate mental health challenges like anxiety and depression or difficulties bonding with a baby. They also help families navigate the transition into having a newborn and help build healthy parent-baby relationships. Parents can ask their OB or Midwife for a referral.
• Parenting education, resources and support through our After Baby Comes and Balance After Baby groups. 

Supporting You and Your Baby’s Health Long After Birth

When you and your baby leave the hospital after birth, we don’t say “goodbye.” We say “see you soon” — because our care includes a follow-up visit for both mom and baby two or three days after birth.

You’ll meet with a postpartum nurse who will make sure you and your baby are recovering well. They’ll also check in with you about feeding and any pain, incontinence, incision care, mood or other concerns. We can connect you with breastfeeding support or pelvic health physical therapists if needed.

Testimonial: “Everyone in the office is extremely kind and helpful. Jill with the lactation team is amazing and has made a huge difference for us. Also the little clothing boutique is a must check out with amazing Bert’s bees newborn onesies!”

Comprehensive Feeding Support

Making sure your baby is feeding well and getting all the nutrients they need is important for a strong start in life. At Overlake, you’ll have access to comprehensive feeding support to help your baby thrive.

For families who would like to breastfeed, we offer comprehensive support to help make breastfeeding as easy as possible for you and your baby. This program is led by International Board-Certified Lactation Consultants (IBCLCs), who have completed five years of specialized training and have deep experience in helping families breastfeed successfully.

We also offer frenotomy, a simple procedure for babies who have trouble breastfeeding because their frenulum, a part of their tongue, restricts movement and can make it more difficult to breastfeed.

For babies who were in the NICU or who had a low birth weight, we offer specialized nutritional support, because these babies may need additional support to get the nutrients they need to be healthy and strong. 

Donor Milk Depot

Our Parent and Baby Center also hosts a Donor Milk Depot. We accept donations from people who produce more milk than they need. This breast milk is then either purchased, at cost, by families who need additional milk or donated to the Northwest Mother’s Milk Bank. 

Mental Health Support for Parents

Perinatal mental health disorder (PMHD) is a common mental health disorder that can happen anytime during pregnancy and postpartum. It affects as many as one in 5 mothers and one in 10 fathers and it is often underreported. Symptoms include:

• Feeling down, depressed, or sad.
• Feeling irritable or angry.
• Difficulty bonding with your baby.
• Feeling panicked or anxious.
• Difficulty sleeping and eating.
• Feeling like you should not have become a parent.
• Feeling like you are “going crazy” or “out of control.”
• Fear that you might hurt yourself or your baby.

Our Parent & Baby Center is home to a perinatal psychologist, who provides mental health care for parents and families. This psychologist has specialized experience in caring for expecting and new parents and is here to help.

Read more about postpartum support by visiting Postpartum Support International or find additional support by:

• Contacting the PSI Helpline at 1-800-944-4773.
• Reviewing PSI’s PMHD Discussion Tool.
• Contacting Warmline, where you can call, text or chat through difficult emotions and experiences, receive support and connect with additional resources. 

Ongoing Support and Education

Overlake hosts a number of support groups where families can build community and discuss important parenting topics.

We offer our After Baby Comes support groups based on a baby’s age: 0-3 months, 3-6 months and 6-12 months. These groups are led by certified childbirth educators covering a wide variety of topics, including but not limited to:

• Feeding.
• Sleep.
• Self-Care and Couples Care.
• Calming and Crying.
• Growth and Development.
• Immunizations.
• Physical Therapy & Pelvic Floor Health.

Our Balance After Baby group gives new parents a chance to talk through the many challenges of life with a newborn in a safe and supportive environment. Families can join in person or virtually from the comfort of their own home. Babies typically have tummy time with other babies during class.