Basic Newborn Advice a Coup for Moms on Call
By Kate Copsey / STAFF
 Jennifer Walker (L) and Laura Hunter: Moms on Call are ready to help soothe your newborn. |
Every new mother has been there. You delivered the baby, got 24 hours to recover and now you and your beautiful newborn are back at home with the family. Then at about three days old, the lovable little thing has a change of heart about being in this world and lets you know it. After a week or two of this mayhem, with hormones running amok, you are at your wits end with no help in sight. That’s when you need to call Moms on Call.
Moms on Call is two cheerful ladies named Jennifer Walker, RN, BSN and Laura Hunter, LPN. Walker and Hunter met when they were both working at a north side pediatric office. Their duties included taking care of the after hours calls to determine if emergency treatment was necessary.
After a while it became clear to these well-qualified ladies that numerous mothers were worrying about the same things. Of the 300-400 calls per week, all but a few were related to the same couple of problems. Hunter says that in a typical February, flu bugs start to go around.
“First it would be 10 percent of the calls,” she said. “Then 50 percent, and when it hit 75 percent of the calls, we knew we were at the peak of the season.”
Along the way, both Hunter and Walker had children of their own to cope with, including a set of identical twins each, and they knew the practical side of parenting as well.
With this background, and so many calls relating to the same thing, the two women sat down and created a folder that detailed such things as how to clip a newborn’s nails, and how to bathe the child.
The pair also gave common sense advice on how to comfort the new baby. This is something that used to be given by mothers to daughters, but Walker says, “Our generation seeks information from pediatricians, television and Internet.”
Even if grandparents are close by they are frequently uneasy about their skills. The rules about things, such as placing a child in bed on its stomach or back, have changed since they were nursing a newborn, and they may be reluctant to step in and help.
Unfortunately the media tends to highlight the extremes in parenting, such as attachment or a disciplinarian, and the commonsense middle ground is ignored.
Moms on Call promotes the basics and believes that with proper swaddling, which needs a larger receiving blanket than most commercial brands, an infant can be made comfortable. This, along with white noise in the background will allow the baby to relax and get the much-needed rest to be content.
Hunter explains how this works. A little bit of discomfort after feeding is common and the natural reaction is to stiffen, which makes things worse, resulting in crying. The white noise “relaxes the baby so that their digestive system relaxes,” Hunter said. “Which allows the baby REM sleep.”
As so often happens with a tried and true method, word got around Greater Atlanta that this pair had found the key to calming fussy babies. They tell the story of two new fathers who were chatting in line at a Cheesecake Factory. Both knew about fussy babies but one had found Moms on Call. After chatting a few minutes, the number was traded and another unhappy baby was soothed.
Eventually one grateful father suggested that they turn the folder into a self-published book. That book came out in 2004 and was quickly picked up by a mainstream publisher and “The Moms on Call Guide to Basic Baby Care” is now in its fourth printing run.
The book, a popular website and an invitation to be on Martha Stewart’s show has not changed these two friends. They still do phone consultations and home visits to newborns, as well as answer email questions. They have a wonderful sense of humor as well.
The messy, sleep deprived world of a new mother can be overwhelming. Constantly fussing babies are tough to cope with. Hunter and Walker are the calming, capable duo that can bring comfort to your child and give you back your confidence as a parent.
Moms on Call can be reached by email through their site www.momsoncall.com
Their book, which comes with a DVD to demonstrate baby care, can be found on www.Amazon.com and other book sites. The book comes complete with an extra large swaddling blanket, and retails for under $20. If you are near the end of your pregnancy or going to a baby shower, this book should be on your list of ‘must haves’.