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Prep for Baby

🛡️ Keeping baby safe

In our culture, love for a newborn shows as constant holding, kissing and visiting. With a few firm rules, you can accept that love while protecting your baby from infection and harm.

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Should everyone be allowed to kiss the baby?

No, and especially not on the face, lips or hands. Kissing a newborn is how many serious infections spread, including cold sores which can be life-threatening in a newborn. It feels harsh to refuse relatives, but it is your job to protect your baby. Ask people to admire the baby without kissing them.

✅ Do
  • Politely stop face and hand kissing, especially by anyone with a cold or cold sore
🚫 Avoid
  • Do not let visitors kiss the baby's face, lips or hands
Why is hand washing so important?

Clean hands are the single most powerful protection against newborn infection, and in busy homes with many hands reaching for the baby, it is often skipped. Insist that everyone washes their hands with soap before touching or feeding the baby. Keep soap and a clean towel ready.

✅ Do
  • Make everyone wash hands with soap before holding the baby.Use hand sanitizer before touching
🚫 Avoid
  • Do not let anyone handle the baby with unwashed hands.
How should I manage visitors?

Visitors are part of our culture, but crowds and constant handling expose a newborn to germs and disturb feeding and rest. Keep early visits short and small, ask anyone unwell to stay away, and do not feel guilty about protecting the first few weeks.

✅ Do
  • Keep early visits short, and turn away anyone who is unwell.
🚫 Avoid
  • Do not allow crowds to pass the newborn from hand to hand from one to other.
Safe sleep

Always place the baby on their back, on a firm flat surface, in their own clear cot in your room, with no pillows, quilts or soft toys. Do not fall asleep with the baby on a bed, charpai or sofa. These simple rules dramatically lower the risk of cot death.

✅ Do
  • Back to sleep, firm flat surface, own clear cot in your room
🚫 Avoid
  • Do not co-sleep on a soft bed, quilt or sofa
  • Do not use pillows, bumpers or loose bedding
Threads, taweez and things around the neck

Never tie anything around a baby's neck or wrist tightly. Strings, black threads, taweez and cords are a real strangulation and choking risk, and tight bands can cut off circulation. If your family wishes to use one, keep it pinned to clothing, never around the neck.

✅ Do
  • If taveez is must, pin it to clothes or put at side of baby.
🚫 Avoid
  • Do not tie threads, taweez or cords around the neck or wrist. Small Knife is coomon to keep .
Smoking

No one should smoke in the home or car, or hold the baby after smoking. Second-hand smoke, and even smoke on clothes, raises the risk of chest infections and cot death. A completely smoke-free home is one of the best gifts you can give your baby.

🚫 Avoid
  • Do not allow any smoking in the home, car, or near the baby
Car safety

Car seats are rarely used here, but a baby held in someone's arms is not safe in a moving car, even for a short trip. If you travel by car, a rear-facing infant seat is by far the safest way to carry your baby.

✅ Do
  • Use a rear-facing infant car seat if you have one. if you holding baby in your lap always use the lift and mother should sit in rear passenger seat of the car.
🚫 Avoid
  • Do not carry the baby in your lap in a moving car. Also avoid when taking babyhome to walk down the stairs of hospital. Back passenger in a pakistani motor bike for femal already very unsafe. Avoid if possible and use other transport means.
Perfume, sprays and strong smells

Avoid heavy perfume, room sprays, agarbatti and strong-smelling products near the baby. Their airways are sensitive and strong scents can trigger coughing. Keep the air around the baby clean and fresh.

✅ Do
  • clean , neat enviroment, smoke less
🚫 Avoid
  • Do not use strong perfume, sprays or incense near the baby
Pets and animals

Pets can live safely with a baby, but never leave them alone together, keep animals out of the sleep space, and wash hands after touching them. Introduce them calmly and supervise every time.

✅ Do
  • Supervise all contact and keep pets out of the cot
🚫 Avoid
  • Do not leave the baby and an animal together unsupervised
Loud noise and gatherings

Sudden loud noise and long exposure to very loud sound can startle and distress a newborn and is not good for their hearing. At functions and large family gatherings, keep the baby in a calm, quieter room.

✅ Do
  • Doing azaan with normal loudness in ear is acceptable cultural and islamic ritual.
🚫 Avoid
  • Do not expose the baby to very loud music, horns or crowds

Your before-labour checklist

Do not forget the one thing that ties it all together, our printable checklist to tick off before the big day.

Open the checklist

More to prepare

🏠 Preparing your home🧺 Essential equipment🤱 Preparing for breastfeeding🧳 Before going to hospital🌅 The first hour after birth💡 Common myths, cleared up👨‍🍼 How fathers can help

Questions before your baby arrives?

Choosing your paediatrician before the birth is one of the best things you can do. Book a consultation with Dr. Sethi, or send us a message.

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