fter your newborn comes home, not only do you cultivate a relationship with this little person but also with your child’s health care provider. In our community, this is typically a pediatrician, but most practitioners will typically approach newborn visits the same.

Your first field trip generally will involve the following:

• Registration of your baby with your doctor's office. Be prepared to fill out forms and bring insurance information with you for that first visit. Most babies are covered under mom’s policy for the first 30 days. During that time you must call your insurance company to add baby onto the policy, otherwise baby will have to qualify separately on day 31! Arrive early. (This is hard for parents of newborns, so plan to leave 30 minutes before you think you’ll need to leave).

• Weighing and measuring (height and head circumference – an indicator of brain growth) your newborn. Typically a nurse or medical assistant will do this and record those measurements on a sheet or booklet you take home. (Bragging rights!)

• A complete history of your pregnancy and family history should be taken by your health care provider.

• A review of basic safety i.e., do you have a gated pool, working smoke alarms, pets, second-hand smoke, etc.

• A discussion about feeding, diaper output (pee and poo are now accepted words in your parent vocabulary), cord care, circumcision care and general baby care.

• Baby typically will have a physical examination, and based on those findings, your health care provider may recommend checking baby’s blood for elevated bilirubin (a yellow color caused by blood cell breakdown pigments) if baby is really jaundiced.

• Nursing/feeding will be reviewed, weight will be discussed, and if there are problems with nursing, lactation help should be mobilized for you.

After your first visit, you and your health care provider should discuss your concerns and questions about vaccines, development, daily care, feeding and safety at each visit. Typically most offices will give you a sheet or booklet with anticipatory guidance on what to expect as far as growth, development, and how to foster these areas.

Most of us typically see newborns (especially with first-time parents) at a few days of life, at 2 weeks, at 1 month (depending on how parents and baby are doing) and at 2, 4 and 6 months of age. These visits are obviously baby-centered. However, they give us, as your baby’s advocate, a chance to build our relationship with you as parents, assess your learning curve and trouble shoot post-partum depression, parental stress, or anxiety. But more importantly, we enjoy the opportunity to build our relationship with you, strengthen your trust in us, and travel this journey together!