Counseling for the First-Time Parents
One of the most common stressors for a couple is the birth of a child. It is estimated that over 67% of couples experience a profound drop in the satisfaction in their marriage after the birth of their child and many will enter marriage counseling because of the “new addition.” This is generally due to the fact that couples haven’t genuinely prepared for the specific challenges that only the birth of a child begins. There is a “glaze over” effect for many couples, who gleefully paint the baby’s room a new color and focus on baby showers and the like.
Once the child is born, reality often comes crashing down, with late night hours, feeding, changing of diapers and different takes on child rearing. Both partners are overworked and are underslept. Arguments undoubtedly occur, which can startle the couple even more than usual, as they realize the permanency of their situation. On top of that, there are hormonal changes to contend with!
The time to prepare is prior to the birth, even prior to the pregnancy. Marriage counselors are seeing more and more couples enter counseling before making such a big decision. They lay down the groundwork, including how they’ll handle child rearing duties, how they were raised, their moral issues (religion, etc) and how they plan on sharing these with a new child.
These are just a few of the topics that can be addressed, beforehand - when the couple is not under such stress. Conversely, couples will also enter therapy after a child is born. While the work is structured differently, the backbone of it remains the same: how to raise the child together and bond throughout the process, not separate.
