Positive Parenting Expert talk: Becoming Parents

This week, I am very happy to welcome Jeanne-Marie Paynel, founder of Your Parenting Mentor and host of The Art of Parenting podcast. We talked about the different challenges of becoming parents and she shared with me some tips on positive parenting to help you and your partner welcome a new baby at home and in your lives.

Jeanne-Marie is a parenting expert, Montessori teacher and wonderful human being. She is passionate about positive parenting and helping parents set up a welcoming environment and help their child adapt to their time, place and culture with ease. How wonderful is this?

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Leslie Abraham

By Leslie Abraham

You can watch the full interview by clicking on the video above. To make it easier, I cut this interview in 4 different parts:

Table of Contents

Part 1: How is a positive parenting expert working with expecting parents?

Here is the extract:

Jeanne-Marie is helping parents, as we said above, to set up this new life and “understand the needs of the newborns and adapt to it”. And I can’t stress that enough. It’s highly important to understand that some changes will be necessary. And as she says, it’s only temporary. 

She also says that parents need to “have a yes environment to decrease stress and anxiety”, so that you can “live in harmony with your little ones at home”. 

Here is where you can find Jeanne-Marie’s podcast, The Art of Parenting: https://voilamontessori.com/the-art-of-parenting-podcast/

From this extract, if you don’t want to watch it, here are some bits of wisdom that I really liked hearing Jeanne-Marie saying:

  • “There isn’t a manual or instruction manual going with our newborn”
  • “The most important resource [of positive parenting] that you have is to quiet yourself and follow your intuition. What is your child telling you? What do you feel about this?”
  • “You know in your heart what you need and what your child needs.”

How lovely is that?

positive parenting quote

Part 2: 4 Positive Parenting tips for couple preparing to welcome baby

Here is the extract:

This part is all about how, as a couple, you can prepare for birth and becoming parents. Jeanne-Marie gave us very useful tips derived from her positive parenting method:

  1. Take time to research and know your options for birthing.
  2. Communication with your partner.
  3. Create a village.
  4. Plan ahead the “after birth”, together.

Some words of wisdom that I really liked:

“You are in control, you are mighty powerful because you are creating another human. Do not let anybody tell you otherwise or treat you like you are ill or handicapped. Women who are caring children are a powerhouse. Trust your body.”

Jeanne-Marie Paynel

Part 3: 3 Positive Parenting tips for the expecting mother to prepare for motherhood:

Here is the extract:

Answering to this question, Jeanne-Marie shared with me some wise thoughts to help us step into motherhood with confidence. :

  1. Communicate with baby.
  2. Trust your team.
  3. Be prepared to surrender. 

When talking about postpartum depression and/or baby blues, Jeanne-Marie advised to regularly ask yourself “What do I need right now?” and be prepared to ask for help from your partner, a close friend or a therapist, if you feel like you need to.

She also talked about a warm line you or your partner can call when you need support or don’t know how to handle what you’re feeling or just be reassured: you can find more information by clicking on the following link: https://www.postpartum.net/get-help/psi-helpline-english-and-spanish/

Part 4: 4 Positive parenting tips for the partner to get ready to welcome baby home:

Here is the extract:

Here we placed the focus on the partner’s experience, the other parent. Jeanne-Marie touched on some aspects to prepare for and how to protect the mother/child bond and be part of it:

  1. Your parent’s expectations and communication.
  2. Be in physical contact with baby from the pregnancy.
  3. Be the guardian, protector and support of the birthing mother. 
  4. Sleep deprivation handling.

 

I absolutely LOVED this episode and I hope you liked it as much as I did to record it. Let me know in the comments if there are more topics that you might be interested in hearing about. I will be hosting, from now on, an expert talk once a month on different topics. So feel free to share with me what you want to see!

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