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Birth Process & Needs of an Infant

Main Core Tie

Adult Roles And Responsibilities
Strand 5 Standard 3

Additional Core Ties

Adult Roles and Financial Literacy
Strand 8 Standard 3

Authors

CTE LESSON PLANS

Summary

Students will understand the birth process and needs of a newborn, including the terms associated with labor and delivery, postpartum symptoms, and nurturing/bonding.


Materials

Supplementary Resources

  • "Bonding", The book High Risk, Children Without A Conscience, Dr. Ken Magid and Carole A. McKelvey, Bantam Books, 666 Fifth Avenue, New York, New York, 10103 Childbirth Graphics
  • FCCLA CD: "Get Connected to… Families First, Financial Fitness, Student Body, FACTS." Available from fcclainc.org, $36


Instructional Procedures

Vocabulary
Use the Vocabulary Worksheet and Key (pdf).

Introduction/Pre-Assessment
Show "History of Delivery" Power Point Presentation. Discuss advances that have been made to get us to where we are today. The goal of every delivery is to end up with a healthy mother and a healthy baby.

Content Outline, Activities and Teaching Strategies
(All options do not necessarily need to be taught. Select ones to cover standards and objectives and according to your district policies.)

Option 1: Video/DVD
Show The Miracle of Life II (available from the local hospital or district media center), The Incredible Human Machine (available from National Geographic), or any video or DVD that presents the information in an appropriate manner.

Option 2: Labor and Delivery
Present the Labor and Delivery Teacher Information (pdf). Slides and transparencies will enhance this presentation. Slides from Childbirth Graphics are excellent. (They can be ordered from childbirthgraphics.com)

Option 3: Labor and Delivery PowerPoint
Have students take notes and do activities as explained in the Labor & Delivery PowerPoint (See UEN Labor & Delivery Lesson Plan by Doreen Robinson).

Option 4: Field Trip
Take students to the hospital for a tour of the labor and delivery rooms and the nursery. A nurse could explain what takes place in the hospital and the care newborn babies and their mothers receive. If the hospital has a newborn intensive care unit, this would also be interesting for the students to see.

Option 5: The First Six Weeks
Present lecture on the First Six Weeks (pdf) after the birth of a baby. Discuss the physical and the psychological aspects.

Option 6: Bonding
Review the Bonding Information (pdf) with the class. Each student will then write a paper on the methods of bonding used in their own family, or other families they have observed. Compile a list of the methods the students identify and share them with the class.

Option 7: Story
Read the book The Runaway Bunny, a story about a parent's love and attachment to a child. Wherever the child goes, the parent wants to be there to help the child succeed. Although a child will seek independence, this attachment (bonding) will never die. (By Margaret Wise Brown, Harper Collins Publishers, ISBN 0-06-107429-2.)

Option 8: Crying Baby
While you play a tape of a baby crying (volume should be loud), students are instructed to write an essay entitled "My Expectations of Parenthood." When the allowed time period is over and the papers have been collected, discuss the feelings and frustrations of the students. How did they feel when subjected to constant crying? How do you react to crying children? Special emphasis should be placed on the fact that this experience lasted only a few minutes. In actual parenting, crying babies and whining children can go on indefinitely. Share the information Soothing A Baby (pdf) with the students.

Option 9: Guest Parent and Baby
Have a parent and newborn baby come to class to demonstrate methods of soothing a baby. Refer to the Guest Parent Teacher Information (pdf) for instructions.

Option 10: Having a Baby, It's Your Turn
Have students follow the instructions given on the Handling a Baby Teacher Instructions (pdf). This Handling a Baby Assignment (pdf) will most likely have to be done out of class, unless you can get several mothers to bring babies for the class to practice soothing.

Summary/Evaluation
The human reproductive system is a complex, wonderful thing. There are many things one can do to prepare and have a safe and enjoyable pregnancy. Once the baby is born, bonding is a vital process to help in the development of normal, well-adjusted children.


Created: 08/03/2011
Updated: 02/05/2018
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