The announcement has been made - you are about to be upgraded from parent to grandparent!

Now what?

Your journey as a grandparent is very different from that as a parent. This time, you are armed with knowledge and experience ... but someone else is in charge of the ship! Your beliefs around raising children might not match those of your son or daughter and their partner. The 20-40 years which have passed since your first child was born have seen some surprising changes in parenting. So let’s look at some things you might like to know.

The safest place for a baby to sleep in the first 6-12 months is in the same room as their mother. Day and night.

Many parents understand the need for a bedside nursery to make nighttime parenting easier when their baby cosleeps at night. However, learning the safest place for daytime sleep is not the room they prepared for the baby can come as a shock! (When exactly will this child be sleeping in their nursery?)

Your baby will be hanging out where you are so you might as well set up your space to work for you.

Evolution of Man as hunter-gather meant our males needed to become swift as they hunted prey large enough to meet the needs of their tribe. Running while covered in thick hair in hot climates such as that we now call Africa was not efficient, so over time, hair became shorter and finer: it aided evaporation of sweat, keeping the runner cool as he covered long distances. But the female also became increasingly hairless, posing quite a problem for mothers.

Resenting your child's contact naps because you are wasting time that could be better spent does you no good at all. You might have intentionally chosen this pathway or stumbled across it on your journey. Here you are, practicing the gentle attachment style of parenting which appealed so much ... and wishing your child would just lie down in the cot and fall asleep by themselves like all the other babies.

Consider life in the weeks leading up to birth. Your baby never experiences hunger, cold, silence, stillness or isolation. They are held increasingly firmly by the strong muscles of the uterus. Their digestive system is still. They are rocked by the gentle movement of their mother, even as she sleeps. Her presence is constant, her heartbeat and other body sounds a rhythmic soundtrack. Light and sound are muted.

Your newborn needs time to adjust to life outside the womb and one of the best ways to support that transition is babywearing.

A full term baby of around 3.2kg can be carried in most styles of baby carrier right from the start. However choosing from the types of carriers and the range of options can feel overwhelming. So let's look at those best suited to babies in the 4th trimester.

Imagine being yanked out of your warm and cosy bed on a cold morning, without notice or explanation.

This must be how we all feel in that extraordinary moment we call birth. Confused, overwhelmed and shocked.

Keeping babies close in these early days helps them acclimatise to this strange world of sensory overload. Newborns seek contact and avoid isolation. Your baby cannot explain that the nursery you prepared with such love is an alien space. They cannot tell you that lying on their back in a bassinet is sending panic signals to their brain.