Parenting Translator

Today we're joined by Dr. Rebecca Dekker, the founder of Evidence Based Birth®, a platform that compiles research on childbirth to empower parents and provide them with evidence-based information. We'll go over various topics related to childbirth, including:

• Research on induction. 
• The shift in attitudes towards elective inductions and insights from the ARRIVE study, which examined the effects of inductions at 39 weeks.
• Epidurals and pain relief during labor. 
• The pros and cons of regional analgesia, including epidurals, spinals, and combined spinal epidurals. 
• Non-medical pain relief options such as comfort measures, hypnosis, warm tubs, and doulas. 

Dr. Rebecca Dekker is also the host of the Evidence Based Birth® Podcast.

 
------

Sign up for the Parenting Translator Substack, and follow along on Instagram.

Parenting Translator is hosted by Dr. Cara Goodwin and is produced by Earfluence.

Dr. Cara Goodwin, PhD, is a child psychologist and mother to three children who "translates" research on parenting and child development into information that is accurate, relevant, and useful to parents.

Parents often hear about the dangers of screen time for children, but rarely does there seem to be a distinction among different types of screen time.  Every day research finds that infants and toddlers on average spend 10 to 45 minutes per day on touchscreen devices. Many apps on these devices claim to be educational, and some apps are even used as part of the curriculum in elementary schools and even in early childhood education centers. Yet apps for young children are largely unregulated, and the number of choices alone may be extremely overwhelming for parents.

So does research find that young children can actually learn from this technology? Are apps more educational than TV shows or movies?
------

Sign up for the Parenting Translator Substack, and follow along on Instagram.

Parenting Translator is hosted by Dr. Cara Goodwin and is produced by Earfluence.

Dr. Cara Goodwin, PhD, is a child psychologist and mother to three children who "translates" research on parenting and child development into information that is accurate, relevant, and useful to parents.

I recently returned from a two week vacation in France with my family and my children are 7, 5, and almost e years old - and I was 31 weeks pregnant at the time of this trip. We visited Paris and the south of France, which I realize sounds very dreamy and magical and it definitely was, but it was also exhausting and full of many of the same sibling fights.

So today I'm going to be talking about traveling with kids - why travel with children, some of the research on jet lag and recommended products for travel, and finally, 10 tips I have from my own personal experience of traveling with my kiddos. 
------

Sign up for the Parenting Translator Substack, and follow along on Instagram.

Parenting Translator is hosted by Dr. Cara Goodwin and is produced by Earfluence.

Dr. Cara Goodwin, PhD, is a child psychologist and mother to three children who "translates" research on parenting and child development into information that is accurate, relevant, and useful to parents.

As I enter the final stretch of my pregnancy, I'm asked again and again what I'm planning to name my baby and what I really wanna say to all those people who ask this incredibly sensitive question is that no matter what answer you provide, you're opening yourself up to unsolicited comments and criticism.

The name that you choose for your child will go with them throughout life. And of course, this is a personal decision that's based on countless factors. For parents who feel stuck in this very important decision, it can help to have some research to turn to. So does research provide any insight here? How can research help you to choose the best name for your child?

Let's find out!

------

Sign up for the Parenting Translator Substack, and follow along on Instagram.

Parenting Translator is hosted by Dr. Cara Goodwin and is produced by Earfluence.

Dr. Cara Goodwin, PhD, is a child psychologist and mother to three children who "translates" research on parenting and child development into information that is accurate, relevant, and useful to parents.

In this podcast and on my social media pages, I often discuss very controversial and sensitive subjects such as birth trauma and maternal morbidity. I've never used a trigger warning or a content warning on any of this material, and you might be wondering why. So my reasoning is not due to a lack of sensitivity, but rather is based in research. And I really wanted to explain this research to you so you can understand why I don't use trigger warnings and content warnings.

Let's discuss what the research says.
------

Sign up for the Parenting Translator Substack, and follow along on Instagram.

Parenting Translator is hosted by Dr. Cara Goodwin and is produced by Earfluence.

Dr. Cara Goodwin, PhD, is a child psychologist and mother to three children who "translates" research on parenting and child development into information that is accurate, relevant, and useful to parents.

Today we discuss the research on supplements, vitamins, and probiotics. What should parents think about in general when we're thinking about supplements and vitamins (non-medical treatments), the stuff you can buy off the shelf of a drugstore. There's a lot of misleading information led by huge marketing machines, so we asked Dr. Krupa Playforth (aka "The Pediatrician Mom") to give us answers on what's effective and what's harmful to our children.

 
------

Sign up for the Parenting Translator Substack, and follow along on Instagram.

Parenting Translator is hosted by Dr. Cara Goodwin and is produced by Earfluence.

Dr. Cara Goodwin, PhD, is a child psychologist and mother to three children who "translates" research on parenting and child development into information that is accurate, relevant, and useful to parents.

When I had my first child, I remember being thrilled to start solid food. I had planned to start with vegetable purees and then move to fruit and I stocked up on everything Gerber had to offer and I got my iPhone ready to record this big moment. However, much to my dismay, my baby seemed to hate it and acted like I was torturing her as I directed a spoon toward her mouth.

I did my research and I quickly learned everything I could about baby-led weaning.
------

Sign up for the Parenting Translator Substack, and follow along on Instagram.

Parenting Translator is hosted by Dr. Cara Goodwin and is produced by Earfluence.

Dr. Cara Goodwin, PhD, is a child psychologist and mother to three children who "translates" research on parenting and child development into information that is accurate, relevant, and useful to parents.

Women are still stigmatized for expressing anything but bliss in the transition to motherhood. So the goal of this episode is to spread awareness of the common mental health struggles during the postpartum period, and we'll specifically cover postpartum depression, postpartum anxiety, postpartum psychosis, and other common postpartum symptoms such as intrusive thoughts and postpartum rage.

Let's dig into how to improve our postpartum mental health.

------

Sign up for the Parenting Translator Substack, and follow along on Instagram.

Parenting Translator is hosted by Dr. Cara Goodwin and is produced by Earfluence.

Dr. Cara Goodwin, PhD, is a child psychologist and mother to three children who "translates" research on parenting and child development into information that is accurate, relevant, and useful to parents.

Today we're discussing the research behind redshirting - delaying kindergarten or school entry for a year. This seems to be an increasingly popular trend for giving your child a competitive advantage.

The growing popularity of redshirting may have been started by Malcolm Gladwell's bestselling book, Outliers, which claims that a child being relatively older than their peers provides an advantage.

But what does the research say?

------

Sign up for the Parenting Translator Substack, and follow along on Instagram.

Parenting Translator is hosted by Dr. Cara Goodwin and is produced by Earfluence.

Dr. Cara Goodwin, PhD, is a child psychologist and mother to three children who "translates" research on parenting and child development into information that is accurate, relevant, and useful to parents.

Kate Baer has always been a writer, and as soon as she became a mother, her blog and essays became about motherhood. Even with success, she felt boxed in, that people weren't respecting her work as literary. So she took a break for four years and started working on a novel - but then she started to cheat on that novel with poetry.

That poetry has become a gift for mothers, art that makes us feel like we’re not alone. It verbalizes a lot of the things we’ve been scared to say out loud because it’s taboo or it seems like this isn’t what a good mother would say.

Today, Cara chats with Kate about her writing and motherhood journeys, and asks about some of her favorite poems.

Kate Baer is the 3x New York Times bestselling author of What Kind Of Woman, I Hope This Finds You Well, & And Yet. Her work has also been published in The New Yorker, Literary Hub, Huffington Post and The New York Times.
------

Sign up for the Parenting Translator Substack, and follow along on Instagram.

Parenting Translator is hosted by Dr. Cara Goodwin and is produced by Earfluence.

Dr. Cara Goodwin, PhD, is a child psychologist and mother to three children who "translates" research on parenting and child development into information that is accurate, relevant, and useful to parents.