ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the time frame where many parents try to resume normality as quickly as possible. The perinatal period is often a time where parents receive advise and information whilst in the process of establishing relationships with their new-born infant. Most of the post examination is to confirm what has already been noted or observed during the ultra sound scans prior to birth. The infant will be wet from the amniotic fluid and bloodied from the birth canal. The Healthy Child Programme – Pregnancy and the First Five Years of Life provides an evidence-based programme of interventions aimed at optimising foetal and infant wellbeing by supporting expectant parents: universal services, universal plus services and partnership plus services levels of interventions. Infant feeding preferences and the reasons for parental choice continue to be culturally embedded and generationally bound.
