[blparent] New to list & resources for blind parenting

[Bridgit Pollpeter]

Hina,

First congrats on your pregnancy. I wish you the safest and as
comfortable a pregnancy as possible, smile. Second, there are a ton of
resources providing info with tips and advice for parents who are blind;
of course not all good, but that has to be the opinion of each
individual; sifting through what is available to discover what makes
sense to you in terms of what may work and what advice is valid. If you
haven't already, check the National Federation of the Blind website at:
http://www.nfb.org/nfb/Default.asp
There is info on about any blind issue on the website along with
providing other resources to check out. And seek out other parents who
are blind such as this listserve but also in your community.

The best advice I can give though, is to rest assure that 99% of your
questions and concerns are not specific to blindness and all new parents
feel the same way. Once that darling is there, like any parent, you
figure things out as you go along. When I first lost my vision at 22, I
was curious about how to parent nonvisually, but once I was dealing with
the situation, it didn't seem as overwhelming as I once had thought. I'm
not a biological mother, yet, but we have a two-year-old who is high
energy, and to date, the most difficult thing to figure out has been
what method works best to feed, which fortunately is no longer much of a
consideration since she eats pretty much everything on her own now. Now
all I have to do is make sure what she is eating, which is simple to do
by touching her food from time to time (of course with clean hands,
smile). My husband, who is also blind, has always been really great with
feeding her and didn't struggle with this as much as I did, but
thankfully, this has been my biggest obstacle thus far. Now we're
dealing with a future Picasso wanting to leave her work on every
surface, grin. I've now learned a few things to pay attention to to have
an idea when she may be leaving her tag on things such as the difference
in sound between paper and walls and furniture, how her voice sounds,
for instance, when she's coloring on a wall, she "sounds" different as
she's facing a wall and a small tip here, when she's quiet, this usually
means it's time to check up on her, ha-ha! When we get into the teens, I
will be flooding the list with posts!

So know that nonvisual parenting tips often are not different from how a
sighted parent would handle things, and even though we employ certain
methods and devices to aid in nonvisual parenting, once in the
situation, you get real good at problem solving on the spot.
Nonetheless, it's helpful to be armed and prepared for eventual
situations, and turning to this list is a great way to start. Best
wishes.

Sincerely,
Bridgit Kuenning-Pollpeter
Read my blog at:
http://blogs.livewellnebraska.com/author/bpollpeter/
 
"History is not what happened; history is what was written down."
The Expected One- Kathleen McGowan

Message: 27
Date: Sat, 31 Dec 2011 17:43:33 -0600
From: hina altaf <hinaaltaf1983 at gmail.com>
To: blparent at nfbnet.org
Subject: [blparent] a new member
Message-ID:
	
<CAODq+AcV8C9RVsgM7XCEoFncxqqwUZg5_OvFKN16FKh_wvfa3g at mail.gmail.com>
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Hi Everyone,
I am a new member to this list. My name is Hina and I will be a new
blind mother soon. I am expecting and am in the early months of my
pregnancy but this is going to be my first baby. I would like to know if
there are any places for training for a blind new mother that I could go
to or get help from? Also what are some of the suggestions you may have
for the early months of pregnancy? I am also trying my best to read some
information of how I could handle being a blind mother and would
appreciate any help. thanks. Hina.