Having children is a moment in life that modifies the plans of a couple in such a way that some decide to make a more or less quick parenthesis, have at that time the two or three children they wanted to have and then move on with their lives.
This means that many times the second comes when the first is not yet two years old , and this is not recommended for the baby or the mother, and is the subject of debate as far as the availability of the parents is concerned. Let’s talk about it all:
The risk of having the second baby too soon
Several studies have shown that very close pregnancies are more dangerous than others. One we discussed two years ago and he saw that in women who had another baby before 12 months was 20.1% of premature births, in which it had before 18 months occurred in 10% of the occasions and that in which they waited more than 18 months it happened in 7.7% of the deliveries .
These data contrast with what the US Center for Disease Control released last year when it explained that 30 percent of American couples do not wait long enough between pregnancies.
Thus, it is concluded that the ideal is to wait 18 months after delivery to become pregnant again, being even better that the difference is two years, as recommended by the WHO.
But there is also a maximum: from 59 months (almost 5 years) the risk of preterm labor and low birth weight also increases, as well as the risk of suffering from hypertension during pregnancy.
Will it be small if we go for the second one now?
It is the million dollar question for those parents who do not want just one child. How long do I have to wait to find the second one? Is it still very small? This is always at the discretion of each father and mother, because there are couples who prefer to have them quickly, get involved in raising them all at once and end the baby phase sooner, and others who prefer to space it out a bit, go from a baby that stops be it to another who has just been born, and spend more years caring for little ones, but with a little more calm.
When they have asked me, I always answer the same thing, that the minimum that (I personally) consider recommended is three years , or what is the same: seek pregnancy when the first child has reached two years (or even a little more), so that it is born from the three of the previous one.
I explain it like this because my children were born with that difference (three years between them) and in that way what we did was combine the time when one left the diaper and more or less was already a little older with the baby care than had just arrived.
At three years of age, a child is still very young, of course, but he is old enough to be a little “detached” from his mother and need her a little less, being able to play only for a short time as well as to get along well with staying with him. parent or even with a grandparent, uncle or relative with whom you have a little confidence.
With two years this is more complicated because many are still very attached to their mothers (they are like a satellite always orbiting them) and it is a bit more complicated to reason with them, because their understanding is more limited. Come on, they can take a little worse that, even needing time and care, they receive less for the birth of a baby brother.
And even so, at three years old, there will be many children who have a relatively bad time, partly because of their parents, who when we see a small baby at home we go to see our three-year-old with different eyes: as if from Suddenly he would have grown a lot , was very old and had to have responsibilities, obligations and capacities that until then we had not asked him (I will explain it because it happened to us, and it is not fair for them).
So, in short, each mother and father can have their children as often as they prefer, being recommended (I repeat, in my opinion, that it does not have to be the best for the rest of the families) to give a little margin to the first so that it grows, is a bit autonomous and does not depend too much on the mother (if she is the one who is going to spend more time caring for the new baby), and waiting if it can be 18 months to the next pregnancy to reduce the risk of being born prematurely or underweight.
Photos | Philippe Put, Dan Harrelson, Ryan Dickey on Flickr
In Babies and more | The recommended spacing between pregnancies, Waiting a short time between pregnancies increases the risk of preterm birth, How long to wait between pregnancies?
