Expecting? Don’t forget to include your dog in your birthing plan

DECIDING what to do with the dog might not be high on a new mum’s to-do list, but experts say pets should be part of a birthing plan.

Young woman with her dog

DECIDING what to do with the family dog when labour begins might not be on the to-do list of every mum-to-be, but experts say it should be.

Colleen Safford, a “doggie doula”, advises parents on how to prepare their dog for sharing a home with a new baby.

Ms Safford, based in New York, said expectant parents should work with their pet, including brushing up on basic obedience commands like “sit” and “down”, which will come in handy when cradling a newborn.

Wearing baby lotion or even nappy cream and playing recordings of a crying baby before the child arrives can also be help, she said.

The actual introduction should be done in a slow, controlled manner, such as the parent holding the baby on a couch while the dog is in a sitting position on the floor, according to Mitch Marrow, founder of doggie daycare centre Spot Experience.

“You really have to introduce the baby in a calm, almost unaffected way. The dog is going to want to see what it is,” Mr Marrow said. “It’s hard when you have a new baby to remember that the dog was there first.”

When a 39-week pregnant Christa Boeke went in for a routine test at a local hospital, she told Brisco, her pet boxer and “first baby,” that she would be right back.

Hours later, she was still at the hospital, hooked up to a foetal monitor and awaiting an emergency caesarean section. Boeke began to panic — about her dog.

“He doesn’t like to be alone,” she said, explaining that Brisco once ate through a couch. “All I could think of was how I told him I’d be right back.”

Boeke, now a 38-year-old stay-at-home mum to a healthy two-year-old boy, is expecting again, and she’s already made arrangements for her dog when she goes in for a C-section later this month.

She’s lined up a roster of family and friends to care for both her son and Brisco, and warned them “not to forget about the dog” in favour of the toddler.