Having a Happy Baby Course

I had to share some of the fun I’m currently having, doing the Having a Happy Baby course at the Founding Church of Scientology in Washington, DC.  My wife an I did a fairly good job across our first year with Mackenzie, and now with a baby boy on the way, we wanted to both take advantage of this newly-released course at the Church to get a good grounding simple things we can do to make the next one come out as good as the first.

This course is one of a whole plethora of basic courses of study which can be done in any Church of Scientology in the world, and are based on the works of L. Ron Hubbard and center very specifically on various areas of life where Scientology can be of assistance.  This one, of course, deals with how to make a happy baby – both before and immediately after the baby is born.

The course isn’t meant to replace medical training or texts on the subject, but rather gives simple basics in areas that I’ve found are seriously lacking in other gigantic and ponderous texts that I’ve accumulated in my first year of parenting.

Here are some of the things included in the course:

• How disagreements, anger, and stress in the workplace of the mother can affect the child, and what to do about it.
• Simple basics on nutrition and medication vital for the expecting mother.
• How making a happy, healthy mommy affects the production of a health, happy baby.
• What daddy should be doing immediately after the baby is born.
• How to help mom recover quickly from the effects of childbirth.

There are tons of other things, but that’s a quick few things just off the top of my head.  L. Ron Hubbard had an intense love of children and intense care that they be raised well, and as such wrote continually about how various aspects of Scientology should be applied to children and childbirth – both to help the mother, and the new child.  So, it’s quite amazing to see all of these data come into play in one package in this course.  I’ve even read a number of these before in various books and essays, but as my mind was not on having a baby when reading them at the time, it’s really quite a different experience to get them all as compiled in this book.

One quote which I particularly liked, that I read today, is this one on Welcoming the Newborn:

Scientology parents make the baby part of the family at once.  They start talking to the baby.  They usually make very, very sure that the baby didn’t have a rough passage prenatally and that the baby had a decent and easy birth.

When a child arrives, the normal thing they tell the child is, “Well, how are you?  Glad you’re here.”

And you’d think offhand that this would simply be fond parental belief that the child was answering up, but it isn’t.  It’s amazing.

You tell a little baby, if you’re its parent, “We’re going to keep you.  It’s okay.  We’re going to keep you.”  And you always get a sigh!  They’re so happy about that.  It’s such a relief to them.

— L. Ron Hubbard

Really, my hat is off to Mr. David Miscavige for persevering through the work to restore the Scientology Basics, as that’s what allowed all this compilation work to take place in the first place.

If you haven’t checked out any of these new Scientology Life Improvement courses, I’d definitely give them a look!  Even if you aren’t in the market for a happy baby like we are!

Now THAT is an Aware Baby!

Sporting the Post-Bathtime Elvis Curl Action, originally uploaded by tadnkat.

Ever since she was first born, we’ve been getting comments that Mackenzie is the most aware baby they’ve ever seen. That’s an attribute she’s not shed in her first 7 months – she’s only become more aware, more alert, and just as happy.

Reflecting on things we’ve done as parents which could have contributed to that, there are a few factors which come up:

(a) No Drugs: Out of the 25 babies who were in the recovery room at the hospital when Mackenzie was born, Mackenzie was the only one that was born entirely natural, and with no drugs of any sort. We had a great midwife who had just given birth totally naturally to a set of twins, and was all for just working with my wife’s willingness to get that baby out. Even though there’s debate on how much the drugs such as an epidural, etc actually pass to the baby – the empirical evidence is that when momma had drugs, babies were less alert, less communicative, and less “there”. Now, as a Scientologist, I don’t debate that when you’ve medically got to have drugs to make the delivery go, you do whatever is necessary in the interest of the health of the mother and the baby. But in our case, it worked out great.

(b) Happy Household: In Dianetics, L. Ron Hubbard describes the massive effects a happy household can have on the health of a baby – and conversely, the detrimental effects on a baby’s health and happiness when the parents fight. My wife and I use Scientology to solve all of our day-to-day problems with communication, and haven’t had the occasion to fight at all since Mackenzie was born, or during the pregnancy.

I’m sure there are other factors – ones that Mackenzie herself can take the credit for – but the ones above I think are significant.