Re the mom who wants to go back to class when the baby is a newborn:
Everybody is different.  If she is young and healthy and the birth goes
well, why can't she go back to class, with baby in tow?  I did this with
Miranda when she was a newborn -- well, 3 weeks old.  She nursed and slept
while I listened to lectures and took notes.  It worked until she was about
4 months old and started spending more time awake and alert and cooing, and
wouldn't nurse just because it was time for class.  If the mom sits by the
door and tells the professor she will leave at the first sign of trouble, I
would hope that s/he would think it was just fine.  It is also probably a
good idea for the mom to bring the stroller to class, so if baby is sleeping
or falls asleep, he can be laid down in the stroller to sleep, and for mom
to bring a friend to hang around outside with a book, to take the baby if
need be.

While some women are incapacitated by labor and delivery, and need six weeks
or more with their babies to recover, many others bounce back fine and are
able to get right back to whatever they were doing, with baby in tow.  Every
woman is entitled to have what she needs.  We shouldn't paint labor and
delivery as this huge physical upheaval that the mom is totally
incapacitated by -- because many women are not.  Nor should we expect all
moms to be ready and willing to leave their babies at six weeks post-partum
-- because many women are not.

See following email for another example.

Kathy Dettwyler

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