staying positive...

Kitten80

I am a SLP and clearly remember a day during my master's program in which we were discussing all the wonderful syndromes, disorders, birth defects, etc. etc. etc.  The twenty something of us twenty-something women looked at each other and then kindly told the professor that we were all close to marrying and having children and were now terrified to do so. 

 Keep in mind that I work with children of varying degrees of need all day, so I am always trying to remind myself that not every child will have severe needs, but I had it with the majority of the pregnancy books.  Like a nerd, I ran to the library the second I suspected I was pregnant and checked out half a dozen books at a time.  At the time, my husband had just left for his 6 month business trip and didn't know so I couldn't ask anyone questions and we didn't have the internet at home.  However, a good majority of these books scared me more than helped me.  I figured that once I was through the first 6 - 12 weeks and they got through all the initial information I was safe, but not really the case.  Every so often out of nowhere it will go into pages on some other disorder, syndrome, etc. I am so sick of reading all the coulds that I can't prevent that I stick to what the baby is forming & how big it is. 

 Anyone else work with the special populations and find themselves trying to focus on the good to avoid any further stress (bad for baby!) about all that could go wrong? 

RachaelNicole

I work with ED kids and kids with behavioral problems. So, along with all the syndroms and disorders, I also worry about emotional and behavioral problems. DH says my job gives me good parenting experience, but I am afraid it will give me a skewed sence of what is normal. "Oh, you mean your kid doesn't throw textbooks at people?"

meanbearkitty

i'm a resource teacher and agree that it's hard to not worry about special needs when you work with kids that have them everyday.  i just try to remind myself that what's meant to happen will happen and no amount of worrying will change it.