As part of the Great British writeoff hosted by spiderkid I have decided to (belatedly even though I know it's closed already) review this movie hosted by the author of the book Secrets of the Baby Whisperer, Tracy Hogg, who is indeed British. She did move to the United States, but she has an accent and a few of the couples in the video are British, and they even drink tea because it is 'civilized'.

There now that I have defended my entry in this writeoff I will get to the video. This video is considered a companion to the book. I have to admit I started to read the book but when I found out there was a video gave up on the book and just watched the video instead. I can not say how closely they relate to each other, but a lot of topics were covered in this dvd.

The video is 74 minutes long and divided into chapters. It begins with a checklist of what to do before baby arrives, like having the nursery all set up and then it goes to bringing home your newborn. She emphasizes throughout the video that you should treat your new one like a human being. Don't just do things to your baby, tell your baby what your are doing. She suggests giving your baby a tour of their home upon first arrival home from the hospital. And doing things like saying 'I'm going to take off your diaper now' just to give them a warning that it's going to be cold down there soon.

The next few sections cover Hogg's acronyms. The first one is E.A.S.Y, which stands for Eat, Activity, Sleep, You. She suggests that be the order for your baby's day. You being time for the new parents while baby is sleeping. Then she covers S.L.O.W. for what to do when your baby is crying. It stands for Stop, Listen, Observe, What's Up?. With What's Up meaning figuring out what is wrong and being able to calm your baby at that point.

She talks about the 5 different types of babies, I think mine is a Grumpy, and I wish he was an Angel! And now that she has presented a game plan she goes into some of the basics of taking care of your baby. She covers breastfeeding, burping, bottle choices, changing diapers, bathing, and some suggestions on sleep as well as swaddling. And interspersed throughout the video are question and answer sessions with parents about their babies. In all the examples there is Tracy talking about it with a baby and a parent (usually both or just the mother) in each scene. In the breastfeeding one the mother talks about her personally experiences with soreness and having to pump but being pleased that he is getting breastmilk. Another mother says she chose not to breastfeed and asks Tracy if she should be upset that she didn't when other family members have with their children.

At the end of the video Tracy talks about her website www.babywhisperer.com, some products she recommends (but that she is not an endorser for), and an invitation to watch her other videos.

I thought this video would be very helpful to parents who are just about to have their baby or are new parents. I originally watched this video in May (when I was 5 months pregnant) and a lot of it didn't really have the meaning it does when I rewatched it yesterday having an almost 2 month old baby. I have not perfected the eat and then activity part as my baby loves to fall asleep after eating, but that will change as he gets older I am sure. But the video is really good because you get to see how to do things. You can read instructions on burping baby, but seeing two people with a baby doing two different types (Tracy recommends a rubbing motion rather than patting) really sinks in a lot better.

You could tell that the parents were acting sometimes. Like a dad puts a bottle in the microwave and Tracy stops him, which is obviously set up. And the 'newborn' babies all seem to be able to hold their heads up amazingly. But the parents/families were real (according to the credits) and they represented a variety of people with different attitudes. Also it wasn't just all White families, there were a couple Black families as well and one that looked Indian or Middle Eastern. And one of the question and answer sessions had a single mother.

There were a few special features on the dvd. There were extra parent question and answer sessions, a lullaby, a color palette which some info on how colors might affect your baby, and a biography of Tracy Hogg.

And the biography is the only part that bothered me at all about this video. Tracy Hogg is not a mother. She does great with other kids, but it not a mom herself. It's just a teensy bit difficult to take parenting advice from someone who is not a parent.

Overall I really liked this video. It would have been more useful to me in the first couple weeks of being home, but I still thought it was well presented and reminded me of a few things to do even now that my son is a little bit older. I recommend this video without hesitation to any parent to be or new parent.

Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: None of the Above
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older