Kareena Kapoor Khan Parenting Tips On Raising A Healthy Child

Kareena Kapoor Parenting Tips: From flaunting her baby bump to getting back to work a month after delivering her first baby, Indian female actor and a great mom, Kareena Kapoor Khan has shattered many stereotypes about motherhood.

She was always open about her pregnancy, its challenges and its happiness. Khan was among few celebrities who spoke about breastfeeding and its importance for the babies’ health. She set an example of managing motherhood and work proving that marriage and pregnancy don’t mean an end to the career of female actors in Bollywood. And now that she is going to welcome her second child soon, let us have a look at some of her notable parenting tips:

1. Pregnancy is a challenge for women

Kareena Kapoor Khan believes that pregnancy and motherhood is one of the challenging yet most fulfilling experiences in a woman’s life. Every mother out there has gone through multiple emotions while giving birth and raising a child because it is everything but not easy. Often, it pressurizes women and leads to consequences like post-partum depression. But Khan suggests to remain calm and feel the bliss of giving birth. Drawing from her own experience, Khan wrote in a blog, “I remember some long days and nights, without much sleep. Some were frustrating, as I tried inexpertly to calm my crying child. Some were simply bliss - as I treasured the new life that I had been able to bring into the world."

2. Breastfeeding and Vaccination is crucial

Talking about the importance of breastfeeding, Kareena Kapoor Khan writes, “We need to feed our newborn babies in the best way that we can: with our breast milk. To give your baby the best start in life that he or she deserves, start breastfeeding within the first hour of life - and feed the baby only breast milk, nothing else."

She believes that breastfeeding the child at least for the first six months not only provides nutrients and boosts the immunity of the baby but also creates a connection of love and care between the mother and the baby. 

She also advocates the importance of regular vaccination of babies until they are 1-year-old. Khan even became an advocate of UNICEF campaign, ‘Every Child Alive’ that endorses breastfeeding and vaccination of babies of age below 1. 

3. A happy mother raises a happy child

For Khan, the happiness of the child depends on the happiness of its mother. If the mother is happy, protected and healthy, she will be able to take better care of her baby. In an interview, Khan said that often mothers, especially working mothers, deal with a guilt of not caring for their child enough. But she added, “The most important thing for a working mother is to believe in her self…Be happy, believe in yourself and your child will automatically flourish.”

Recently, in an interview, Khan said that after delivery, "Once you feel fit enough, one should do what they feel like doing, and try to balance it out between giving time to the child as well as your work and yourself. I have always been very proud of being a working mother.”

4. Stay Away from superstitions and take the aid of medical practitioners

Khan strongly advises to not follow beliefs and stereotypes that might put your baby in danger. Always take the advice and support of the medical practitioners for taking any decisions for your baby. She also believes that the process of child-birth should be done under the supervision of skilled birth attendants. She wrote, “We need to challenge harmful beliefs and practices that are putting our babies in danger. We need to entrust ourselves to skilled birth attendants who are properly trained to look after us and our babies in the time around birth.”

Adding further, she penned, “If these people are not available, we need to demand them. No woman should give birth without help from a trained birth attendant. It is too dangerous."

5. Parenting is equally the father’s responsibility too

One crucial change in the idea of parenting is to make it feminist by dividing the roles equally between a mother and a father. Hearing the same from a celebrity adds to its inertia. Kareena Kapoor Khan rightly said, “It is a common proverb that there are many things which only a mother can do, but I believe that a father can also take care of a lot of such things.”  

Speaking about the support that she gains from her husband, Saif Ali Khan, she said, "I think that he does understand in a way, especially when it comes to working women — be it a mother, sister, wife or daughter. He understands and respects working women a lot. He gives us the space to do exactly what we want."

6. Raise equal sons and daughters

Raising feminist kids who respect every person irrespective of their gender or caste is the need of the hour. And Kareena Kapoor Khan has added this as an essential part of her parenting tips. She wrote, "We need to look after our girls just as well as we look after our boys. As females ourselves, it is incredibly sad that baby girls do not always get the same care that baby boys do. If your baby girl becomes unwell, get help for them just as quickly as you would do for a boy."

"It is time that we all make collective efforts to save newborns in the region," she added.