Breaking Parenthood Taboos: Real Talk and Support for New Parents

2023-11-11 11:11:45

Welcoming a baby is happiness, but also difficulties. Some parents no longer hesitate to talk regarding it and raise their doubts. The magazine 15 Minutes met them and went to the Musée de la main in Lausanne, where the exhibition “Bébé en tête” aims to break the taboos around parenthood.

“For me, the challenge of a pregnant woman was to have a successful delivery and I thought that followingward it was all rosy. But in fact, I quickly understood that the real challenge began once the baby was in the womb. arms and I wasn’t prepared for that.” Anaëlle Burnand, mother of two children, has chosen not to keep quiet regarding her difficulties as a young parent.

“I have a baby who didn’t sleep much for the first seven to eight months of his life. I wanted to put people on notice and I didn’t feel like I had the right to talk regarding these difficulties” . She has since taken this step and even created a podcast which deals with parenthood in Switzerland.

Parents are much more open to talking regarding their difficulties

Anaëlle Burnand

“I think we are a generation that wants to change things,” continues Anaëlle Burnand. “Our generation is ready to say that there are magical sides to parenting, but that there are also great difficulties, especially in a society that demands to be perfect everywhere.”

>> Listen to the 15 Minutes report: Parents: when speech is freed / 12:30 p.m. / 2 min. / yesterday at 12:40

In the wake of #MeToo

In Lausanne, at the Musée de la main, the exhibition “Baby in mind” aims precisely to break taboos. Antje Horsch, head of the Lausanne UNIL-CHUV Perinatal Research Group, contributed: “It is important to break the somewhat idealistic image around the perinatal period.” She observes that ‘with the #MeToo movement, there is a liberation of speech.

On the sidelines of this exhibition, Anita Kruger, from the association Parents’ Gardenwill lead speaking workshops: “We talk a lot regarding pregnancy until childbirth, but less regarding what happens following birth. Particularly in our civilizations, there is a collective forgetting”, underlines this wise woman. -female.

In his eyes, “exchanging in a collective allows you to put things into perspective, it’s reassuring”. She observes that today’s parents say things that were not said in the past. They also ask themselves more questions: “We are saturated with information and we no longer know very well how to sort it.”

“There is a big stake for today’s parents,” continues Anita Kruger. “They also arrive later in parenthood and have big ideas regarding what they want from their children. They perhaps do less too, so the children must be successful!”

But while the birth rate is falling, doesn’t talking regarding these difficulties risk frightening the younger generation? “On the contrary, I hope that this will allow them to be better prepared and that it will help them,” concludes Antje Horsch.

Joëlle Cachin, Guillaume Rey

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