6 pre-parenthood questions

4. Diapers: Disposable or Cloth?
Fortunately, this is a decision that can be changed as easily as…a diaper.
Disposables
• convenient
• require less frequent changing
• "green bin" programs (now operating in some Canadian cities) collect soiled disposables to make into high-quality compost for parks and farms
Cloth
• much cheaper (even with the cost of
laundering)
• environmentally friendly
Other things to consider
• It's illegal to dispose of human feces in landfills, so discard any solid waste in the toilet before throwing the diaper out in the regular garbage.
• If your community has a cloth-diaper service, you can hire it to pick up, launder and deliver on a weekly basis.
• There's no reason why you can't use both: cloth at home; disposables away.

5. Should we have our newborn son circumcised?
Some choose to circumcise for religious reasons; others so that the boy's genitals will be the same as his father's. But the Canadian Paediatric Society states that there is no medical reason to circumcise a baby and several provinces no longer cover circumcision under their medical insurance plans.

Circumcisions are generally performed without anesthetic because there is no general or local anesthetic safe enough to give to newborns and because, up until recently, the medical profession believed that newborns didn't feel much pain or that they wouldn't remember pain. Using the data from three separate studies, researchers from The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto analysed records on vaccinations given to 87 infants between the ages of four and six months. The results of the study, published in February 1997, found that male babies who had been circumcised reacted to the pain of the vaccination to a greater degree than did the female babies or the male babies who had not been circumcised. Another related study concluded with a recommendation that, during the circumcision procedure, a topical anesthetic be used to provide adequate pain control. Circumcision does pose some risks: infection, hemorrhaging and improper healing affect from two to 10 per cent of circumcised newborns.

6. What Maternity Leave and Parental Leave is available to us?
You will want to learn as much as you can about the options available in taking leave from work to care for your newborn. To find out which standards apply to you, you might check first with your employer's human resources department, then with the Ministry of Labour or its equivalent in your province or territory. Minimum provincial employment standards regarding leaves of absence and job protection vary from province to territory.

At the federal level, the government pays mothers on maternity leave through Employment Insurance. If a pregnant woman has been employed for at least
600 hours in the last 52 weeks before she gives birth, then she is entitled to 15 weeks of maternity leave (which includes a two-week unpaid waiting period). The benefits equal 55 per cent of the individual's earnings over a certain number of weeks up to a maximum of $413 per week in 2003.
Employment Insurance also entitles either parent (adoptive parents are included) to 35 weeks of paid parental leave. The parental leave benefits can be claimed by one parent or divided between them but it must be taken within one year of the child's birth or adoption.

Sickness benefits are also available for pregnant women unable to work due to a pregnancy-related or other health problem. These benefits, which are in addition to maternity and parental, can be claimed to a maximum of 15 weeks.
Information about these benefits is available at any Canada Employment Centre or Human Resources Development Canada office. Check the Government Blue Pages of your phone book.

Some family-friendly corporations or employers may offer benefits beyond the money and job protection offered by federal and provincial governments. You might be able to negotiate an extended leave with your employer to stretch your time at home with baby. One partner might be able to secure a leave of absence to start when the other's parental leave ends. Some couples save up vacation time and tack it on to their leave.

Excerpted and updated from Growing With Your Child, A Canadian Living Family Book (Ballantine, 1998), edited by Family editor Christine Langlois.