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25 Sep 2008: The Second



A picture

Holding

Coping with pregnancy and parenthood are advanced skills that need time to develop, but the trouble is that it's not mathematics. There are no rules to this game and what's best to do depends on what kind of baby you're blessed with.

So there's a whole industry of books and experts who are willing to share their advice. Many of these consultants contradict each other and there are few principles on which everyone agrees. There's a lot of homespun logic out there, where an individual's experience has been promoted as universal law. Even bona fide medical experts like midwives and doctors have ideas that are not based on science but on "common sense".

At some point I realised the parenting industry was exactly the same as IT consultancy, where anyone can invent a set of "best practices" whilst actual research and evidence slumbers in the back seat, waiting for a nappy change.