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Raleigh Baby Planner offers expecting parents guidance

In her work as a pediatric nurse practitioner, Colleen Parrish has found that her favorite moments are teaching new parents how to take care of their babies. She's launched Raleigh Baby Planner to help educate them.

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By
Sarah Lindenfeld Hall

In her work as a pediatric nurse practitioner, Colleen Parrish has found that her favorite moments are teaching new parents how to take care of their babies.

But Parrish, a Raleigh mom of two young children of her own, also felt like she never had enough time to tell them all they really needed to know during patient visits.

The result, she says: Parents bringing their infants to the doctor with common concerns such as fussiness or sleeping issues, often topics they might not be so worried about if they'd had the right preparation to begin with.

So Parrish has launched Raleigh Baby Planner to help parents begin their parenting journey. Through the business, Parrish will help expecting parents and new ones with everything from creating a baby registry and developing a birth plan to instruction about baby care basics and help with a fussy newborn. She'll connect them with other professionals in the area and help them sort through the different birth classes and other services that are offered.

Parrish brings lots of knowledge and personal experience to the business. She is a certified Happiest Baby Educator, which is based on the techniques developed by Dr. Harvey Karp to soothe fussy babies. She also is a certified lactation counselor and awaiting results from a test to become an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant. And she is a Certified Baby Planner through the International Academy of Baby Planner Professionals, which is part of the International Maternity Institute.

The baby planning industry is a growing one, thanks in some small part to Bravo's "Pregnant in Heels," which follows fashion designer and parent educator Rosie Pope as she helps high-end clients.

But Parrish said you don't need to be a millionaire ... or even close to one ... to be able to afford the services of Raleigh Baby Planner.

"A lot of people hear about baby planners and they think it's just a luxury service," she tells me. "In fact, it's not. It's really not expensive. You don't have to be wealthy to have a baby planner. Really, it's all about education."

Learn more about what Raleigh Baby Planner offers in my video interview with Parrish. Go to her website for all the details.
Parrish offers regular classes at GreenPea Baby in Apex and SmartMomma in north Raleigh. She also holds Happiest Baby on the Block classes. Check her blog for the latest.
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