By Rita Brhel, managing editor and attachment parenting resource leader (API)
**Originally published in the Spring 2007 annual New Baby issue of The Journal of API
It was a big day for me, my husband, and my …

By Rita Brhel, managing editor and attachment parenting resource leader (API)
**Originally published in the Spring 2008 New Baby issue of The Journal of API
So many first-time moms are caught off-guard by their emotions after giving …

By Rita Brhel, managing editor and attachment parenting resource leader (API)
**Originally published in the Spring 2008 New Baby issue of The Journal of API
I love babies, especially the newborns. I love breastfeeding, babywearing, co-sleeping, the …

By Rita Brhel, managing editor and attachment parenting resource leader (API)
**Originally published in the Spring 2008 New Baby issue of The Journal of API
One year, two years, five years, ten years – just what is …

By Rita Brhel, managing editor and attachment parenting resource leader (API)
My youngest daughter is turning one year old this month. It’s amazing how much she’s changed since she was born - she’s learning to walk, waves …

By Rita Brhel, managing editor and attachment parenting resource leader (API)
As a child, I was terrified of the dark. I still am, to a lesser extent. In order to move around my house at night, …

By Rita Brhel, managing editor and attachment parenting resource leader (API)
Ensuring safe sleep and striving for balance are among the trickiest of Attachment Parenting International’s Eight Principles of Parenting to follow, but probably the most …

By Rita Brhel, managing editor and attachment parenting resource leader (API)
Even as late as a generation ago, teasing was considered almost a rite of passage for school-age children. It was seen as the natural establishment …

By Rita Brhel, managing editor and attachment parenting resource leader (API)
It has only been about 20 years since Dr. William Sears coined the term “Attachment Parenting” in reference to a set of nurturing parenting practices, …

By Rita Brhel, managing editor and attachment parenting resource leader (API)
Kids today are busier than any generation before.
School-aged children and teens have ample opportunities to fill their free time with extracurricular activities, and many parents …

By Rita Brhel, managing editor and attachment parenting resource leader (API)
Being scared of the dark is a widespread nighttime issue for young children, and in the great majority of the time, the root of this …

By Rita Brhel, managing editor and attachment parenting resource leader (API)
One in five pregnant women will have her labor induced, for varying reasons. Some of these reasons are valid; others are not. Catherine Beier of …

By Rita Brhel, managing editor and attachment parenting resource leader (API)
For many people, grandparenting comes as easy as the love they felt for their own children.
But not all grandparents live close enough to visit their …

By Rita Brhel, managing editor and attachment parenting resource leader (API)
Most parents who practice Attachment Parenting (AP) aren’t concerned about their children becoming bullies. After all, the goal of AP is to teach children empathy, …

By Rita Brhel, managing editor and attachment parenting resource leader (API)
It can be shocking to parents when their voracious eater suddenly begins refusing food when he enters the toddler years. Sometimes, he even skips a …

By Rita Brhel, managing editor and attachment parenting resource leader (API)
Pregnant women know better than anyone how connected they can feel to the new, little life growing inside them - even if the baby is so …

By Rita Brhel, managing editor and attachment parenting resource leader (API)
My friend, Nicole, and her husband both work full-time. Their two-year-old daughter spends the day with a childcare provider who has watched her since she …

By Rita Brhel, managing editor and attachment parenting resource leader (API)
Sadly, the challenge of encouraging your child to eat nutritiously doesn’t get any easier as he grows. As they become more independent thinkers, school-aged children …

By Rita Brhel, managing editor and attachment parenting resource leader (API)
Attachment Parenting International’s Eight Principles of Parenting calls parents to feed their children with love and respect. With infants, this easily translates into breastfeeding or …

By Rita Brhel, managing editor and attachment parenting resource leader (API)
There is a widespread belief that to be a good Attachment Parenting (AP) family, one parent must stay at home with the children full-time and …

By Rita Brhel, managing editor and attachment parenting resource leader (API)
Of all the changes that take place in a woman’s body during pregnancy, the most uncomfortable for an estimated 70 percent of women - as reported …

By Rita Brhel, managing editor and attachment parenting resource leader (API)
Perhaps you and your spouse have decided that stay-at-home parenting is valuable for your family, and you’re trying to decide who, between you, is the …

By Rita Brhel, managing editor and attachment parenting resource leader (API)
One in three women (31.8%) in America is now giving birth to their children via a Cesarean section. The highest rate in history for this nation, …