Our kids need a glass of water. Or an extra hug. How do we get them to sleep? So much has been written about this with advice for exhausted parents. But it’s usually in the context of babies. Toddlers and older kids are a whole other ballgame.

Today on ParentData, we’re joined by perhaps our most practical guest ever. Jessica Berk is a toddler and preschooler sleep consultant. Together, we answer your questions, talk about sleep strategies, and explore why sleep is so important not just for kids, but also for parents.

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Book launch alert! We’re so proud to announce that “The Unexpected: Navigating Pregnancy During and After Complications” is hitting the shelves April 30!

Today on ParentData, Emily’s co-author, OB/GYN Dr. Nate Fox, returns to discuss the process of co-writing between two self-professed people-who-hate-group-projects, as well as how to have conversations with your doctor about pregnancy risks - and even just the whole idea of risk itself.

Pick up a copy of “The Unexpected” wherever books are sold. And subscribe to ParentData.org for free access to new articles every week on data-driven pregnancy and parenting.

Hiring a doula for your birth is, quite simply, a great idea. They’re non-clinical, cost-effective, and, as many mothers will attest, one of the most valuable parts of the experience - a value that is supported by data. The decision to have one should be pretty easy.

But actually crafting policy that captures that value is hard. Today on ParentData, we’re welcoming New York State Senator Samra Brouk, who is doing just that. Senator Brouk spearheaded an effort in New York to get doula services covered by Medicaid (which they now are, as of January 2024!). She explains her love of data, why doulas are important for maternal health - especially for Black women - and how to convince your older, perhaps non-doula-using colleagues that these issues matter.

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American kids are struggling. And there's a lot of discussion around the reasons why. Is it smartphones? Is it social media? Is it a hyper fixation on feelings and therapy?

Today on ParentData, we’re releasing an episode of Good Inside with Dr. Becky, which Emily joined to discuss the latest book making the rounds in parenting circles, Abigail Shrier’s Bad Therapy. They delve into what parental authority is and what it isn't, how minimization of risk is not a life strategy for kids or adults, and how we can hold two things are true - we can be authorities who also come from a same-team approach with our kids.

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As a parent, it’s extremely easy to get very focused on “doing it right.” Which means, usually, doing what is considered “right” in your particular time and cultural context. And sometimes, amid this pressure, we need a little perspective. Human history is long, and what is considered right has changed a lot.

Today on ParentData, we’re joined by author Jennifer Traig, who offers this perspective in spades. Her book “Act Natural: A Cultural History of Misadventures in Parenting” is a history of parenting (or at least child-rearing) from ancient Rome to Puritan New England to Dr. Spock. We’ve done it a lot of ways and we’re all still here…so we must be doing something right.

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We have all heard it takes a village to raise a child, but the reality is that many of us in the modern world, especially after the pandemic, are asking …well, where’s my village?! Where’s my community of people who will show up for me in joy, and in grief, and help me introduce my kids to a world that’s bigger than themselves?

Today on ParentData, we welcome Rabbi Sharon Brous, whose book “The Amen Effect: Ancient Wisdom to Mend our Broken Hearts” is about just this: finding community, finding your people, sometimes in faith, sometimes not, but who always show up for you, in both the good times and the bad.

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In January, ParentData launched a new newsletter — Hot Flash — authored by Dr. Gillian Goddard. Hot Flash covers women’s health in the post-reproductive years. Think perimenopause and menopause, but also the late reproductive years, when you’re done having children but still, technically, might be able to do so. This week in Hot Flash, Gillian wrote about birth control at this stage — how do you think about birth control when you know it’s forever?

Today on ParentData, Gillian joins us to walk through it all: from hormones to IUDs to surgeries. We talk about risks, benefits, trade-offs, and more.

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Invisible labor. It’s the work — in our households especially — that has to happen but that no one sees. It’s making the doctor’s appointment, ensuring the Valentine’s cards are purchased, remembering the milk. When we think about equity in household labor, we often find that there are already inequities in the visible work, and they can become insurmountable when the invisible work is added in.

Today on ParentData, Eve Rodsky joins with some solutions to this seemingly endless task list of problems. Her book, “Fair Play: A Game-Changing Solution for When You Have Too Much to Do (and More Life to Live),” and the movement it’s inspired, aims to rebalance workloads and encourage hard conversations, saving time, sanity, and even marriages along the way.

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Sex in long-term relationships, often after kids — it’s something many people struggle with. When we did a big ParentData survey on your sex lives, a lot of you expressed unhappiness, stress, and pressure about how much sex was the “right” amount, whether you were behind (or too far ahead!).

Today on ParentData, Emily Nagoski — sex researcher and author of “Come Together: The Science (and Art!) of Creating Lasting Sexual Connections” —  is here to talk about taking that pressure off and redefining normal. We dive into the anxiety long-term couples face, how much sex everyone else is really having and how little that should matter for you and your partner, and how to evolve sexually… together.

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Exercise. Whether you’re an athlete or just depend on activity for a little dose of sanity, the pregnancy and postpartum periods can knock you sideways and make you feel estranged from your own body.

Today on ParentData, Megan Roche — researcher, podcaster, and trail runner machine — joins to discuss how to ease back into activity postpartum, why women’s health is understudied, and the value of carbohydrates. But the conversation goes beyond just sports. It’s also about how to return to the things you love to do after becoming a parent — and feel a little more like yourself.

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Through coos and cries, babbles and thbbbbts, babies are learning how to communicate from the earliest days of life. Language development is a magical opportunity to watch a child learn to engage with both you and the world. It also feels highly consequential, and for so many parents, it’s an incredibly stressful milestone. Watching your kid learn to talk is at once neat and frustrating and harrowing, all the more so when we realize that even the experts are often scratching their heads about how it all works.

Today on ParentData, Professor Michael Frank joins to explore the question of how children learn to speak. We talk about how language develops, the difference between receptive and expressive language, whether the pandemic had a significant impact, and which language is the hardest for kids to learn (spoiler alert: it’s Danish).

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