The Chenango County Health Department recently launched the “Childhood Chatter” podcast, which covers newborn and child care topics such as safe sleep, breastfeeding, vaccinations for mom and baby, and what to expect the first week you bring your newborn home. (Photo by Sarah Genter)

CHENANGO COUNTY — The Chenango County Health Department recently began a childcare-centered podcast titled "Childhood Chatter" to help area residents transition into parenthood.

"We’re always looking for a way to get messages out to the community and educate the community, so we thought maybe a podcast would be a popular way of relating this message so we figured we would give it a try," said Chenango County Health Department Nursing Director Heather Miller.

She said the main speaker on the podcast is Maternal Child Health Registered Nurse Charity Barber, who will be covering a range of infant and child health topics including safe sleep, breastfeeding, and vaccinations for mother and baby.

"She actually works a lot with families in the county doing the newborn visits where she can do assessments and provide education to parents that are coming home, and so we thought she would be the most appropriate person to talk on these podcasts," said Miller. "She took a certification course and had training on the topics that we talk about related to basically child health. So the goal of the podcast is to provide the community with reliable and safe recommendations and to help with the transition into parenthood."

The podcast will also feature occasional expert guest speakers, as well as another health department employee in the future.

An introduction episode was released on January 25, and the first official episode, titled "The First Week Home With Your Newborn," was released on January 31.

"They kind of discussed how to adjust, tips to adjust, and what to expect," said Miller. "It might be a scary time, but it’s also an exciting time."

Episodes of the podcast are available to listen to for free on Spotify, and Miller said they are exploring additional platform options as well. Links to the episodes will be posted on the Chenango County Health Department Facebook page as they are released on the first Wednesday of each month.

For the month of February, Miller said the episode will be broken down into three mini episodes, as the topic, "Vaccination and Immunization for Babies and Mom," was a large topic to cover in just one episode.

"We had an expert speaker there, Dr. Scott Cohen, who was participating in that, and that was such a big topic that we broke that one down into three mini episodes," Miller explained. "Just because there was a lot to talk about on that subject and it can be a lot of information, a little overwhelming sometimes. So we thought it would be more appropriate to break them down into mini episodes."

The mini episodes will be released on February 7, 14, and 21.

Miller said she hopes the podcast will help local parents with transitioning into the role of a parent, as well as provide safe and reliable information and tips.

Listeners who would like to see specific topics covered in the Childhood Chatter podcast can send their ideas to childhoodchatter@chenangocountyny.gov.

For more information on the Chenango County Health Department, visit chenangocountyny.gov/352/Nursing or the Chenango County Health Department Facebook page.