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You're listening to Life Kit from NPR.

Hey there, Andy Taggle here in for Mary El Segara.

There is so much preparation required for a new baby. As your belly grows, so too does the checklist of all the things you need to do to protect

that future little one, to baby proof every corner of your home and your life. From prenatal

vitamins to ultrasound appointments, finding the perfect car seat and signing up for

infant CPR. But what we don't think about as much is how to safeguard our

relationships, how to protect parents to be from the monumental change that a

new baby brings to a household. It's not that closely guarded of a secret that

your relationship tends to suffer quite a bit when you have kids, except it's not

something that a lot of people seem to be talking about and it's not something that people seem to

want to even think about. That's parent relationship educator and coach Aaron Steinberg

who introduced me to the idea of baby-proofing your relationship.

He actually teaches a whole course on the subject, because it's a pretty widespread need.

According to one study, nearly 70% of couples become dissatisfied in the relationship in the first three years of having kids.

It's not hard to understand why that might be.

You want to anticipate the fantasy of becoming the sweet little family and

everything becoming better and your relationship becoming closer.

And for most people that's partially true and partially true that other things happen like your relationship gets really threadbare and connection becomes really difficult.

Those little spats you get into now and then that perpetual fight about your monthly budget, all the ways your partner gets under your skin.

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