Providing essential knowledge and understanding that midwives, health visitors, nursery nurses and lay birth and early parenting educators need to deliver effective and evidence-based education to all new parents and families, this book explores key issues in perinatal education.
Bringing together research and thinking around preconception and birth, infant sleep, nutrition, attachment and development, it also includes chapters on topics of growing importance, such as preconception education, LGBTQ+ parent education, the role of parenting advice, parent education across different cultures and teaching antenatal classes online. Each chapter includes a key knowledge update and pointers for practice.
This wide-ranging and practical text is an important read for all those supporting new parents from pregnancy through the first 1000 days, especially those delivering antenatal care and birth and early parenting education.
Part I: Preconception education 1.Preconception health, education and
care: The earliest intervention. 2.Improving health and well-being before,
between and beyond pregnancy. 3.Would you like to become pregnant in the next
year? The key question® initiative in the United States. 4.Breastfeeding
promotion in early learning settings. Part II: Building Parents
Relationships with their Infants from Pregnancy Onwards. 5.Stressed pre-
birth? How the foetus is affected by a mothers state of mind. 6.Commentary:
Motherhood in conditions of war- Biological and psychological routs to infant
development. 7.Attachment: A play of closeness and distance. 8.Just chatting
with a baby is more than you might think. 9.The musical key to babies
cognitive and social development. 10."Daddys Funny!" Fathers playfulness
with young children. 11.Creative play spaces: Finding the space for play.
12.Role of the parent-child attachment relationship. 13.The transition to
parenthood and early child development in families with LGBTQ+ parents. Part
III: Preparation for Labour and Birth. 14.Commentary: A Mindful approach to
childbirth education and preparation for childbirth. 15.Preparing women for
homebirth. 16.The power to transform: Freeing womens instinctual potential
for giving birth through body-centred preparation in pregnancy. Part IV:
Education and Support for Parents of Twins. 17.Sleep patterns of twins.
18.Breastfeeding twins. 19Helping parents understand and navigate the twin
bond. Part V: What parents need to know about sleeping, weaning, and the
media. 20.Infant sleep and feeding in evolutionary perspective. 21.Sleep in
early childhood: The role of bedtime routines. 22.Food fussiness in early
childhood: Assessment and management. 23.Weaning a baby onto a vegan diet.
24.A Relationship-based framework for early childhood media use. Part VI: The
How of education and supporting parents 25.Commentary: Tug of War- Could
polarised parenting advice cause harm? 26.Exploring the application (or use)
of educational theory in perinatal parenting through four theorists. 27.Group
intervention to treat fear of childbirth with psycho-education and relaxation
exercises. 28.Commentary- parenting programmes are not culturally relevant to
many communities. 29.Approachable parenting: The five pillars of parenting
pregnancy and beyond programme for Muslim families. 30.Heteronormative
obstacles in regular antenatal education and the benefits of LGBTQ certified
options: Experiences among prospective LGBTQ parents in Sweden. 31.A
psychodynamic approach to working with pregnant teenagers and young parents.
32.Fathers prenatal relationships with their baby and her pregnancy-
implications for antenatal education. 33.Tips for facilitating antenatal
education online.
Mary Nolan is well known for her work in perinatal education. She has published numerous articles and several books in the field, the most recent being Parent Education for the Critical 1000 Days. She has been Professor of Perinatal Education at the University of Worcester for 15 years and Honorary Professor at Nottingham University for 10 years. Prior to her University appointment, she worked as a birth and early parenting educator and trainer across the UK and in France, Belgium, Germany, Australia and New Zealand. In 2013, she was one of the founders of the International Journal of Birth and Parent Education and its first Editor-in-Chief.
Shona Gore has facilitated antenatal and perinatal courses in the UK for those in the transition to parenthood during a 30-year career in childbirth education, relationship and birth education in schools (including for children with special learning needs) and workshops in adult education for NHS and Early Years Practitioners. In association with the Universities of Bedfordshire and Worcester, she has devised and taught courses to train NCT practitioners from entrance to degree level. In 2013, with Mary Nolan (Editor-in-Chief), she founded the International Journal of Birth and Parent Education.
