Infant Mental Health Week 2023
Written by Mama Base Founder & Director, Psychologist, Author and Mother - Rachel Bridge
As we round up the week of ‘Infant Mental Health Awareness’ I thought id take the opportunity to help educate our community and share my passion on the topic. When people first hear the term ‘Infant Mental Health’, it is often met with raised eye brows, perhaps looks of confusion about how a being who does not yet have the ability to walk or talk or take care of themselves, could experience mental health wellness and therefore mental health difficulties.
Here are some of the things we know…
· Infant Mental Health is distinct from child or adult mental health, meaning a specific and tailored approach to the care and support of an infants mental health is needed.
· Every year over 300000 babies are born in Australia (Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) 2020).
· Infancy is a unique time of rapid growth, when the brain develops in ways that will affect health and wellbeing over a lifetime (Friedman et al., 2015).
· Supporting caregivers to recognise the signs of mental health struggles in their infants is a key step to infants and families receiving the support they need.
· All infants, just like children and adults experience mental health on a continuum from healthy to unwell (Zeanah Jr & Zeahnah, 2019)
The way in which we as health professionals may work to support an infants mental health is to begin having conversations with caregivers about their child’s world, relationships and environment. It is through these conversations as well as witnessed interactions between the infant and their caregiver that we will be able to identify and respond to infant mental health struggles.
Infancy is a critical time for children to build string confidence and security in their environment. The ‘four S’s coined by Dr Tina Payne Bryson gives evidence to every human beings need to feel ‘Safe, Secure, Seen, and Supported’ beginning from infancy and stretching right through to our adult life experiences.
Research shows that the experiences and relationships we have in the earliest years of our lives, including before birth, impact on the development of our rbains. Stress and adversity experienced during pregnancy can impact on a babies physical and mental health as they grow. This does not have to be, and is not always an impact that is negative.
When awareness, education and access to support is readily available to mothers, birthing people, partners and families in pregnancy and postpartum, a positive impact can be achieved.
As Dr Oscar Serelac expressed, when a mother is well and care for, the whole family has the capacity to be well and cared for. Supporting the mental health and wellbeing of an infants primary caregiver, is the key to ensuring that the infant is receiving quality attachment care, protecting the impact of stress and adversity.
We believe that a mothers biological and instinctive desire to offer her baby the best quality care she has the capacity to give is honest and true. We also believe that the psycho social barriers to a mother accessing her full capacity can be of huge impact.
Our vision and ongoing driver at Mama Base is to ensure that every mother has access to a holistic array of supports and evidence based education n order for her to feel ‘Seen, Soothed, Secure & Safe’ which will in turn offer her access to her greatest capacity to ensure her baby feels ‘Seen, Soothed, Safe & Secure’.
Here at Mama Base, we are committed to the hope of this years Infant Mental Health Awareness Week, which is to increase awareness of the importance of bonding with baby before birth, and building support for the services which we know can help. To read more about this initiative, click on the link below.
https://parentinfantfoundation.org.uk/our-work/imhaw/#bondvideo