Getting to Know Your Baby videos have been designed to help parents, caregivers and health professionals to know how to support the development of a baby’s emotional wellbeing.
The videos help parents to observe their babies. Getting to Know Your Baby includes short videos of the six states of an infant’s consciousness: deep sleep, light sleep, drowsy sleep, quite alert, unsettled and crying – to help parents identify their own baby’s state, and think about what their feelings may be.
There is also information for AiMH members, to help parents identify how their baby likes to be soothed, and to recognise their subtle cues, likes and sensitivities. The videos get right to the heart of what parents can do to help their baby’s emotional brain develop, and to set the thermostat for managing stress. It shows parents watching their baby’s behaviour, wondering about their underlying feeling states, and responding with gentle voice, touch and gaze.
Bonding before birth: imagining the baby
Bonding before birth: imagining the baby shows the way in which parents begin to develop a relationship with their baby before he or she is born, and the way in which this can involve imagining what the baby will be like.
Why bonding matters: bonding and attachment
Infant attachment is the process by which babies build up what are known as internal working models (or maps) of their early interactions with key caregivers.
Early interactions: understanding and responding
Sensitive responding to the infant, using voice and touch, are important to enable a baby to develop a secure attachment to their primary caregivers.
Early interactions: reflective function
A parents’ ability to think about their baby’s behaviour, in terms of underlying feelings and intentions, is known as parental reflective functioning or mind-mindedness.
Early interactions: taking turns and rupture and repair
Taking turns and rupture and repair shows the way in which babies and their caregivers engage in the sort of conversational turn-taking that happens between adults.
Sleeping and soothing: soothing
There are lots of ways in which a parent can soothe a baby, and it is important for caregivers to identify what works best for their baby.
Getting to Know Your Baby: film thanks and credits (2014)
Warwick Infant and Family Wellbeing Unit and the NSPCC would like to thank: