Author: Jane Svensson

Author title: Co-Editor IJBPE & Clinical Midwifery Consultant for Health Education and Diversity Coordinator, Royal Hospital for women, Sydney, Australia

Description: Jane Svensson reflects on the transition to parenthood in a digital age.

Keywords: Gen Z parenting, Gen Y Parenting, mental health support, late pre-term babies, HUG your Baby, Read the Signals, Raising Children Network, Koala Tree

Author: Benedetta Costa, PT, Maryam Mozafarinia Ning Desiyanti Soehartojo, Jan Tedder

Author title:
Benedetta Costa, PT, International Association of Infant Massage (IAIM) Trainer – Centro Papillon, Genoa Nervi, Italy
Maryam Mozafarinia, MSN, PhD, Montreal Children’s Hospital, Montreal, Canada
Ning Desiyanti Soehartojo, MD, IBCLC, Baby & Beyond Publika and Child Specialist Clinic, Kuala Lumpur, Shah Alam, Malaysia
Jan Tedder, BSN, FNP, IBCLC, HUG Your Baby, Durham, North Carolina, USA

Description: Late Preterm Infants (LPIs), increasing in number worldwide, face significant increased morbidity and mortality and lower breastfeeding rates. Their parents suffer from high rates of anxiety and depression. Furthermore, maternal-child professionals - and the parents they serve - often lack understanding of specific LPI behaviors and needs. Guided by Responsive Parenting literature, HUG Your Baby concepts and parent education research, two new resources were created for LPI parents, and a free virtual workshop was provided to maternal-child professionals (N=164) from twenty countries. The majority (95-100%) of participants completing the post workshop evaluation (N=112) reported the workshop was evidence-based, had met their continuing education goals, and that they intended to incorporate its concepts and resources into their care of LPI families. Thus, this virtual workshop, its new resources, and recent research about the positive impact of digital parent and professional education appear to offer a promising approach for enhancing international LPI care.

Keywords: Late Preterm Infant, parent education, Responsive Parenting, HUG Your Baby, virtual education, Read the Signals, Bring the Womb to the Room

Author: Nicole A. Marsden & Dhara T. Meghani

Author title:
Nicole A. Marsden, Trauma Therapist and Clinical Psychologist, Chicago Child Trauma Center, La Rabida Children’s Hospital, USA
Dhara T. Meghani, Associate Professor, Clinical Psychology PsyD Program, School of Nursing and Health Professions, University of San Francisco, USA

Description: General self-efficacy is a motivating factor for action in the face of new and complex tasks, and this construct has been extended to feelings of efficaciousness in the transition to parenting (parental self- efficacy). Research on the relationship between an individual’s general self-efficacy and their parental self-efficacy is limited. The present study was part of a doctoral dissertation and utilized a longitudinal and dyadic design to examine the relationship between general self-efficacy, parental self-efficacy, and mental health across the transition to parenthood among 24 heterosexual couples becoming parents
for the first time. Results indicated that prenatal general self-efficacy predicted postnatal parental self- efficacy and that postnatal parental self-efficacy predicted postnatal anxiety and depression. This research provides considerations for further research and interventions aimed at boosting general self-efficacy for expecting parents as one way of promoting parental wellbeing in the postpartum.

Keywords: general self-efficacy, parental self-efficacy, transition to parenthood, mental health, web-based prenatal education, access to health records, parent education programmes, CBT, adoptive parents

Author: Ann Seward & Naomi Hackworth

Author title: 
Ann Seward, Parenting Research Centre, Melbourne, Australia
Naomi Hackworth, Parenting Research Centre; Murdoch Children’s Research Institute; School of Nursing & Midwifery, Latrobe University

Description: In a sea of online parenting advice, the Raising Children Network website (raisingchildren.net.au) publishes quality, evidence-based resources that parents trust. Resources are accessible and reflect audience diversity and information needs. The Raising Children Network’s goal is to build parenting capacity by providing parents with information to develop their parenting knowledge, skills and confidence.

Keywords: parenting, child development, digital parenting support, online parenting information, Parenting in Pictures

Author: Alison Prowle,

Author title: Alison Prowle, Senior Lecturer in Children and Families, University of Worcester, UK

Description: This article is based upon a research study with refugee and asylum-seeking mothers and the practitioners who support them in Wales, UK (Prowle, 2022). It considers the experiences of refugee parents, the myriad of challenges they face, and the kinds of support that they find most helpful. The study involved ten parents (two fathers and eight mothers), 33 multi-agency practitioners, and 15 strategic actors (local and national politicians and representatives of refugee charities). The research took a narrative approach with data drawn from lengthy semi- structured interviews with each of the participants. The article focuses mainly upon the perspectives of the eight mothers within the study, five of whom had children under five years old, and one mother who was currently eight months pregnant. For ethical reasons the participants‘ names have been changed.

Keywords: refugee, asylum worker, self-efficacy, dignity, choice, human trafficking, modern-day slavery, pregnant refugee, pregnant asylum seeker, liminality, familial framing

Author: Catherine Archer & Deborah Williams

Author title:
Catherine Archer, Senior Lecturer, School of Arts and Humanities, Edith Cowan University, Australia and Associate Investigator with the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for the Digital Child
Deborah Williams, Sessional Lecturer, School of Arts and Humanities, Edith Cowan University, Australia

Description: As professionals are aware, the transition to parenthood involves a steep learning curve for first- time parents, as they adjust to myriad changes in their lives. With most adults now also using social media on a daily basis, usually through their mobile (‘cell phone’) device, the added impact of the ever-present hand-held ‘screen to the world’ has introduced new complexities into becoming a parent. This article outlines the key challenges and benefits related to social media use for parents. We also discuss parents’ motivations to use social media and ways for practitioners to support parents. Further, we suggest parent education should now include discussion on guidelines for social media usage by parents and planning for the introduction of mobile phone technology (including social and digital media) to their children.

Keywords: social media, Facebook, Instagram, parents, mothers, mobile phones, parents and social media, parental mobile phone use, attention deficit, online parenting information, Ngala, influencer parents, momfluencers, screen time

Author: Rachelle M. Chee

Author title: Rachelle M. Chee, Associate Lecturer, School of Nursing, Midwifery and Social Sciences, CQUniversity Australia

Description: Engaging with social media is an intrinsic part of modern life and everyday social interaction for new parents. Generally speaking, new parents engage with social media as a matter of routine daily activity, but during the transition to parenthood may seek more customised experiences which satisfy their social and informational needs. Parents perceive an array of benefits to utilising social media when caring for an infant; however, both clinical care providers and parents recognise that to do so is not without risk. Childbirth educators and clinical care providers play a vital role in partnering with parents to navigate the abundance of parenting content on social media, and in the optimisation of parents’ experiences of social media use during a time of transition and vulnerability.

Keywords: Social media, parent, infant, education, new parenthood, online peer support, virtual peer-support networks, transition to parenthood, fact-checking, online bullying, portrayals of motherhood, parenting self-efficacy, Gen Z, Millennials, Gen Y, TikTok, online misinformation

Author: Penny Cole, Rosie Hare, Jess Haigh,

Author title:
Penny Cole, Training Development and Implementation Lead, Leeds Beckett University, UK
Rosie Hare, Licensing Manager, Jisc
Jess Haigh, Academic Librarian, Leeds Beckett University, UK

Description:
This article uses an autoethnographic approach to explore the information seeking behaviour (ISB) of three new mums – the authors of this article - during the Covid-19 pandemic. The authors recount their lived experiences of the Covid-19 pandemic, and how it impacted upon and influenced their lives as new parents. The focus is on how they searched for advice/guidance relating to child and postpartum health during this time because all the authors are information professionals and, in theory, ‘should know better’. Between them they have a wealth of experience in working with information of all types and teaching information literacy skills (Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals Information Literacy Group Information Literacy Group - CILIP ILG, 2018) to students, academics, professionals (in various sectors) and researchers. They wanted to share their stories to reinforce that everyone needs help navigating the sea of information available, especially when contact with health professionals is reduced, and to share ideas for developing professional and parent education.

Keywords:
perinatal mental health, perinatal education, health literacy, covid-19, pandemic, women’s experiences, maternity care, information seeking behaviour, information literacy, autoethnography, fawn response, antenatal support

Author: Kate Howen

Author title: Kate Howen, Lecturer in Primary Education, University of Worcester, UK

Description: As professionals working with children, the holistic care and development of each child are an immense responsibility. Teams of multidisciplinary professionals work with the same goal from within their specialist fields to enable real change in the outcomes for the most vulnerable children. Budget restrictions and stretched capacity often mean a sharper focus on those most in need. However, when it comes to tackling societal issues, such as stereotyping and inequality, culture shifts need to happen widely, and parenting is a crucial part of societal change. This article explores challenges around parenting styles, as each new generation of parents develops their own understanding of child development and their own role as parents.

Keywords: generational cycles, parenting styles, child development, social justice, equality, generational theory, emotional triggers, Family Cycle, targeted marketing, parenting adverts, newsfeeds, parenting strategies, social media network, conscious parenting, breaking generational cycles

Author: Amy Woolston

Author title: Amy Woolston, Director of The Koala Tree, UK, and Clinical Psychologist

Description: The Koala Tree Community Interest Company (CIC) is a psychological service for expectant and new parents who have struggled with the transition to parenthood. In the language of ‘services’, The
Koala Tree aims to work with parents who are experiencing mild - moderate perinatal mental health difficulties. In our language, The Koala Tree CIC is here to provide a much needed space to reflect on the process and impact of becoming a parent and to help develop an authentic and congruent identity as ‘mum’ or ‘dad’. At the Koala Tree CIC, we reject received wisdom and social media tropes, we reject the ideas of perfection and idealism and instead lean into recognising our struggles and missteps on the journey to being simply a ‘good enough’ mother or father.

Keywords: perinatal mental health, community, circle of security, group work, parenting self-efficacy, PSE, The Circle of Security Parenting, COSP, transition to parenthood, Hme-Start, The Koala Cuppa, The Dads’ Group

Sally Hogg, Senior Policy Fellow at the Centre for Play in Education, Development and Learning (PEDAL), University of Cambridge, UK

Emerita Professor Mary Nolan Founding Editor of the International Journal of Birth and Parent Education