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

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