Vol 4 Issue 4
Focus on preconception education, FASD, and prematurity
IN THIS ISSUE:
- Making preconception health, education and care real
- The One Key Question® initiative
- Increasing potential of children prenatally exposed to alcohol
- Babies born close to term: What early years’ practitioners should know
- Roots of Empathy programme: Cultivating sensitive parenting
Author: Alison Prowle, Janet Harvell
Author title: Alison Prowle, Senior Lecturer; Janet Harvell, Senior Lecturer
Description: In this editorial, the authors discuss growing recognition among the agencies that support families at the Dunkirk refugee camp of the importance of play.
Description writer: Alison Prowle, Senior Lecturer, Centre for Early Childhood, University of Worcester, UK; Janet Harvell, Senior Lecturer, Centre for Early Childhood, University of Worcester, UK
Author: Jonathan Sher
Author title: Consultant
Description: This editorial discusses primary prevention and the opportunities - still largely untapped - to better understand, prepare and support the next generation of mothers, fathers and carers. The author’s definition of preconception also includes inter-conception education and care, i.e. to either avoid, or prepare for, the next pregnancy in response to the intentions of each individual woman and family.
Description writer: Jonathan Sher, Edinburgh-based Independent Consultant
Author: Peter McCaffery, Zaki Hassan-Smith
Author title: Peter McCaffery, Professor of Biochemistry; Zaki Hassan-Smith, Honorary Senior Research Fellow
Description: Parents from Asian backgrounds are concerned about vitamin D deficiency. In this article, two experts examine the evidence.
Description writer: Peter McCaffery, Professor of Biochemistry, University of Aberdeen; Zaki Hassan-Smith, Honorary Senior Research Fellow, University of Birmingham
Author: Jennifer Abbass-Dick; Lynn Rempel; John Rempel; Tran Huu Bich; Duncan Fisher
Author title: Jennifer Abbass-Dick, Assistant Professor in Nursing; Lynn Rempel, Associate Professor in Nursing; John Rempel, Professor of Psychology; Tran Huu Bich, Associate Professor in Epidemiology; Duncan Fisher, Family Initiative
Description: Support for families is critical for the success of breastfeeding: if fathers and family members are supportive of breastfeeding, the mother is more likely to initiate breastfeeding and to breastfeed for longer.
Description writer: Jennifer Abbass-Dick, Assistant Professor in Nursing, University of Ontario Institute of Technology, Canada; Lynn Rempel, Associate Professor in Nursing, Brock University, Canada; John Rempel, Professor of Psychology, University of Waterloo, Canada; Tran Huu Bich, Associate Professor in Epidemiology, Hanoi School of Public Health; Duncan Fisher, Family Initiative
Author: Lisa Bayrami
Author title: Director of Research
Description: Roots of Empathy is a community-based program, reaching primary school children in their classrooms, bringing together two of the most powerful influences in a child’s life, their families and their teachers. Four developmentally appropriate curriculums are at the basis of the program. The curriculum is divided into nine themes, with three classroom visits supporting each theme (pre-family visit, family-visit, and post-family visit).
Description writer: Lisa Bayrami, Director of Research, Roots of Empathy
Author: Michele Stranger Hunter
Author title: Founder and National Program Director of the One Key Question ® initiative
Description: This article is the story of the author’s attempt to shift the paradigm in the United States from pre-pregnancy issues being largely ignored in primary care to one in which health professionals take the initiative to open conversations with women about preconception matters, listen carefully and respond appropriately and respectfully to their often unaddressed concerns. While the context of health care in the US is different from that in the UK and Europe, the need to consider where, when and how to initiate conversations about potential rather than actual pregnancies is vital for early years’ practitioners everywhere who are striving to improve outcomes for children and their families.
Description writer: Michele Stranger Hunter, Founder and National Program Director of the One Key Question ® initiative; formerly Executive Director of the Oregon Foundation for Reproductive Health
Author: Elaine M Boyle
Author title: Associate Professor in Neonatal Medicine
Description: Preterm birth, defined as birth before 37 weeks of gestation, affects around 7-8% of all live births in England and Wales each year. This review focuses on challenges and outcomes of infants born moderately preterm (32-33 weeks’ gestation) and late preterm (34-36 weeks’ gestation), for whom evidence is still accumulating and about whom there is still much to learn. As increasingly well-informed parents ask more questions about prematurity, it is important that practitioners working in the very early years are able to explain current knowledge and the gaps in understanding that require ongoing research.
Description writer: Elaine M Boyle, Associate Professor in Neonatal Medicine, University of Leicester, UK
Author: Kathryn Shea
Author title: President and CEO
Description: This paper discusses the range of effects of prenatal alcohol exposure on the developing fetus, leading to possible life-long problems. Alcohol is most damaging to the developing brain, causing possible structural defects and functional deficits that can impact learning, behavior, social relationships, and a successful life. Early diagnosis/identification is critical so that appropriate interventions can be applied to enhance children’s capacity to develop to their greatest potential.
Description writer: Kathryn Shea, President and CEO, The Florida Center for Early Childhood
Author: Shusannah Morris
Author title: CEO
Description: The Life’s Little Treasures Foundation (LLTF) is Australia’s leading charity dedicated to providing support, friendship and information, specifically tailored for families of
children born premature or sick. The Foundation’s services are available in the hospital (neonatal and special care units) and in the community when families come home. LLTF works with families, hospitals and community health care professionals who deal with these families.
Description writer: Shusannah Morris, CEO, Life’s Little Treasures, Australia
