Minding the baby a reflective parenting program.
Minding the Baby, an interdisciplinary, relationship based home visiting program, was initiated to help young, at-risk new mothers keep their babies (and themselves) "in mind" in a variety of ways. The intervention--delivered by a team that includes a nurse practitioner and clinical social worker--uses a mentalization based approach; that is, we work with mothers and babies in a variety of ways to develop mothers' reflective capacities. This approach--which is an adaptation of both nurse home visiting and infant-parent psychotherapy models--seems particularly well suited to highly traumatized mothers and their families, as it is aimed at addressing the particular relationship disruptions that stem from mothers' early trauma and derailed attachment history. We discuss the history of psychoanalytically oriented and attachment based mother-infant intervention, the theoretical assumptions of mentalization theory, and provide an overview of the Minding the Baby program. The treatments of two teenage mothers and their infants are described.
Slade
Arietta
A
City University of New York, Yale Child Study Center, USA.
Sadler
Lois
L
De Dios-Kenn
Cheryl
C
Webb
Denise
D
Currier-Ezepchick
Janice
J
Mayes
Linda
L
D000328:Adult; D016241:Child of Impaired Parents / Q000523:psychology*; D004493:Education; D005196:Family Therapy; D005260:Female; D006792:House Calls; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008016:Life Change Events; D008297:Male; D009035:Mothers / Q000523:psychology*; D010348:Patient Care Team; D018187:Personal Construct Theory; D011575:Psychoanalytic Therapy; D019962:Reactive Attachment Disorder / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy