When a baby arrives, everything changes. Parents must adapt to the 24/7 care of a new, vulnerable infant - an enormous task. Not surprisingly, 40 to 70% of couples experience stress, profound conflict and drops in marital satisfaction during this time, all of which affect their baby's care.

Given the increased interpersonal, social and economic pressure families' experience, especially fragile families with low to poverty level household incomes, it is particularly important to support these caregivers in their transition to parenthood.

The Bringing Baby Home project at the newly founded Relationship Research Institute seeks to address these problems. This study is primarily sponsored by Talaris Research Institute ($2.5 million over four years) with additional funding from the Kirlin Foundation ($600,000 over four years). The goal of the project is to learn more about the changes couples experience as they become parents, and to discover ways to help them make the transition with greater ease and success.

The short term goal of the project is to develop a program for expectant parents that is hospital-based and administered by hospital personnel. This would involve modifying the standard birth preparation program hospitals offer to include an additional two-day couples workshop and/or a support group. A pilot study is presently being conducted with Swedish Hospital in Seattle.

The long-term goal of Bringing Baby Home program is to spark a lasting, systemic change within the community by rethinking the way adults care for infants and subsequently how they communicate with, teach, and guide young children. This new vision needs developing a strong emotional foundation in the very early stages of a child's life and necessitates nurturing it through the toddler and preschool years. Once this is established, research shows children do better in school, adapt more easily socially, and are physically healthier.

The content of the program and workshops has evolved from Dr. John Gottman's 26 years of marriage and family research, and will teach couples how to:
  • Avoid marital meltdown and increase marital satisfaction
  • Deal with stress and understand that it is normal when a baby arrives
  • Keep dads involved in infant care
  • Co-parent effectively and improve the quality of parent-infant interaction
  • Better understand early childhood development
The hope is that by strengthening their own relationships, parents will be better able to address and model healthy emotional and intellectual development in their children.

The Bringing Baby Home program format involves a two-day workshop with day one focusing on strengthening the marriage and getting to know the baby and day two addressing the regulation of conflict and building strong family interactions. Detailed background materials are provided so couples can revisit specific topics and intervention strategies.

Bringing Baby Home involves a diverse range of couples, representing a variety of cultural, ethnic and economic backgrounds. The current study includes over 120 couples. With additional funding, the Bringing Baby Home team intends to expand the study to reach a broader range of at-risk, lower income caregivers in the Pierce and King County regions.

For more information visit www.gottman.com

About Dr. John M. Gottman

Dr. John M. Gottman has been studying marriage, couples and parent-child relationships for over three decades. His research in the area of family systems and couples dynamics has influenced scientists, therapists and families around the world by drawing attention to the impact of emotions on the long-term stability of couples and the adjustment and achievement of children. He is the author or co-author of 119 published academic articles, as well as 38 books, including his most recent works: The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work; The Relationship Cure and Raising An Emotionally Intelligent Child: The Heart of Parenting.
Dr. Gottman has appeared on numerous TV programs including Dateline, Primetime, 20/20, Oprah and the Today Show. You can find articles about his work in the archives of Newsweek, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The Los Angeles Times, New Woman, Redbook, People and Psychology Today.

Dr. Gottman is professor emeritus of Psychology at the University of Washington, where he founded the Family Research Lab, also known as the “love lab.” He will continue his research with the Relationship Research Institute. The newest project called, Bringing Baby Home, is sponsored primarily by Talaris Research Institute with additional funding from the Kirlin Foundation. This project focuses on the transition from pregnancy to parenthood, teaching parents relationships and parenting skills, as well as providing essential information about early childhood development.

In addition, Dr. Gottman and his wife, Dr. Julie Schwartz Gottman, are co-founders of The Gottman Institute. The Institute provides training and educational materials for mental health professionals and families.

For additional information, including links to research articles and news stories, visit the Gottman Institute website.


   
 

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