From Childbirth to Kindergarten: Supporting Low-Income Families as Early as Possible
By Darcy Craig, Jaryn Miller + Seth Saeugling, T Lab Early Childhood Education Team
We know that the work to make sure children are ready for kindergarten starts when they are babies. A brain is 80% developed by age three, making the first years critical for the long-term success of any child.
With the ability to develop strong and secure attachments with their infants, parents play the most pivotal role in developing kinder-ready kids. Earlier this year, we published learnings from our research, citing the importance of supporting families early on in the life of a child to break a cycle of poverty.
Over the last six months we’ve learned through research, design and testing a service concept focused on school readiness; or how to prepare children to be “Kinder Ready.”
Our service concept is rooted in three existing services:
- Doula: A professional who provides emotional, physical, and educational support to parents throughout pregnancy, birth, and early postpartum
- Home Visiting: A model which allows families to have meetings in the comfort of their own homes and supports the idea of meeting families where they choose
- Infant Massage: A proven set of massage techniques to enhance attachment between parent and child (benefits include reduced stress, building strong brain connections, and improved ability to learn)
Based on our research, we wanted to focus on addressing the emotional needs of the parents and developing a secure attachment with their child during the 0–11 month time period. This is when the attachment is built and sets a strong foundation for a child’s social and emotional development.
Most Doulas only offer support during the first month of a child’s life, but we wanted to test how a peer Doula model could work with parents throughout the first year of their child’s life. By having Doulas train parents on infant massage, we also wanted to test if it could help them read and respond to their baby’s cues in a positive way. We also wanted to amplify the experience by building relationships through groups and technology so that parents can gain a trusted support network, have access to accurate information, and validate and connect with other parents going through similar experiences.
To test the service concept, we partnered with a non-profit organization called Hatch who provides a community of support for and by young parents. The scope of our micro-trial included the following components:
- Training: Five Hatch Doulas were trained in Infant Massage
- In-Home Support: Five families were matched with Doulas. Each family participated in two in-home visits. During visits Doulas actively listened, and together they practiced reading baby cues using infant massage.
- Text Support: Parents texted with Doulas and used a GroupMe app to check in and ask questions of one another.
Through the micro-trial, we validated that the best person to support a secure parent-child attachment is a professionally trained peer Doula. Parents experienced a reduction in stress and feelings of isolation and an increase in confidence with positive effects on their children. When we support parents, the impact is extended to their children. A child is more likely to show up to kindergarten ready to learn because she has the social and emotional learning skills based on a strong secure attachment with her parent.
Beyond the home, we believe this approach has the potential to influence community organizations in Oakland so that they can reach more families during the first year of their child’s life. Oregon and Minnesota are the only states with Medicaid that currently provide Doula care. The power of prevention has gained tremendous momentum in healthcare over the past few years. Doula services during the first year of life have the potential to save millions of dollars and positively impact countless families. Our hope is that our findings will move this discussion into a policy realm to extend the Doula service to the healthcare system in California and beyond.
While our work in T Lab is coming to a close, we are excited that two of the five mothers involved in the micro-trial would like to become Community Doulas through our partner organization, Hatch. The trial is still currently going on because all the families involved asked to continue the service, and Doulas were enthusiastic to do so.
