PARENTAL HEALTH AND EMOTIONAL WELLBEING

Parents’ physical and mental health affects their ability to care for themselves and their children, including their ability to engage in the warm, nurturing, responsive interactions that infants and toddlers need for long-term healthy development. Yet parents often do not have the resources they need to care for themselves adequately as they care for their children, particularly during the perinatal period, which can pose unique health challenges to families. Ensuring parental health and emotional wellbeing is foundational to building a prenatal-to-3 system of care.

Two outcome measures illustrate parents’ health and wellbeing:

• Maternal mental health and
• Parenting support.

Based on comprehensive reviews of the most rigorous evidence available, the Prenatal-to-3 Policy Impact Center identified 12 effective solutions that foster the nurturing environments infants and toddlers need. Five policies and strategies have demonstrated effectiveness at improving parental health and emotional wellbeing.