A parent is born from the time a baby is conceived, as a relationship begins to form between parents and child as they start to wonder who they are growing, whom they may look like and prepare for what life will be like when a little one is brought home.

All while the baby in utero is also responding and adapting to the changes in the environment and the cues from their mother to ‘predict’ the kind of world they will be born into, adapting their bodily structure, to be primed to survive in the outside world.

The first thousand days have been identified as beginning at conception and continuing until the child is two years old; a positive start for all involved in the first thousand days has significant impacts across the lifespan of the child.

At no other time in a child’s life is their brain and body growing and developing so rapidly while also being so dependent on another for care, love, coregulation, nurture and safety to provide the optimal environment for their development.

It must be acknowledged that those becoming parents are navigating a significant adjustment in their lives, in getting to know and care for their unique little baby who comes with their own unique needs, cues and complexities.

“The belief that we can support children directly without supporting their parents overlooks the complex system of relationships within which children develop.”
– Frisch (2019), citing Bronfenbrenner (2006).

Although there is apparently no grand unifying theory of effective parenting, different kinds of evidence suggest strong links between the quality of the parent-child relationship and children’s well-being (O’Connor, 2002; Frosch, 2019). Frosch (2019) highlights the relational interconnectedness within families as important, with parentings affecting children and children affecting their parents.

Parental warmth, sensitivity and acceptance are core features associated with positive outcomes for children, just as harsh, coercive parenting is regarded as detrimental (Centre for Community Child Health, 2004, citing Teti and Candelaria, 2002).

Frosch (2019) highlights that the most effective mediator toward creating change in parental sensitivity and responsiveness is fostering growth in a parent’s reflective functioning. However, up to 1 in 5 new Mums and 1 in 10 new Dads, are navigating perinatal anxiety and/or depression, with 1 in 3 mums will experience their child’s birth as traumatic (PANDA – Perinatal Anxiety & Depression Australia).

These parents may experience changes in their mood and behaviour that may disrupt their capacity to connect, attune, and be present with the baby, care for themselves and ask for and seek help.

Bringing Up Great Kids in the First 1000 Days

Bringing Up Great Kids in the First 1000 Days specifically focuses on the prenatal period and the first two years of life. It is a mindful, respectful, and reflective program that enables parents to go on their own parenting journey in a nonjudgmental, safe space.

All materials and resources come from a strength-based philosophy that has all family members at its core.

Bringing Up Great Kids in the First 1000 Days emphasises the importance of living in a nurturing and safe environment. It provides parents with knowledge about brain development, an understanding of how children grow and what they need, the centrality of family relationships, and an opportunity for parents to reflect on their own childhood and how to connect to their children.

It seeks to build parent confidence and promotes help-seeking behaviour as a protective resource for parents navigating a period of significant change.

“If a community values its children, it must cherish their parents.”
—John Bowlby.

The first 1,000 days of a child’s life matter, as they are rapidly growing and developing within the environment they coexist within with their parents.

Just as much as the first 1,000 days of being a parent matter, at a time when parents are navigating so much change while needing to be so attuned and responsive to their baby.