Pam Diamond, owner of First Daze & NightZzz postpartum doula and baby sleep consulting services, received certification as a H.U.G. trainer this month, one of only three others in the country to have earned these credentials.
“Parenting a newborn is one of the toughest jobs there is, and yet it’s one of the only jobs that doesn’t come with operating instructions,” Diamond says. “The H.U.G. is like an owner’s manual for new parents, and I’m delighted to have another tool to use to help guide parents in their new roles.”
The H.U.G. – which stands for Help, Understanding and Guidance – is an evidence-based, innovative, and family-friendly approach to helping parents understand their baby's body language in order to promote breastfeeding, prevent and solve common problems around a baby's eating, sleeping, and crying, and enhance parent-child bonding, interaction and attachment.
“Bleary-eyed new parents – many of whom have had little or no experience with newborns – often misread their infant’s behavior,” Diamond says. “For instance, an over-stimulated newborn may continuously look away from his mother’s face while she tries to interact with him, but not because he doesn’t like her, as she might mistakenly assume. Instead, he is using an innate reflex to shut out stimuli and calm himself.”
Parents who take the class learn how to tell when their baby is over-stimulated, how to help their baby eat well, how to help their baby sleep well and what to do to comfort a crying baby.
Jan Tedder, BSN and Family Nurse Practitioner, developed the H.U.G., after her extensive work at The Brazelton Institute/Touchpoints Center. It's based on the medical and child development literature of Drs. T. B. Brazelton, M. & P. Klaus, M. Lamb, M. & H. Papousek, B. Howard, R. Sturner and others. This research and Tedder’s materials have been presented at national and international conferences and published in JOGNN, MCN, and Journal of Perinatal Education.
The H.U.G. can be taught in health department classes, clinics, at private home visits, birthing centers, childcare centers, in community parent support programs and early childhood education programs.
“Parenting a newborn is one of the toughest jobs there is, and yet it’s one of the only jobs that doesn’t come with operating instructions,” Diamond says. “The H.U.G. is like an owner’s manual for new parents, and I’m delighted to have another tool to use to help guide parents in their new roles.”
The H.U.G. – which stands for Help, Understanding and Guidance – is an evidence-based, innovative, and family-friendly approach to helping parents understand their baby's body language in order to promote breastfeeding, prevent and solve common problems around a baby's eating, sleeping, and crying, and enhance parent-child bonding, interaction and attachment.
“Bleary-eyed new parents – many of whom have had little or no experience with newborns – often misread their infant’s behavior,” Diamond says. “For instance, an over-stimulated newborn may continuously look away from his mother’s face while she tries to interact with him, but not because he doesn’t like her, as she might mistakenly assume. Instead, he is using an innate reflex to shut out stimuli and calm himself.”
Parents who take the class learn how to tell when their baby is over-stimulated, how to help their baby eat well, how to help their baby sleep well and what to do to comfort a crying baby.
Jan Tedder, BSN and Family Nurse Practitioner, developed the H.U.G., after her extensive work at The Brazelton Institute/Touchpoints Center. It's based on the medical and child development literature of Drs. T. B. Brazelton, M. & P. Klaus, M. Lamb, M. & H. Papousek, B. Howard, R. Sturner and others. This research and Tedder’s materials have been presented at national and international conferences and published in JOGNN, MCN, and Journal of Perinatal Education.
The H.U.G. can be taught in health department classes, clinics, at private home visits, birthing centers, childcare centers, in community parent support programs and early childhood education programs.