HUG Your Baby: An Evidence-Based
Strategy
for Teaching
Professionals in a Community Setting How to Help Parents Understand the
Language of their Newborn (2013)
By Gale Touger, BSN, FNP, IBCLC and
Maryam Mozafarinia, MSN, BSN
The purpose of this study was to determine if HUG Your Baby’s
one-day community-wide training increases the knowledge and confidence of professionals
providing outpatient, community-based care to parents about a newborn’s eating,
crying, sleeping and parent-child interaction.
Introduction
 |
| Gale Touger teaching in Dominican Republic |
Traditionally, parent teaching came
primarily in the form of information passed from one generation to another. However,
today’s new parents face challenges in information delivery. Such challenges
include: living apart from extended family; parents working full-time;
difficulty attending prenatal educational classes; and short hospital stays.
Early
teaching matters. Neurons to
Neighborhoods: The Science of Early Childhood Development describes the
first year of life as a period of neural plasticity and rapid adjustment to
stimuli that allow the infant’s brain to develop to its maximum potential or
not, depending on early life experiences (Shonkoff 2000). Dr. T. Berry
Brazelton’s work describes the essential elements of anticipatory guidance for
parents (Brazelton, 1975) and suggests effective ways for them to respond to
their infants. (Hagan, Shaw & Duncan, 2008). In addition, research shows that a mother’s perception of
her baby’s satisfaction with breastfeeding can make the difference between
continuing to breastfeed and switching to formula feeding (Karl, 2004).
 |
| Maryam Mozafarinia (center) teaching in Montreal |
HUG Your Baby (HUG Your Baby, 2018) is an
educational program created to enhance the care that birth and early parenting
professionals provide to new parents. A one-day, community- wide training
distills extensive research and literature about newborn behavior and parenting
concerns around baby’s eating, sleeping, crying and parent-child interaction.
In addition, participants explore the HUG Strategies (Tedder & Register,
2007) in this training. These Strategies include learning the power of Broadcasting a baby’s behavior
(describing a baby’s specific behaviors) and Commentating on this behavior (explaining the importance of this
behavior.) Multi-cultural video, case studies, and role-playing help professionals
imagine how to communicate this information most effectively.
This study collected
data from two HUG Your Baby workshops, providing feedback from thirty-six participants
(primarily nurses and doulas working in a variety of settings).
Educators in biological and other sciences use class-average normalized gain in pre and post-test scores
to gauge the effectiveness of a course (Colt, 2010).
Therefore, the first fifteen,
multiple-choice questions in the study tool were designed to measure
participants’ knowledge of the information covered. Because a provider’s confidence
to teach impacts how teaching is delivered, questions 16-30 ask participants to
report on their confidence to explain, and to demonstrate, elements of the
material taught. (For example, participants responded to “I can explain how a newborn’s body changes in response to
over-stimulation” on a 4-point Likert
Scale.)
Recognizing
that a gap often exists between one’s grasp of new material and one’s ability
to put new information and skills into practice, this study tool was completed
by participants before training, immediately following training, and again at
one month.
Results
Thirty-four
participants returned pre- and post-tests. Twenty-one returned one-month
post-tests as well. This study included data only from participants who
completed all three tests.
Content areas
were evaluated to ascertain participants’ knowledge before the training and to
identify areas identified as needing more teaching.
Data
confirmed a 30.1% increase in mean test scores of knowledge immediately after
completing the training. Only a small drop in scores was observed between the immediate
post-test and the post-test administered one month later.
Participants
came to the program understanding Signs of Overstimulation (SOS). Before training,
participants answered incorrectly questions about Zones and Crying. However,
post-test scores increased 33% and 40% respectively.
Data showed
that participants also increased their confidence to explain and demonstrate
the information and skills covered in this training. At the one-month mark, all respondents agreed
or strongly agreed that they were confident they could effectively teach
parents about newborn behavior.
Discussion
This study of
HUG Your Baby’s one-day, community-wide training indicated
that such training effectively increases
both the
knowledge and confidence of outpatient, community-based professionals who teach
new parents about baby’s eating, crying, sleeping and parent-child interaction.
Enhancing
professionals’ ability to provide such information and skills helps parents
appreciate their baby’s capacity to interact. This study, and the mission of
HUG Your Baby, reflect the work of Dr. Brazelton, who reminds us that “emphasiz[ing]
the individuality of the infant … enhances the capacity of the family to offer
him or her an optimal nurturing environment” (Brazelton, 1974).
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