Sherylene Ganesh of Ububele Educational and Psychotherapy Trust writes:
An infant’s brain develops at a rapid rate during the first 1 000 days in comparison to any other time in their life. During this time the brain is both shaped and adapted to the environment and also to the caregiving it is exposed to.
The first 1000 days is the time from conception till the baby’s second birthday and is a window of opportunity to make sure that your baby and child’s growth and development is the best it can be. All that is done during this period will affect your baby throughout his/her life.
This will play a crucial and critical role in terms of the type of person the baby will grow into one day. Therefore, it is extremely important that caregivers be responsive, nurturing and are able to form strong attachments with their babies so that they develop intellectually, socially and emotionally.
Loving and secure relationships are vital for a child’s development as it is through their relationships that babies learn to think, understand, communicate, show emotions and behave. Relationships affect how they see the world and how they fit into society, especially the early relationships babies have with their caregivers and parents. Both mothers and fathers have a powerful influence in promoting healthy babies and stable families.
The involvement of both parents can ensure a nurturing and secure home environment; encourage play, exploration and learning leading to positive developmental outcomes.
At Ububele we understand that parenting in not an easy job and can be stressful. Parents can face numerous challenges such as experiencing high levels of stress, depression, anxiety, relationship difficulties with partners, co-parenting challenges, financial hardships, trauma, and violence which can have an effect on their baby.
Parents who are experiencing these difficulties may struggle or not be able to form a loving attachment with their baby due to immense feelings of being overwhelmed and stressed. As a result, many parents may feel lost and uncertain of where to receive assistance, psychosocial support and information about parenting.
At Ububele, we acknowledge the weight of these difficulties and the ways in which it can affect parental and infant mental health, well-being and quality of life. In response to this, Ububele has created the Vuna Parent Club in an effort to make psychosocial services and support more accessible to parents from the comfort of their own phone.
The club is an easily accessible and free WhatsApp-based psychosocial support service for parents of infants under two years. Parents simply save the Vuna WhatsApp number – 064 700 8549 – and then message “JOIN” on WhatsApp.
Parents will then be asked to select a preferred language, provide the date of birth of their baby, and then will start to receive twice-weekly psychoeducational messages, weekly videos and a one-on-one consult with a psychologist for 50 minutes once a week.
Vuna also provides parents with more information on the variety of services that Ububele has to offer to support parents in their parenting journey. These services include newborn behavioural observations and the baby mat consultations available at local clinics, home visits, online parenting support groups, in-person parenting courses and access to psychotherapeutic support.
Vuna parents have free access to these services. We encourage mothers and fathers to join Vuna today to strengthen the bond and relationship that they have with their baby and to ensure their baby’s optimal growth and development.
Details: Ububele 011 786 5085.
