Last week, I very briefly discussed Katherine Boo’s article in the New Yorker about the Nurse-Mother Partnership program. (The full article isn’t on line, but this interview with the author is.) This program sends impassioned nurses directly into the homes of poor mothers to show them the basics of parenting — how to read to their kids, how to feed them, how to play and engage them. The hope is that by giving these women the skills to be good mothers, their children will be able to escape the cycle of poverty.
The first time I discussed this program, I didn’t cheer loudly enough. This is a great program.
Look, you might as well tattoo “Parenting is important” on my ass, because I’ve sure said that a lot on my blog. Sure, we joke around in the mommy blogosphere about what bad mothers we are, but we all know better. This isn’t something any trained chimp can do. And we know that our efforts make a difference.
Jane Galt points out in my comments that early childhood development pretty much cements a person’s future. She writes these early-early intervention programs may offer more hope for alleviating poverty than jobs programs or Head Start.
Absolutely. My only nit-picky point is that you just can’t end poverty with good parenting classes alone. It’s really hard to be a good parent when you don’t have a job, when you have no future, when the man in your life is thumping you. You can teach the poor mothers to feed their kids good food, but until the moms have their heads clear of stress and worry, putting that information into action is hard. It takes enormous amounts of energy to go “boogety-boo” all day with the kids.
Not only do people have to know how to be good parents, but they have to be able to be good parents.
I am 100% behind the Nurse-Mother Partnership program described by Boo in the New Yorker. It just needs to be coupled with other programs that enable the mother to keep her mind on her baby.
Apt. 11d 
I agree with you 100%. A whole network is needed to help people out of the poverty pit -or else it’s like putting a band aid on a knife wound or broken leg – it just isn’t enough.
Ironically – as important as breast feeding is to provide really positive day care programs and jobs – the things that always seem to elude us – would probably prove to be much more critical.
This country is not as pro parent as it should be. Canada gives their moms one years maternity pay – other places have school schedules that match parent’s work schedules. Their seem to be some major disconnects going on here.
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I thought the nurse-mother partnership was about more than just parenting – it seemed like the nurse was there to encourage the mothers to go to school, to aim higher and not see having a kid as forcing them into a mold for the rest of their lives.
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I think its great that Canada does so much for working mothers, however, I think you have to realize that their employers don’t have to pay for the health care costs of kids. And while I think its great that some jobs do allow job sharing, a ton of other don’t or make it seem as if its a step down from a previous post. AS a result, I’d like to see a boom in entreprenuership that creates a child friendly enviornment so that older established companies are forced to react rather than dictate the terms of jobs when women have kids.
As for the nurse mother relationship, perhaps this will spur parental trainign programs so that someday you actually do need a license to have a child or receive discounted health care. You have to think that insurance companies would be all over this so that they have less claims due to parental errors in judgement.
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Hi Laura – You may have seen this but New York Magazine has also picked up on the Nurse-Family Partnership story …
http://www.newyorkmetro.com/news/politics/citypolitic/15950/index.html
The story is favorable and presents the NFP as a complement to ACS reforms; it closes with a call for more political support. The most interesting aspect to me was the acknowledgement that funding programs like NFP is seen as a threat by other social agencies – social services as a zero-sum game.
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