The Baby Books Project: Using Baby Books to Promote Maternal and Child Health

The Aims of the Project

Using Baby Books to Promote Maternal and Child Health, partially funded by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), is a randomized study of the cost-effectiveness of providing information about child development and parenting through the use of baby books. Researchers have developed specially designed books that first time mothers will read to their babies. The content of these books is based on prenatal-12 month guidance recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Bureau of Maternal and Child Health's Bright Futures Guidelines for Health Supervision. It is expected that this information, embedded in the text of baby books, will increase the mother's knowledge of typical child development, child safety, and effective parenting. Additionally, the process of book sharing, coupled with realistic perceptions of development, is expected to improve parent-child interactions. In combination, the increased knowledge and improved interactions are predicted to contribute to better child physical health (e.g. immunization adherence, typical growth, reduced accidents/ emergency room visits, increased cognitive/linguistic development), improved maternal outcomes (e.g. reduced stress, increased self-efficacy and enjoyment), and increased level of stimulation and appropriateness of the environment.

The Design of the Project

Through the utlization of a three group randomized design, researchers will compare child and maternal outcomes among those who receive books with anticipatory guidance to those who receive commercial children's books without anticipatory guidance or no books. This will allow for analysis of the effects of the educational intervention as well as those from just reading to children. Data collection will occur in seven waves over 20 months, with first-time mothers recruited during the third trimester of pregnancy and followed until the child is 18 months old. All data collection procedures and timing will be equivalent among the three groups. All data will be collected during home visits.

Dr. Reich is overseeing the data entry protocols and the beginning analysis and dissemination of preliminary findings. She is determining the coding and variable calculation needs and will take the lead of writing manuscripts from the data that are generated.

The Potential Benefits

There is great potential for this study to affect mothers and children throughout the country. It will be easy to scale up this low-tech intervention to the national level through already existing book distribution programs such as Reach Out and Read. This study will also contribute to understanding of the determinants of breastfeeding as well as document typical physical, social/emotional, and cognitive/linguistic development of 180 children who are of diverse ethnic backgrounds and predominately economically disadvantaged.