Blueprint
A Blueprint for Enhancing Perinatal Care
Obstetrics, the specialty overseeing infant and parent health before and shortly after birth, could be expanded to address the interrelated areas of parents’ prenatal impact on children’s brain development and their own psychosocial needs during a time of immense change and neuroplasticity. Obstetrics is primed for the shift that is happening in pediatrics, which is moving from its traditional focus on physical health to a coordinated, whole-child, 2Gen approach. Pediatric care now includes developmental screening, parenting education, parent coaching, access to developmental specialists, brain-building caregiving skills, linkages to community resources, and tiered interventions with psychologists. Pediatric care is enhanced — obstetrics can be as well.
Drawing on decades of research demonstrating the prenatal beginnings of future child health and new studies on the transition to parenthood describing psychobiological change from pregnancy to early postpartum, and based on cross-sector collaborations, our Blueprint envisions an augmented perinatal care ecosystem emphasizing whole-person, 2Gen health. The Blueprint includes a range of potential components to expand education, intervention, prevention, and interdisciplinary services in the context of clinician time constraints and budgetary challenges. With evidence-based solutions and community collaboration, this Blueprint aims to enable perinatal clinicians to promote healthier and happier beginnings. The Resources section lists programs aligned with the Blueprint components — simply search by the component topics listed below.
For more background on our Blueprint initiative, please see our recent interdisciplinary publication(link is external and opens in a new window)