Research has shown long-term beneficial effects on parental knowledge and attitudes of demonstrating the individual capabilities of infants to new parents. Other research findings, such as the benefits of tactile stimulation on preterm infants, despite their importance, are unavailable to the public in an effective and accessible form.In addition, little postnatal education is available due to increasingly shorter maternity stays at hospitals. The proposed product intervention, based on cumulative research in the infancy field, is a comprehensive, at-home, self-teaching program for new parents and other infant caretakers, consisting of a series of videotapes and books with guided observational activities on the first year of life. A number of infant development professionals participate in the course. The proposed study tests the effectiveness of this program as an early intervention to: 1) increase maternal knowledge of infant development and 2) decrease infant health problems in the first year. Phase II research is thus directed at establishing the feasibility of a multimedia program intervention to improve maternal competency, decrease infant illnesses, decrease infant health care costs, and to provide data for a packaged implementation in Phase III.If effective, it could provide much needed postnatal education.
