Loving your Baby from the Inside Out: Florence Crittenton Home Receives $3,300 Grant from March of Dimes

To further the March of Dimes mission of improving the health of babies, they have generously granted Florence Crittenton Home with $3,300 for the non-profit’s new and unique Loving your Baby from the Inside Out classes and therapy.  Loving your Baby from the Inside Out increases pregnancy care for hard to reach highly at-risk teen mothers who have multiple pregnancy risk factors including tobacco, alcohol use, homelessness, poverty, past abuse and neglect. 

Loving your Baby from the Inside Out is a welcome and natural addition to Florence Crittenton’s innovative Bonding and Attachment program for parenting teens.  Recognizing that the bonding and attachment process between mother and baby actually begins nine months before a new mother holds her newborn in her arms, this past spring the home for pregnant and parenting teens and their babies piloted Loving your Baby from the Inside Out. 

Says Maria Nyberg, Bonding & Attachment Specialist with the home, “We know that a positive prenatal, labor and birth experience sets in place a healthy, connected mother-baby relationship.”  Through a weekly group process, every pregnant mother has the chance to learn how to begin the bonding and attachment process.  Research shows that secure attachments are a great vaccine towards breaking the cycle of abuse and neglect.  Neglect can happen during pregnancy, so the sooner moms bond with their unborn children, the more likely they will choose healthy behaviors during pregnancy.

Loving your Baby from the Inside Out is the new beginning in a continuum of services that ensure each teen mother at Florence Crittenton is the best possible parent for her child during pregnancy and after, including those mothers who choose to write an adoption plan for their little ones.  At-risk pregnant teen mothers have the chance to learn how to begin the bonding and attachment process through a teen-friendly curriculum that includes:  the sharing of pregnancy and birth stories, myths and realities, changes and challenges of pregnancy, the amazing abilities of the unborn baby to hear, see and respond to its mother’s daily activities, breast feeding education and a strong emphasis on helping each girl become her own best advocate for her labor and delivery. 

Loving your Baby from the Inside Out addresses the following problems or needs: 

• Babies born to adolescent mothers are at an increased risk of preterm birth, low birth weight, respiratory distress, meconium aspiration, assisted ventilation, and newborn anemia.
• There is a need for a supportive environment for pregnant teens to explore their questions, get connected with maternal child health programs such as CenteringPregnancy®, WIC, Medicaid, and local adoption agencies, and be educated about pregnancy, labor, birth, writing adoption plans and breast feeding.
• Parenting patterns are passed from one generation to the next.  Pregnant teens who have known histories of child abuse and neglect are at-risk for not forming successful bonds and attachments with their own babies.
• Prior to Loving your Baby from the Inside Out, Florence Crittenton teen moms rarely tried breastfeeding.

Florence Crittenton Home provides therapeutic residential care to pregnant and parenting young women aged 12 to 21.  Many of the girls served have experienced multiple personal challenges.  Treatment includes 24-hour care within a loving environment, intensive therapy, parenting classes and emphasizes the need for a strong bond between mother, child and extended family enabling healing to occur and creating healthy relationships.