Intimate Partner Violence in the First 2 Years of Life: Implications for Toddlers' Behavior Regulation.

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is prevalent in families with young children and challenges their healthy development. This study examined characteristics of IPV (e.g.

Limiting home visiting effects: maternal depression as a moderator of child maltreatment.

Objective: To test, with a sample of adolescent mothers (16-20 at childbirth) and their first-born infants/toddlers (average age 1 year), whether the impact of a home visiting (HV) child maltreatment prevention program was moderated by maternal depression.

Methods: The study design was a randomized controlled trial of Healthy Families Massachusetts, a statewide child maltreatment prevention program. A total of 707 first-time mothers were randomly assigned to the HV or control group.

Neonatal weight loss at a US Baby-Friendly Hospital.

Few if any studies have examined weight loss among term newborns by weighing infants daily for the first week of life. Perhaps because so few data exist, there is no standard in the United States for normal newborn weight loss. Our objective was to investigate normal newborn weight loss among infants born in a US Baby-Friendly hospital, by weighing infants daily for the first week of life.

Hospital Education in Lactation Practices (Project HELP): does clinician education affect breastfeeding initiation and exclusivity in the hospital?

Background: A woman's decision to breastfeed may be influenced by her health care practitioners, but breastfeeding knowledge among clinicians is often lacking. Project HELP (Hospital Education in Lactation Practices) was an intensive education program designed to increase breastfeeding knowledge among health care practitioners. The purpose of this study was to determine whether educating practitioners affected breastfeeding initiation and exclusivity rates at hospitals with low breastfeeding rates.

Accuracy of breastfeeding data on the Massachusetts birth certificate.

In 2003, the question, "Is the infant being breastfed at discharge?" was added to the US standard certificate of live birth. In Massachusetts, this was adapted to, "Are you breastfeeding or do you intend to?" In 2004-5, we compared the mother's answer to the birth certificate question in 2 hospitals, with her infant's feeding record. At Hospital A, 94.

Factors associated with exclusive breastfeeding among Latina women giving birth at an inner-city baby-friendly hospital.

Latina women living in the United States initiate breastfeeding at high rates, but their exclusivity is low. We examined factors associated with exclusive breastfeeding prior to discharge among 349 healthy Latina women giving birth at a Baby-Friendlytrade mark hospital in Massachusetts in 2004 to 2005. Factors associated with exclusive breastfeeding included maternal age <25 years (P = .

A practical intervention to increase breastfeeding initiation among Cambodian women in the US.

Cambodians have the lowest breastfeeding initiation rate of any racial/ethnic group in Massachusetts. One barrier to breastfeeding is a lack of hospital foods that allow women to follow a traditional diet postpartum. We examined whether a culturally acceptable menu for new Cambodian mothers would increase breastfeeding initiation in the hospital.

Patterns of emotional availability among young mothers and their infants: A dydaic, contextual analysis.

The aim of this study was to examine patterns of emotional availability among 80 young mothers (under 21 years at their child's birth) and their infants, and to identify contextual and individual factors associated with different patterns of emotional availability. To operationalize the dyadic aspect of emotional availability, cluster analysis of the Emotional Availability Scales, third edition (EAS; Biringen, Robinson, & Emde, 1998) was conducted on mother and infant scales simultaneously. Four distinct groups of emotional availability patterns emerged, reflecting synchrony and asynchrony between maternal and child behavior: (a) low-functioning dyads, (b) average dyads, (c) average parenting/disengaged infants, and (d) high-functioning dyads.