Preparation and Education for Parenthood: A Pathway to Understanding the Carer's Role in Infant Education

By Zevia Schneider PhD

Pregnancy is a time of physical and emotional upheaval and brings with it joy, ambivalence, relief, excitement, and expectations. Adequate preparation for pregnancy and the parenting role is important for those embarking on the challenges of rearing and educating an infant.

This book explores through the literature and women's self-reports their experiences of pregnancy, birth, the postnatal period, and antenatal-parenthood classes. Verbal comments are provided. Topics include:

· Pregnancy as a social phenomenon

· The role of being a pregnant woman: stereotypes and images

· The importance of education for parenthood

· The importance of infant education

· What is effective parenting?

· Parenthood as crisis

· Medical and midwifery models of care

· Portrayal of pregnancy and childbirth in the media

· The advent of the electronic media: Internet and eHealth as major sources of information about pregnancy, birth, and parenthood

· The design and evaluation of parenthood programs and who has the responsibility to provide them

• Language: English
• Publisher: Austin Macauley Publishers
• Release date: Mar 29, 2019
• ISBN: 9781645366584

Zevia Schneider PhD

Zevia Schneider PhD is an educator and researcher. She has held a number of senior positions at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology University, Australia. Zevia has co-authored a number of textbooks for health professionals and has published in national and international journals. Her interest and specialist research area is pregnancy and, in particular, the importance of parents/carers education for their role as educators of their infant.

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About The Author

Zevia Schneider PhD is an educator and researcher. She has held a number of senior positions at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology University, Australia. Zevia has co-authored a number of textbooks for health professionals and has published in national and international journals. Her interest and specialist research area is pregnancy and, in particular, the importance of parents/carers education for their role as educators of their infant.

About The Book

Pregnancy is a time of physical and emotional upheaval and brings with it joy, ambivalence, relief, excitement, and expectations. Adequate preparation for pregnancy and the parenting role is important for those embarking on the challenges of rearing and educating an infant.

Dedication

I dedicate this book to the women who participated in my studies. I am indebted to them and their partners for their enthusiasm, interest, and commitment throughout their pregnancies. Their contribution in terms of sharing their pregnancy and childbirth experiences provided me with many very pleasant hours. I greatly valued sharing their momentous experience; an experience with all the joys, hopes, anxieties, frustrations, and pleasures that pregnancy occasions. In particular, I thank them for sharing with me their most joyous and sacred moment – the birth of their infant.

Copyright Information

Copyright © Zevia Schneider PhD (2019)

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher.

Any person who commits any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

Ordering Information:

Quantity sales: special discounts are available on quantity purchases by corporations, associations, and others. For details, contact the publisher at the address below.

Publisher’s Cataloging-in-Publication data

Schneider PhD, Zevia

Preparation and Education for Parenthood: A Pathway to Understanding the Carer’s Role in Infant Education

ISBN 9781641829809 (Paperback)

ISBN 9781641829816 (Hardback)

ISBN 9781641829823 (Kindle e-book)

ISBN 9781645366584 (ePub e-book)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2019935632

The main category of the book — Health & Fitness / Women’s Health

www.austinmacauley.com/us

First Published (2019)

Austin Macauley Publishers LLC

40 Wall Street, 28th Floor

New York, NY 10005

USA

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Acknowledgement

I am particularly indebted to my family: Saul, Anne, Cheryl, Brenda, and Mina, who accompanied me on the journey of writing this book from its conception to its birth. Their proofreading of the chapters, computer skills, and their advice, suggestions, interest, support, and, particularly, their belief in the book made the journey an unforgettable experience.

Chapter One

Parent And Infant Education

We have to be aware all the time that we are not just looking after a baby. We are educating a human being…

(Wright, 1972: 10)

(I have elected to refer to the infant as ‘he’ to avoid confusion when referring to the mother. Non-biological parents and others are often in the position of rearing an infant. To facilitate reading, all individuals who assume a parenting role are included in the term ‘parents’ or ‘carer’.)

This chapter covers

The concept of education.

The nature of fundamental education.

Parent as educator; infant as educand.

The importance of parent education.

Parent education and child abuse.

The importance of infant education.

What is effective parenting?

Introduction

This book is concerned with the need for the development of comprehensive educational parenthood programs for pregnant couples, for those women and men choosing to have a baby with or without partners, and for those who care for an infant. Through the literature and research studies, the following topics are examined:

The concept of education.

The parental/carer role in the education of an infant.

The importance of parent education.

The importance of infant education.

Parental/carer attitudes to their educational role in rearing an infant.

Learning during pregnancy.

Women’s perceptions of their pregnancy experience, and their feedback about the information they received from health professionals.

The increasing use of the Internet by parents for the information they are seeking, warrants particular attention for a number of reasons: why antenatal-parenthood programs that do exist do not appear to provide sufficient and appropriate information about parenthood; why the Internet has become a major source of parenting information; the accuracy of the information; and, the interpretation and utility of the information by pregnant couples.

An assumption is made that the way people behave and interact, ask questions, and make decisions, is based, to a large extent, on the kinds of information, and the sources and accessibility of information, that are available to them. I discovered through the research studies I conducted that women’s experiences of pregnancy are diverse, various and eminently unique. This uniqueness is illustrated in the chapters on portraits of pregnancy in Chapter Six – the first trimester, Chapter Seven – the second trimester, Chapter Eight – the third trimester, and Chapter Nine – post-delivery and early days at home.

In Western society, as is the case in most societies, it is generally taken for granted that women and men are adequately prepared for child-rearing. Whether this presumed knowledge is supposedly instinctual, or derived from the culture, or passed on from generation to generation, is thought-provoking. Kempe and Kempe (1978: 25) suggest that probably the most significant channel is the experience of having been sympathetically parented, of having experienced what it feels like to be an infant, helpless but cherished and nurtured into childhood. Whatever the sources and reliability of the information on child-rearing, it seems unfortunate that society takes so much for granted instead of accepting the responsibility of preparing expectant parents for the comprehensive care of their infant and also its positive and creative education. In addition to information about the comprehensive development of the infant, are awareness and understanding of the mother’s physiological and psychological states during pregnancy and the postpartum period (Mussen et al., 1974; Salk, 1974; Schaffer, 1977; Church, 1976).

The Concept Of Education

A large part of this chapter is devoted to a period of time between 1945–80 when the educationists, psychologists and philosophers such as Spitz, Bowlby, Freud, Watson, Kempe and Kempe, Church, Piaget, Hirst & Peters, Inhelder, Lozoff, Langeveld, and Birrer, were writing prolifically about the importance of infant education and preparation for the parent/carer role.

The concept of education is a fluid one. Education generally refers to what goes on in schools, colleges and universities. The concept of ‘educated’ as characterizing a process of the comprehensive moral, spiritual, intellectual and physical development of the individual, emerged in the 19th century (Hirst and Peters, 1970). The term implied instruction designed to produce desirable qualities and developing the individual’s potential. It seems to have been overlooked that there is an institution even more fundamental than the school, and that is, the family. The fact that parents are ‘educators’ of their infants (whether they acknowledge, or are even aware of this role, or not), is the major thesis in this discussion about education for parenthood.

Happily, by the time the infant is born the parents have usually acquired a certain amount of knowledge – from relatives, clinic, doctor, friends, mass media, television, radio or literature, the Internet – on how to satisfy the infant’s physiological needs, and how to dress and bath their infant. However, expectant parents are, unfortunately, told little about their role as educators of their infant in terms of their understanding of their infant’s developmental stages, of the perceptual world of the infant, of sleeping, crying and feeding patterns, how to provide the optimum environment, and responding appropriately, and in a timely manner, to the infant’s signals.

Bearing in mind the importance of the father, other adult members of the family and siblings, the primary educator within the family is the mother (Lozoff et al., 1977: 3; Schmidt, 1973: 46). According to Schmidt (1973: 45), whatever the child becomes is not merely the result of an assumed natural development. The growth and development of any child take place in an on-going interactive situation between the child, as educand, and an adult, be that person the parent, guardian, teacher or another adult, as educator. Schmidt (1973: xi) sees the child as a unit of personal inventing, learning, and creativity within a unit of reciprocal production of a person and structured mind, within a larger unit again of culture. Explicit in this view of the child is the dynamic interaction between the child as educand and his educator within their particular socio-cultural environment.

Human interaction, however, is not sufficient to enable the child to develop his potentialities; a specific educational intent is essential (Schmidt 1973: 39). The child is reared within a particular family, ethnic group, society and culture, yet within these dimensions exists the choice for the parent educator to do one thing rather than the other. The parent educator must choose what she/he considers worthwhile in human existence and be aware of the specific requirements of the child who may be anywhere on the continuum of physically or mentally impaired in some way to extremely intelligent.

Following Schmidt (1973: 12), the educational process may be defined as the reciprocal interaction between an educator (adult) and an educand (child). Reciprocity implies the presence of at least two people and is essential to our understanding of the educational situation (Langeveld, 1952: 92, 99). In this situation, the educator has a specific aim, that is, "to provide opportunities for him (the infant) to develop in ways considered appropriate" (Schmidt, 1973: 37). This aim adequately serves the needs of this discussion which are to discuss the interaction between a mother (or surrogate figure) and her infant.

In the educational relationship, the responsibility of choices made available to the infant (educand) is the educator’s; furthermore, these decisions are made in light of what the educator considers worthwhile, and this implies she/he has values and a view of life (Van Zyl, 1973: 200) influenced by their sociocultural environment. According to Schmidt (1973: 39) "it is the basic human situation of relatedness of an adult (parent or surrogate) to a helpless child that regulation of behavior with educational intent becomes one of the components of the adult-child relationship". The initial vulnerability of the human infant, is the condition which permits the possibility, and indeed the necessity, for those in whose care he is entrusted, to provide the educational opportunities and the environment considered appropriate for his particular development. It is imperative therefore that the people, in whose care the infant finds himself, receive adequate instruction and preparation for their role as educators.

Appropriate, timely and sensitive responses to the child’s needs are important for his neurophysiological, psychological, and physical development. Engle and Lhotska (1999: 132) state that …the care that children receive has powerful effects on their survival, growth and development…care refers to the behaviors and practices of caregivers (mothers, siblings, fathers and child care providers) to provide the food, health care, stimulation and emotional support necessary for children’s healthy survival, growth and development… Not only the practices themselves, but also the way they are performed – in terms of affection and responsiveness to the child are critical to a child’s survival, growth and development.

Eshel et al., (2006: 992) reviewed 50 studies relating to the role of responsive parenting in child health and development; articles from developed and developing countries were included. The authors define responsive parenting as a mother’s/caregiver’s prompt, contingent and appropriate interaction with the child, is a vital parenting tool with wide-ranging benefits for the child, from better cognitive and psychosocial development to protection from disease and mortality. Responsiveness can be various depending upon which cue (child behavior) the carer is responding to: a sign that the child is unwell, a verbalization, or a facial expression. The important point is that in each case the mother’s response and actions are child initiated and directed. Responsiveness is conceptualized as a three step-process: 1. Observation: The caregiver (usually the mother), observes the child’s cues, such as movements and vocalizations; 2. Interpretation: the carer accurately interprets these signals, e.g., realizing that an irritable infant is tired and needs rest, or is showing signs of illness, and 3. Action: The caregiver acts swiftly, consistently and efficiently to meet the child’s needs.

The responses of parents to new infant behaviors will affect the subsequent development in their child. For instance, in the sphere of locomotor abilities, Birrer (1977) points out that studies on institutionalized infants illustrate the extent to which these infants differ from the home-reared infant; not in whether they attain a particular milestone, but the manner in which this new skill is utilized. For example, both groups of infants will stand erect at about the same time which indicates that the maturational sequence is the same. However, the motivation for acting, which was typical in the home-reared infant was lacking in the institutionalized one.

According to Birrer, it is through his caregiver’s responsiveness to his behavior that the infant is able to learn that his actions have effects (Birrer, 1977 : 254).

Another study of institutionalized children was conducted by Ellis et al., (2004). This study was designed to examine, through caregiver reports, predictors of disruptive behavior, developmental delays, anxiety and affective symptomatology among 2–6 year old institutionalized reared Romanian children. Children showed high rates of developmental and physical growth delays and anxiety/affective symptoms. The authors found that the duration of institutionalization, physical stature, and age at abandonment were differentially related to psychiatric symptoms.

Further, evidence of the importance of adequate infant education comes from Bowlby (1951: 15) and Tizard and Tizard (1974: 148). Institution-reared infants were compared with infants reared within their families. In general, rearing in institutions appears to have a detrimental effect on emotional and intellectual development in children probably because of the lack of personal warmth and attention (Tizard and Tizard, 1974). Children brought up in institutions were characterized as being intellectually retarded and experienced problems in language development (Bowlby, 1951; Goldfarb, 1945; Spitz, 1949).

Fundamental Education

Spitz (1945: 1) first used the term ’fundamental education’. He defined it as a process that produces relatively permanent change in the infant through affective interaction with a mother or mother surrogate. Affective interaction begins at the moment of birth and subsequent development is dependent on it. One could argue that affective interaction begins when the mother finds she is pregnant, how she responds to her pregnancy, and her positive/negative feelings towards the pregnancy throughout its duration. Thus, the educational/affective relationship could begin long before the infant is born. It is important therefore that prospective parents are prepared for this task.

Spitz’s definition relates to affective interaction in infancy and should not be confused with the definition adopted by UNESCO (1956 : 1) shown here simply to illustrate how the definition differs from Spitz’s definition.

‘Fundamental Education’ is that kind of education which aims to help children and adults who do not have the advantages of formal schooling, to understanding problems of their environment and their rights and duties as citizens and individuals to acquire essential knowledge and skill for the progressive improvement of their living conditions and to participate effectively in the economics and social development of their community, making full use of facilities and techniques brought to the community from outside.

The educator acts for the child when the child cannot act for himself. He structures the environment so that the infant can learn from it; he guides the child towards novel situations and shields him from those encounters for which he is not prepared. How the educator feels about children and their potentialities and his expectations of children are some of the ways in which the shaping or molding of the infant are connected to the educator’s feelings, thoughts and actions. This is the environment that actualizes Norton’s (1977: 8) statement that the primary purpose of family life is the shaping of the individual’s perception of reality.

The first experiences of the infant provide the cornerstones for the frame of reference of the child (Shorter, 1977: 452; Bowlby, 1973: 16/17), and form the basis and foundation for affective development, cognitive development (Ginsburg and Opper, 1969: 169; Piaget and Inhelder, 1969: 116; Ault, 1977: 160/161), and social relationships (Mussen et al., 1974: 198; Neill, 1968: 95; Richards, 1974: 90/91; Shorter, 1977: 230). Included in the concept of social relationships are communication, language skills and the feeding and physical care of the infant. Affective development, cognitive development and social relationships are the preconditions for the realization of humanness, and are therefore of cardinal importance in the education of the infant.

Education, be it of the psychological, intellectual or spiritual life, should not be left to chance. The infant’s needs, required for optimal development, are of crucial concern to the educator (Schmidt, 1973: Chap 2). It is obvious that the educator must be aware of the child’s requirements in order that he develops into a healthy and optimally-realized individual. At the same time, the infant is dependent upon the adult to interpret and respond to his needs in an appropriate and timely manner. The educational relationship and intent in fundamental education prove to be vitally important in the subsequent growth of the infant towards adulthood.

Parent Education And Child Abuse

The introduction of parenting and child abuse is included in this chapter because of its indivisible relationship to education for parenthood, in particular parental attitudes, knowledge and understanding of infant milestones, infant development, the perceptual world of the child, empathy, and caring behaviors. The abusive parent has been described variously as having low frustration tolerance, impaired parenting skills, a sense of incompetence in parenting, a history of abuse, and unrealistic expectations of children (Wolfe et al., 1988).

Helfer (1991: 6) regards child maltreatment as any interaction or lack of interaction between a child and his/her care parent which results in non-accidental harm to the child’s physical and/or developmental state.

Kempe and Kempe (1978: 42) suggest that it is during the first three years of the child’s life that normal developmental milestones poorly understood and accepted by the parents, that account for most of the trigger crises in battering.

UNICEF states that although recognition of child abuse has grown the phenomenon remains largely undocumented and underreported…(because) some forms of violence against children are socially accepted, tacitly condoned or not perceived as being abusive (https://data.unicef.org/topic/child-protection) [Accessed 1 December 2017].

International child abuse statistics are not easy to find but there is no doubt that child abuse in its many forms (abuse, neglect, parent or carer deprivation) should be an international concern. In addition, the prevalence rates vary, due to inconsistent definitions and methodological variations (Fennell and Fishel, 1998: 107).

Statstics compiled by the United States Children’s Bureau (2015) report that 40 million children are subjected to abuse each year. U.S. statistics on child abuse refer to physical abuse as that which includes ‘punching, beating, kicking, biting, burning, breaking of bones, hair pulling, and shaking an infant’. Neglect is responsible for 78 percent of all cases of child abuse and includes inadequate nutrition, clothing and hygiene, medical neglect, being left unattended and abandoned (arkofhopeforchildren.org/child-abuse/child-abuse-statistics-info) [Accessed 03/09/2017].

The website for Compassion International provides statistics that in 2014 globally, 1 billion children aged between 2–17 years were the victims of physical, sexual, emotional or multiple types of violence (Hillis et al., 2016). Equally disturbing is their statistic that a quarter of all adults reported having been physically abused as children (World Health Organization Media Centre Fact Sheet No 150. Child Maltreatment September, 2016).

Another dimension regarding the recognition and reporting of child abuse must be added to this discussion, that is, Corlett and Taylor’s (2008) article on their commentary of Tingberg et als., (2008) nurses’ experiences of encounters with abused children and their parents. The Sweden and U.K. studies highlight similar issues, that is, the reluctance of staff to instigate formal child protection procedures due to a lack of confidence in their ability to detect child abuse accurately… (p 3202).

Education for parenthood classes can do much to assist mothers and fathers in their transition to their new roles. Not only is the information provided valuable but there is also the opportunity for new parents to meet others in the group. This kind of interaction at parenthood classes has the potential to lead to the creation of Parents’ Self-help support groups where new parents can share their experiences and strategies they have found useful and so develop confidence. Sharing information also provides the occasion for group discussion about different parenting methods and styles.

Further evidence of the potential for sharing and getting support comes from an investigation into first time mothers’ views about antenatal childbirth, parenthood education and contact with class participants (Fabian et al., 2005). The authors report that, among other things, while the classes seemed not to affect the mothers’ experiences of childbirth and assessment of parental skills, they expanded their social network of new parents.

A systematic review and metasynthesis of qualitative literature was conducted by Entsieh and Hallstrom (2016) to discover