J. Kevin Nugent - Understanding Newborn Behavior and Early Relationships: The Newborn Behavioral Observations (NBO) System Handbook

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

J. Kevin Nugent, Ph.D., Professor, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Massachusetts 01003; Director, The Brazelton Institute, Children's Hospital Boston; Lecturer, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02215

Dr. Nugent is a developmental psychologist and Founder and Director of The Brazelton Institute at Children's Hospital Boston. He is co-author with Dr. Berry Brazelton of the Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale (NBAS) and has directed the NBAS training program since 1978. Dr. Nugent has conducted research on newborn behavior and parentchild relations in different cultural settings around the world and has published extensively on topics in infant and child development. In addition, he has written the manual Using the NBAS with Infants and Parents (March of Dimes Foundation, 1985) and is senior author of the series The Cultural Context of Infancy (Vols. 1 and 2; Ablex 1989, 1991). Dr. Nugent is editor of Ab Initio, the international journal for professionals working with infants and families.

Constance H. Keefer, M.D., Faculty, The Brazelton Institute, Children's Hospital Boston; Assistant Professor, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02215

Dr. Keefer, a board-certified pediatrician, has worked as a researcher and teacher in the field of infantparent relations for 30 years. She has conducted research on newborns and young children in Kenya, has worked as a community physician, and was Director of the Newborn Nursery in the Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) in Boston, where she developed a curriculum in primary care neonatology for residents and the PEBE (the combined physical and behavioral neonatal examination) to help promote a more parent-centered approach to newborn care. Currently, Dr. Keefer is an attending pediatrician in the BWH Newborn Nursery and is also on the faculty of The Brazelton Touchpoints Center at Children's Hospital Boston, where she trains providers in aspects of early childhood development.

Susan Minear, M.D., Director, Birth to Three Program, Boston Medical Center; Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, Massachusetts 02118

Dr. Minear (formerly O'Brien) practices primary care pediatrics and is a board-certified behavioral and developmental pediatrician and a graduate fellow of the Zero to Three Leadership Development Initiative. From 1997 to 2005, Dr. Minear served as Medical Director of the Newborn Nursery at Boston Medical Center, where she worked to transform a traditional newborn nursery practice into a developmentally rich service for newborns and families. Dr. Minear incorporated the NBO into newborn care and into medical student and resident education. She implemented an infant massage program and was a co-chairperson of the Baby Friendly task force through which Boston Medical Center achieved the World Health Organization's Baby Friendly status, a designation for hospital organizations that successfully follow the Ten Steps program to provide support for breast-feeding mothers.

Lise C. Johnson, M.D., Director, Well Newborn Nurseries, Brigham and Women's Hospital; Instructor in Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School; Faculty, The Brazelton Institute, Children's Hospital Boston, Boston, Massachusetts 02215

Dr. Johnson is a board-certified pediatrician. Prior to focusing her clinical work and teaching on newborns, she worked for 10 years as a primary pediatrician in the greater Boston area. She integrates the NBO into her practice with newborns and their families and into her training of residents and medical students.

Yvette Blanchard, Sc.D., PT, Associate Professor of Physical Therapy, University of Hartford, West Hartford, Connecticut 06117; Faculty, The Brazelton Institute, Children's Hospital Boston, Boston, Massachusetts 02215

Dr. Blanchard teaches the pediatric curriculum of the physical therapy program at the University of Hartford and is a faculty member of The Brazelton Institute where she is the lead NBAS trainer and an NBO trainer. She is also an early intervention provider for the East Hartford Birth to Three Program in Connecticut. Dr. Blanchard has published more than 15 articles and 4 book chapters relating to the field of pediatric physical therapy and early intervention with high-risk infants.

ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTORS

Sarah A. Birss, M.D., Infant, Child, and Adult Psychiatrist; Faculty, Infant Parent Training Institute, Center for Early Relationship Support, Jewish Family and Children's Service of Greater Boston, Waltham, Massachusetts 02451

Dr. Birss has worked clinically with infants and parents for 20 years. She has trained in developmental pediatrics, adult and child psychiatry, and adult and child psychoanalysis. Dr. Birss is guest faculty at the Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute, and Clinical Instructor in Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. She has an interest in assessment and treatment of early emotional disorders, and currently teaches infant observation and early emotional development. She has a private practice in infant, child, and adult psychiatry in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Kristie Brandt, RN, CNM, N.D., Director, ParentInfant & Child Institute, Napa, California 94559

Dr. Brandt, a board-certified nursemidwife and nurse practitioner, has a doctorate in nursing and more than 30 years of experience in both clinical practice and public health administration. Her research has focused on the parentchild relationship, factors influencing breast-feeding success, infantparent mental health therapeutic services, and nurse home-visiting models. She has co-authored chapters and journal articles and produced assessment tools and protocols under state grants. Dr. Brandt created and conducted research on a Touchpoints Nurse Home Visiting pilot project in the Napa Valley. She also developed the Napa County Therapeutic Child Care Center and co-developed the InfantParent Mental Health Fellowship Program; both programs have received national awards of excellence. Brandt is a reviewer for Pediatrics, the journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics, and lectures and trains internationally with Dr. T. Berry Brazelton.

Matthew J. Lee, Staff Photographer, The Boston Globe, Boston, Massachusetts 02107

Matthew J. Lee studied at Santa Barbara City College and San Francisco State University and attended the last photo workshop taught in Yosemite National Park by Ansel Adams. After internships at the Peninsula Times Tribune and the Philadelphia Daily News , Mr. Lee received his first staff position at the Charlotte Observer's Union County North Carolina Bureau in 1987. In 1988 he began work at the Oakland Tribune and later accepted a staff position at the Long Beach Press-Telegram . In 1998 he joined the staff of the Miami Herald and stayed there for one year before leaving for The Boston Globe, where he has been a staff photographer since 1999. Mr. Lee received the 1990 Pulitzer Prize for News Photography, as part of the team that covered the Loma Prieta earthquake.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Firstly, we would like to acknowledge our indebtedness to T. Berry Brazelton, whose teaching and supportive mentoring inspired the development of the Newborn Behavioral Observations (NBO) system. Over the years, Dr. Brazelton has informed our understanding and appreciation of newborn behavior and has shaped our clinical stance toward parents and families. His pioneering work with the Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale (NBAS) on the nature of individual differences in newborn behavior and his positive approach to working with parents influenced both the content and clinical approach of the NBO. We have attempted to preserve in the NBO his philosophy and his overall respect for infants and their parents.

We would like to thank Cynthia O'Hare, RN, M.P.H., for her unique contribution to the development of the NBO when it was known as the Clinical Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale. She played an indispensable role as a faculty member in shaping the direction of the NBO training program. NBAS Master Trainer Jean Cole's clinical work with the NBAS provided many ideas for the development of the NBO, and we would also like to acknowledge the contributions to the development of the NBO in the initial stages of Dr. Zachary Boukydis, the Erikson Institute, Chicago, and Dr. Sherry Muret-Wagstaff, Children's Hospital Boston. We would like to thank Joao Gomes-Pedro and his colleagues in Portugal, who modified the NBAS for clinical use; Tiffany Field, who developed the Mothers Assessment of the Behavior of the Infant; Ida Cardone and Linda Gilkerson, who developed the Family Administered Neonatal Activities; and Rebecca Kang, Kathryn Barnard, John Worobey, Donna Karl, and Joylene Pearson, all of whom made original adaptations to the NBAS in their clinical work. We also would like to thank Jennifer Gillette of The Brazelton Institute for her contribution to the training curriculum as an NBO faculty member.