Mercy In Action's First 1,000 Days

Dear Friends,

Thank you for your continued partnership to support our First 1,000 Days Program.  As midwives, we are committed to the idea of holistic care for the mother and her baby, and this includes supporting brain development.  Research has shown that the most rapid time of brain development occurs in the First 1,000 Days of a person’s existence.  How can we empower parents to facilitate optimal brain development for their babies?  We have seen that by training midwives about the brain development of a child from conception through 2 years old, midwives have more confidence to teach parents about the importance of doing healthy behaviors in the First 1,000 Days window.

Midwives become more confident in teaching parents about brain development and suggesting supportive activities after the midwives themselves learn about brain development. Below you will see a graph that illustrates this from our work in the Philippines.  The orange bars are confidence before an intensive training seminar on the First 1,000 Days, and the blue is confidence after the midwives had the training.  Mercy in Action trains midwives through seminars in the Philippines.  Mercy in Action College of Midwifery, a 4-year bachelor’s degree-granting college in the USA, educates student midwives about this topic to save lives and optimize the health of babies everywhere! 

 Your consistent giving fuels the important work of teaching midwives about topics like brain development so that midwives can empower parents, and babies can thrive!  Supporting the First 1,000 Days has a lifelong impact on a baby’s health and well-being.

For the Mercy in Action team,

Jenny Fox

Links:

• Mercy in Action
• First 1,000 Days