We are all children of society, but we are also mothers.
We have to nourish society.
If we are uprooted from society, we cannot transform it
into a more livable place for us and for our children.
- Thich Nhat Hanh

Ability to Love Takes Root in Earliest Infancy
The ability to trust, love, and resolve conflict with loved ones starts in childhood - way earlier than you may think.

Is Crying It Out Dangerous for Kids?
Is "crying it out" about establishing independence? Or is it just a way of making those early years easier for parents? One researcher says that crying it out could be dangerous for children, leading to a lifetime of harm.

Quality of Mother-Toddler Relationship Linked to Teen Obesity
The quality of the emotional relationship between a mother and her young child could affect the potential for that child to be obese during adolescence.

Teens Who Express Differences with Mom Might Also Resist Peer Pressure
Frustrated parents who are frequently at odds with an argumentative adolescent might take heart from the findings of new research on teens, their moms, and their friends.

Oh Baby: Ina May Gaskin on the Medicalization of Childbirth
Ina May Gaskin is sometimes referred to as the "midwife of modern midwifery" because of the role she’s played in the rebirth of that profession in the United States.

API Live!

Playing for Keeps: Play That Keeps Love, Creativity, and Belonging First
Register now for API Live! with international play expert
Fred Donaldson!
Monday, January 23, 2012, at 9pm EST/6pm PST join API Live to learn about Original Play and how we can understand it as parents for fostering self-esteem, transformation, security, welcoming, adaptation, and many more qualities for our children's development and health.

Myths and Truths of Obesity and Pregnancy
Ironically, despite excessive caloric intake, many obese women are deficient in vitamins vital to a healthy pregnancy. This and other startling statistics abound when obesity and pregnancy collide. Together, they present a unique set of challenges that women and their doctors must tackle in order to achieve the best possible outcome for mom and baby.

How Pregnancy Changes a Woman's Brain
We know a lot about the links between a pregnant mother's health, behavior, and moods and her baby's cognitive and psychological development once it is born. But how does pregnancy change a mother's brain? "Pregnancy is a critical period for central nervous system development in mothers," says psychologist Laura M. Glynn of Chapman University. "Yet we know virtually nothing about it."

Saving Lives of Women and Children
A new three-year study has come up with a global consensus on how to reduce the number of women who die during pregnancy and child birth. The recommendations are also expected to help lower the number of children who die before age five. It’s estimated nearly 360,000 women die each year during pregnancy and childbirth and 7.6 million children die before age five.

Stress in Early Pregnancy Can Lead to Shorter Pregnancies and Fewer Baby Boys
Stress in the second and third months of pregnancy can shorten pregnancies, increase the risk of pre-term births, and affect the ratio of boys to girls being born, leading to a decline in male babies. These are the conclusions of a study that investigated the effect on pregnant women of the stress caused by the 2005 Tarapaca earthquake in Chile.

Breastfeeding Campaign Launched in Vietnam to Prevent Stunted Growth
A breastfeeding and complementary feeding campaign was launched in Vietnam to combat stunted growth among children under five.

Breastfeeding Saved Babies in 19th-Century Montreal
Breastfeeding increased infant survival rates in 19th-century Montreal in two major ways: mother's milk protected vulnerable infants from food and water contaminated by fecal bacteria, while breastfeeding postponed the arrival of more siblings and that improved the health of mothers as well as their subsequent children.

Top Ten Tips to Limit Your Child’s Screen Time without Scream Time!
Eight year old Kyle received no less than nine new computer and video games for the holidays and his parents are wondering how to keep him under the health professionals’ recommended screen time limit of one and a half hours a day without Kyle throwing a fit. From API Canadian partner and Council member, Judy Arnall.

Health Department Launches "Positive Parenting" Education Program
The city of Hamilton public health staff know parenting is difficult, and they want to help. Public Health Services and the Best Start Network have  launched a positive parenting campaign to increase awareness of the challenges of raising young children and provide tools for addressing children’s behavior.

Research Shows Value of Parents When Kids Watch TV
New research at Vanderbilt University shows that children learn as much from television viewing when parents participate as they would during book reading.

Few Allergies in Unstressed Babies
A new study from Karolinska Institutet in Sweden shows that infants with low concentrations of the stress-related hormone cortisol in their saliva develop fewer allergies than other infants. Hopefully this new knowledge will be useful in future allergy prevention.

How Stress Is Really Hurting Our Kids
New science shows that childhood trauma can cause cancer, heart disease, and other problems.

Building Healthy Adults Starts in Childhood
Extensive evidence indicates that early childhood adversity and "toxic stress" have harmful effects on mental and physical health that can last a lifetime.

The Hormone Surge of Middle Childhood
Viewed superficially, the part of youth that the psychologist Jean Piaget called middle childhood looks tame and uneventful, a quiet patch of road on the otherwise hairpin highway to adulthood. Yet as new findings from neuroscience, evolutionary biology, paleontology and anthropology make clear, middle childhood is anything but a bland placeholder.

The Roots of Empathy
Roots of Empathy, a Canadian bullying prevention program introduced in America for the first time through Seeds of Compassion in 2007 has been so successful in Seattle that it will be rolled out nationally in 2012. Keep watching, you'll be glad you did.

#1 Boy Toddlers Need Extra Help Coping with Negative Emotions

#2 Mothers' Hard Work Pays Off with Big Brains for Their Babies

#3 Mothering Styles Can Predict Adult Relationships

#4 Why Spoiled Babies Grow Up to Be Smarter, Kinder Kids

#5 12 Ways to Mess Up Your Kids

#6 How Couples Recover after an Argument Stems from Their Infant Relationships

#7 Fathers' Presence Linked to Enhanced Intellect, Well-Being among Children

#8 Desperate Breastfeeding Moms Reveal Secrets

#9 Meet the Newest TODAY Moms Blogger: Mayim Bialik

#10 Independence Requires Attachment