Community Mothers’ Programme

 

OVERVIEW

The Community Mothers’ Program provided monthly visits to new mothers during the first year of the child’s life and aimed to increase the mother’s self-confidence by having a nonprofessional mother from the community visit in the home and share her own experiences raising a child. This program was found to have impacts on child’s immunizations, child’s nutrition, number of days in the hospital for children who spent time in the hospital, mother reading to the child, mother’s fatigue, mother feeling miserable, and mother staying in.

 

DESCRIPTION OF PROGRAM

Target Population: first-time, low-income mothers in an urban setting in Ireland

 

In the Community Mothers’ Program, the new mother receives the usual support from a public health nurse, but receives monthly visits at home from a mother in the community for a year. This program recommends that the home visitor share her own experiences with the mother, rather than giving advice or teaching her. In doing so, the mother will ideally feel empowered and equal to the home visitor.

 

The first-time mothers were encouraged to use cartoons promoting educational development, language development, and cognitive development. Education involved reading to the child early. Language was developed through nursery rhymes, and cognitive development was encouraged through play.

 

EVALUATIONS OF PROGRAM

 

Johnson, Z., Howell, F., & Molloy, B. (1993). Community mothers' programme: Randomised controlled trial of non-professional intervention in parenting. British Medical Journal, 306(6890), 1449-1452.

 

Evaluated Population: First-time mothers (N=232) and their infants in a low-resource area of Dublin, Ireland, were evaluated. About half of the mothers were single and half married. Most of the mothers, three out of every four, were unemployed, and about one out of every three fathers were unemployed.

 

Approach: Mother and infant pairs (N=262) were randomly assigned to the intervention group (n=141) or control group (n=121). Thirty were not included in the posttest because data were not available. Measures collected were self esteem, food intake, immunizations, hospitalizations, formula use, feeding milk before 26 weeks of the child’s age, and number of accidents.

 

Self-esteem was assessed through physical symptoms, such as being tired, having headaches, being miserable, and staying in. Food intake was a 24-hour mother-report recall of the consumption of animal protein, non-animal protein, whole foods, vegetables, fruit, milk, and energy.

 

Results:  After one year, the program had a positive, significant impact on three of the four self-esteem measures: fatigue, feeling miserable, and staying in. There was no significant impact on mother’s headaches.

 

The intervention group had a significantly higher percentage of mothers reporting that they read to their child, compared with the control group mothers (98 versus 54 percent). Also, mothers who read to their children in the intervention group were more likely to report reading to them every day, compared with mothers who read to their children in the control group (56 versus 26 percent).

 

Children in the intervention group had a higher percentage of up-to-date immunizations by their first birthday compared with the control group (85 versus 65 percent). Of the children who spent any time in the hospital (number of days in the hospital > 0), the children in the intervention group had a mean number of days twice that of the control group (14 days and seven days, respectively). Mothers in the intervention group had infants on formula longer, on average, compared with the control group (38.1 weeks versus 28 weeks, respectively). Fewer mothers in the intervention group gave their children cow’s milk before 26 weeks, compared with the control group (19 versus 47 percent), a positive impact. For all the foods in the dietary recall, the program had a significant impact, favoring the intervention group. The intervention group had higher percentages of individuals with appropriate consumption of the food types, not eating too much or too little. The significant impacts were found for both the children’s consumption and mothers’.

 

No significant impacts were found for hospital admission, mean number of days spent in the hospital (all children), or number of accidents.

 

SOURCES FOR MORE INFORMATION

 

References:

Johnson, Z., Howell, F., & Molloy, B. (1993). Community mothers' programme: Randomised controlled trial of non-professional intervention in parenting. British Medical Journal, 306(6890), 1449-1452.

 

 

Program categorized in this guide according to the following:

 

Evaluated participant ages:  Early Childhood (0-5)

 

Program components: Home visiting, Parent or family component

 

Measured outcomes: Social and Emotional Health, Physical Health

 

KEYWORDS: Infants (0-12 months), Males and Females (co-ed), Urban, Home-based, Community-based, Parent Training/Education, Home Visitation, Nutrition, Health Status/Conditions.

 

Program information last updated 11/1/2010.

 

 

 

 

		© Child Trends 2004