Many parents find parenting difficult, sometimes downright stressful. As a parent, you want the best for your child, but the responsibility for a child can be overwhelming. This is especially true for new parents who still have to get used to their baby. How can families during pregnancy or with a baby who experience a lot of stress be better supported? And in what ways do parents want to share with a professional that they find caring for their baby difficult or are worried? These are central questions in the research program HEALS (Healthy Early Life Start), a five-year program supported by the National Science Agenda.
Chronic stress during upbringing, particularly during the first 1000 days, from pregnancy up to and including 2 years, has consequences for development even later in life.
HEALS is an interdisciplinary research program that focuses on recognizing stress in the first 1000 days and providing the right support to families. A lot of knowledge and expertise in the field of detection and family support is already available. Nevertheless, many cases are still not recognized or only recognized at a late stage. With the HEALS program, we aim to bring together knowledge from science and knowledge from practice.
Within HEALS, partners actively collaborate from different research disciplines, knowledge institutions, public sectors, and the business community.
Contact: Randy Klaassen, Tamara Ribbers, Jan van Erp
Website: https://www.ncj.nl/onderwerp/heals/