Synopsis:Fathers are often overlooked in work with infants, young children and their families, but there are real opportunities for supporting profound and strong attachments between fathers and infants. This is especially important for premature or sick infants and young children. Dr Kevin Nugent will present findings from a range of studies about our understanding of father’s relationships with their newborn infants. Helping parents meet “the newborn as a person” using a father and family-centred relationship based approach can set the whole family off on a very positive developmental trajectory.

Speaker:Dr Kevin Nugent is the founder and Director of the Brazelton Institute of the Department of developmental medicine at the Children’s Hospital Boston, and Harvard Medical School. He is in Melbourne to help with the establishment of an Australian training centre for the Newborn Behavioural Observation (NBO) system.