It’s official: Governor Maura Healey has made Massachusetts a home to Celebrate Babies Week.
As the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children explains on
its website, “Celebrate Babies Week is a national initiative dedicated to raising awareness of and celebrating the individuals, families, groups, and systems working to promote the well-being of expectant parents, infants, toddlers, and their families.”
Massachusetts celebrated last week.
However, the week was “first launched by the Michigan Association for Infant Mental Health (MI-AIMH) in 2010” to bring “awareness to the critical role that early relationships play in the well-being of infants, toddlers, and their families.”
The initiative focuses on “celebrating babies, early childhood professionals, and the communities that support them. It has since become an annual event observed each October, typically the third week of the month.”
In her proclamation on Celebrate Babies Week, Healey points out that there are 204,232 babies in Massachusetts, about 2.9 percent of the state’s population, and she emphasizes the importance of supporting babies and their parents.
Locally, Celebrate Babies Week is also supported by the Massachusetts Association for Infant Mental Health, which promotes “family and infant and early childhood social and emotional well-being as foundational to development.”
Other supporters of Celebrate Babies Week in Massachusetts include:
Eliot Community Human Services
Housman Institute
YMCA of Greater Boston
Boston Public Health Commission
IECMH Roundtable of Hampshire, Franklin & North Quabbin
The Boston Foundation
Family Nurturing Center of MA
Boys & Girls Clubs of Dorchester
Vital Village Networks, Inc
Paula’s Barn, Inc
Berkshire United Way
Massachusetts Early Childhood Funder Collaborative
Together For Kids Coalition
HealthySteps/Zero To Three
Early Childhood Mental Health BPHC
Connected Beginnings
Grove Hall Child Development Center
Massachusetts Association for Infant Mental Health
Brazelton Touchpoints Center at Boston Children’s Hospital
Perspectives Health Services, LLC
Mother Clarac Daycare
Center for Early Childhood @ The Home for Little Wanderers
Greater Boston Early Educators Network
Health Care For All
Brazelton Institute
BU School of Social Work
It’s not too soon to start planning for next year’s Celebrate Babies Week. As the week’s website notes, celebrating can mean starting conversations about babies’ development, sharing educational resources, or partnering with an early childhood provider. It can also involve reaching out to elected officials, discussing a related article with colleagues, or holding celebrations to honor babies and their families.
These are all ways to help build a better future for babies — and for the adults that they will grow up to be.