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Minding the Baby

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Evidence rating: 3+
Cost rating:

Minding the baby (MTB) is a home-visiting programme. It is a targeted selective programme for young first-time mothers. It is delivered during the mother’s second or third trimester until the infant is two years of age and aims to improve child and maternal socioemotional outcomes.

Minding the Baby (MTB) is a home-based interdisciplinary parenting intervention. Nurse practitioners and social workers work together to deliver weekly sessions to young first-time mothers. Practitioners aim to promote sensitive caregiving and improve child-infant attachment through developing the mother’s ability to reflect on her own and her child’s mental state, and to be more reflective when interacting with the child.

EIF Programme Assessment

Evidence rating: 3+
Level 3 indicates evidence of efficacy. This means the programme can be described as evidence-based: it has evidence from at least one rigorously conducted RCT or QED demonstrating a statistically significant positive impact on at least one child outcome. This programme does not receive a rating of 4 as it has not yet replicated its results in another rigorously conducted study, where at least one study indicates long-term impacts, and at least one uses measures independent of study participants.
Cost rating:

Not available

What does the plus mean?

The plus rating indicates that this programme has evidence from at least one level 3 study, along with evidence from other studies rated 2 or better.

Child outcomes

This programme can affect outcomes for children in Active and healthy, physical and mental wellbeing.

According to the best available evidence for this programme's impact, it can achieve the following positive outcomes for children:

Supporting children's mental health and wellbeing

Reduced child behavioural problems

based on study 1

This programme also has evidence of supporting positive outcomes for couples, parents or families that may be relevant to a commissioning decision. Please see About the evidence for more detail.

Who is it for?

The best available evidence for this programme relates to the following age-groups:

Perinatal

How is it delivered?

The best available evidence for this programme relates to implementation through these delivery models:

  • Home visiting

Where is it delivered?

The best available evidence for this programme relates to its implementation in these settings:

How is it targeted?

The best available evidence for this programme relates to its implementation as:

  • Targeted selective

Where has it been implemented?

  • United Kingdom
  • United States

Ireland provision

This programme has not been implemented in Ireland.

Ireland evaluation

This programme’s best evidence does not include evaluation conducted in Ireland.

About the programme

What happens during the delivery?

How is it delivered?

  • Minding the Baby is delivered as weekly sessions beginning in the mother’s second or third trimester until the child’s first birthday, then fortnightly until the child’s second birthday.
  • Sessions are 1 hour duration on average and are delivered by two practitioners who alternate visits to individual families.

What happens during the intervention?

  • Sessions are delivered by social workers and nurse practitioners who alternate weekly visits. Nurse practitioners provide prenatal care and health education, while social workers monitor and support the mother’s psychological well-being, as well as support with social system.
  • Both the nurse practitioner and the social worker work with the mother to improve the mother’s ability to reflect on their own and their child’s needs and mental states, and to be more reflective in their interactions with the child.
  • Clinicians building a supportive, therapeutic relationships with the mother is also a key element to the programme.

What are the implementation requirements?

Who can deliver it?

The practitioners who deliver this programme are social workers and public health nurses with QCF-7 qualifications.


What are the training requirements?


How are the practitioners supervised?

Practitioners receive weekly discipline-focused supervision, alongside speciality-specific MTB supervision from the programme team.


What are the systems for maintaining fidelity?

Programme fidelity is maintained through the following processes:

  • Training manual
  • Face-to-face training.

Is there a licensing requirement?

There is no licence required to run this programme.


How does it work? (Theory of Change)

How does it work?

  • Young parents are more at risk of facing various challenges during parenthood which can affect their ability to respond sensitively, and effectively support the needs of the child.
  • The Minding the Baby programme aims to provide health support and increase parental sensitivity through developing the mother's reflective functioning capabilities.
  • The development of the mother’s ability to reflect on her own and the child’s mental states helps the mother to be more attuned to and cater to the needs of the child.
  • Better meeting the needs of the child increases the number of positive interactions between the parent and infant, leading to improved infant attachment security.

Intended outcomes


Contact details


About the evidence

Minding the Baby’s most rigorous evidence comes from a RCT which was conducted in the UK.

This study identified statistically significant positive impact on a number of child outcomes.

A programme receives the same rating as its most robust study, which in this case is the Longhi et al., (2020) study, and so the programme receives a Level 3 rating overall.

Study 1

Citation:Longhi et al., 2020
Design:RCT
Country:United Kingdom
Sample:148 mothers below the age of 26 and expecting their first child.
Timing:post-test
Child outcomes:
  • Reduced child behavioural problems
Other outcomes:
    Study rating:3

    Longhi, E., Murray, L., Wellsted, D., Hunter, R., MacKenzie, K., Taylor-Colls, S., & Fearon, P. (2020). “Minding the baby® home-visiting programme for vulnerable young mothers. NSPCC.

    Study design and sample

    The first study is a rigorously conducted RCT. This study involved random assignment of first-time mothers to a Minding the Baby treatment group and a treatment-as-usual group. This study was conducted in the UK, with a sample of young first-time mothers. At the time of enrolment, just over half of the participants were 20 years of age or below. The majority of participants were White European (86.39%.) 

    Measures 

    Child outcomes 

    • Child behaviour problems was measured using the Child Behaviour Checklist (CBCL) (parent report). 
    • Child attachment security was measured using the attachment Q-set (expert observation of behaviour). 
    • Child cognitive development was measured using the Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development scales, third addition (Bayley-III) (parent report). 
    Parent outcomes 

    • Maternal sensitivity was measured through direct observation of mother-child interactions and was coded according to the NICHD Study of Early childcare protocol. 
    • Postponed childbearing was measured by asking mothers about their pregnancy status. 
    • Maternal mental health was measured using the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS).
    • Parenting stress was measured using the Parenting Stress Inventory (PSI). 
    • Maternal sense of mastery was measured using the Pearlin and Schooler 7-item scale. 
    • State and trait anxiety was measured using the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI). 

    Findings 

    This study identified statistically significant positive impact on a number of child outcomes. This includes child behavioural problems.

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