Breastfeeding, colic, reflux, feeding, positions that can calm and provide more comfort to the baby: issues like these are on the list of the main doubts and insecurities of mothers and fathers in the first months of a baby's birth. These and other subjects are the focus of the guidance and tips provided by the multidisciplinary team of the Anita Garibaldi Center for Education and Research in Health, of the Santos Dumont Institute (ISD), through the Art of Growing Up project, which had its first meeting of the year this Wednesday (02/16). 

The Art of Growing is an initiative that seeks to enhance the development of social, affective, cognitive and neuropsychomotor skills in children cared for in Anita Garibaldi Health Education and Research Center (Anita), one of the ISD units in Macaíba (RN). According to the multidisciplinary physiotherapist preceptor Camila Simão, in the first year of a child's life, parents and caregivers have a very important role as mediators of stimulating babies to acquire skills. 

“The people closest to the baby’s experience and care are the greatest stimulators of development, affective and emotional development. Therefore, the main objective of the art of growing up is to provide tools and provide important information to help and enhance this development in the first year of life”, he explains. 

The initiative will monitor nine newborn babies born to mothers who received high-risk prenatal care at Anita throughout 2022. Monthly group meetings will be held, always on the day of pediatric appointments, where families will have time to spend with the babies and receive support from the multidisciplinary team with workshops and guidance. In addition, the team also produces explanatory videos on topics relevant to the baby's first year of life, which will be disseminated to the families participating in the project. 

“Each month we will address different topics, according to the needs of the group and the stage of development of the babies. The focus is to stimulate development, language, bonding with parents, motor skills and others. We will have workshops on hot tubs, construction of sensory mats, emotional communication, techniques to calm babies, in addition to working on issues such as the mental health of mothers,” says the coordinator of the Specialized Center for Rehabilitation IV (CER ISD) and multidisciplinary physiotherapist preceptor at Anita, Camila Simão.

One of the mothers participating in the project this year is Laíssa Moura, 34, mother of Josué, who is just one month old. Laíssa is already the mother of a 14-year-old teenager, but she says that Josué was born after two pregnancies that resulted in miscarriages. The pregnancy was considered high-risk, given the mother's high blood pressure. 

“I get emotional just talking about it. I always wanted to have a second child, but I couldn’t carry my child to term. Then Josué was born and gave me hope. I’m a second-time mother, but my son was born 14 years ago and we forget things over time. That’s why I decided to take part in the project, to get the support I didn’t have before,” said Laissa. 

Users who will have access to guidance from Arte de Crescer are women who had a complicated pregnancy and underwent high-risk prenatal care, one of the health services in which ISD is a reference for the 7th health region of Rio Grande do Norte, which includes the municipalities of Macaíba, Natal, Parnamirim, Extremoz and São Gonçalo do Amarante. 

“Since these mothers are users who received high-risk prenatal care, it is important to monitor these children because there may be complications postpartum and in the first months of life. There are tips to improve the quality of life of this baby and this mother and guidelines that can ensure full development for the child,” explains Camila Simão. 

A participant in the project in previous editions, Lilha Rocha, mother of Anahí, now three years old, reports the benefits that the project brought to her experience with motherhood. “The art of growing up was a wonderful thing in my life as a first-time mother who knew nothing. I felt lost and, in the project, I discovered what I had to do with my daughter so that she could grow up healthily. So much so that, today, Anahí is a child with incredible motor development, so the project made all the difference for us”, reports Lilha. 

art of growing up

The Art of Growing is an initiative by the Santos Dumont Institute that seeks to enhance the neuropsychomotor, cognitive, affective and social skills of children cared for at the institution. In a multidisciplinary way, the project, in effect since 2017, aims to contribute to child development in early and middle childhood. In 2022, it will monitor nine babies, from February to December. 

The work is developed through face-to-face workshops for Anita users and their families, and also provides undergraduates in curricular internships and multidisciplinary residents with knowledge about early psychomotor intervention that occurs between 0 and 3 years of age.