International Work

National and International NBO and NBAS Training

In March 2017, Lise Johnson and Kevin Nugent presented NBO and NBAS training at the Pudong Health Care Hospital for Women and Children in Shanghai.  Pediatricians, nurses and midwives – predominantly from Shanghai but from other parts of China as well – attended the training. This training was organized and presented by ROOT Medical and Research and Development. At an organizational level, simultaneous translation and pre-training translation of all the materials into Chinese were a distinguishing mark of this training and created an optimal learning setting for NBO and NBAS training.  The live NBO sessions with newborn infants and their families were a highlight of the program and demonstrated the strength-based family-centered nature of the NBO.

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In September 2016, at the invitation of Professor Shohei Ohgi, Professor Campbell Paul and Kevin Nugent led two NBO training sessions in Japan, the first at the Red Cross Hospital in Tokyo and the second at the Red Cross Hospital at the University of Nagoya (photo below).   In addition, two new NBO trainers were certified, Dr. Eiko Saito and Dr. Mariko Iwayama.  Congratulations to both!  Professors Campbell and Nugent also gave Open Lectures at the University of Nagoya and Hong Kong.

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Among the 1600 delegates who attended the 15th World Congress for the Association for Infant Mental Health Congress in the historic city of Prague – “the city of a hundred spires” – from May 29th to June 3rd., 2016, were over 70 NBO and NBAS Trainers and personnel, from 18 different countries in Africa, Asia, Europe and North and South America.

Two symposia, one poster workshop, a series of individual posters and oral presentations featured work with the NBO and NBAS, while Kevin Nugent delivered a Master Lecture.  Our colleague, Campbell Paul, served as Chair of the Scientific Committee and reiterated the consensus view that it was a most successful and inspiring meeting and that the NBONBASInternational papers made a notable contribution to the Congress.

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Dr. Nugent was also the keynote Speaker at the 25th Nordic Infant Mental Health (NFSU) Jubilee Conference in Oslo, Norway on March 10th, 2016. Unni Tranaas Vannebo, NAIMH President and NBO Trainer introduced the conference. The title was: Beginning in the Perinatal Period – a unique opportunity for preventive intervention and support for parents. Participants came from all over Norway, Denmark, Iceland, Sweden and Finland.  A meeting of Nordic Newborn Behavioral Observations (NBO) practitioners, organized by NBO Trainers Unni Tranaas Vannebo and Kari Slinning, also took place in Oslo in March, 2016. Kevin Nugent was the primary speaker at the meeting, while eighty-five NBO practitioners from all over Norway reported on their logs and described their work with the NBO.

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The International NBAS & NBO Trainers Meeting took place at Harvard Medical School  Nov. 2-4th, 2015. The meeting was organized by Drs. Nugent, Hawthorne, Johnson and McManus and included NBO and NBAS trainers and prospective trainers from 21 countries across the world.  This was the 30th anniversary of the first Trainers meeting which took place at the Free University of Berlin in 1985 and was also organized by Dr. Nugent.

The Harvard meeting was undoubtedly memorable, and deemed a spectacular success by all who participated.  As one participant said, “It was an inspiring occasion”, while another reported that “it was a fabulous networking opportunity, an invaluable time was spent getting feedback and input on our clinical practice, research endeavours and training pathway…..”.

The meeting was launched by a series of brilliant lectures by some of the great minds in the field today.  Speakers included Harvard faculty members, Professor Heidelise Als, Jerome Kagan, Terrie Inders, Charles Nelson, Leonard Rappaport, Jack Shonkoff.  Berry Brazelton also participated in the panel discussion.  Professor Nugent opened the proceedings and this was followed by Professor Rappaport who gave the opening address.  Professor Als spoke on “NIDCAP and Neuroscience” and this was followed by Professor Kagan’s presentation on “The Tapestry of Temperament.” In her presentation, Professor Inder discussed her research on the brain, “Inside the Newborn Brain – Imaging Insights”.  “Driving Science-Based Innovation to Achieve Breakthrough Outcomes for Babies Facing Adversity” was the title of Professor Jack Shonkoff’s address.  Finally, Professor Nelson’s presentation was entitled, “The effects of early adversity on brain and behavioral development”.   These presentations were followed by a panel, “A vision for the future”, which included Heidelise Als, Berry Brazelton, Terrie Inder, Jerome Kagan, Jack Shonkoff, Lenny Rappaport.  In the afternoon of the first day, Dr. Lise Johnson facilitated the “Around the World in 5 Minutes” session, which featured the participants from all countries describing their work with the NBAS and NBO and their plans for the future.  The following two days consisted of break-out groups and mini workshops. The following are some of the comments from the participants:

• “Thank you for a most stimulating and interesting 3 days in Boston. It was a fabulous networking opportunity, an invaluable time was spent getting feedback and input on our clinical practice, research endeavours and training pathway…”
• “Thanks for everything you did to make the international trainers meeting a reality….”
• “It was such a privilege to participate in this trainers meeting”
• “Great to keep in touch after such a wonderful few days…”
• “Thanks to all of you for the wonderful time spent together…it will be useful and amazing to keep in contact!”
• “……an inspiring experience”
• “I am back home and very happy to have participated in the Seminar, it was wonderful. Thanks Kevin, Lise and colleagues for organizing such a well thought and organized event. It is great to have a group, to keep in touch and to share information”.
• Many thanks to you all for a wonderful event!!!
• “Thanks for a wonderful and unforgettable few days in Boston”.
• “Great to keep in touch after such a wonderful few days”
• “A great honour to have been a part of the group. ….”

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The Fundaçâo Brazelton/GomesPedro presented a conference, Love Synapses: Building Strong Children, Families and Communities, in Lisbon in January, 2016. Speakers included: Ana Teresa Brito, Joao Gomes Pedro, Maria do Céu Machado, Charles Nelson, Kevin Nugent, Emilio Salgueiro, Adriana Sampaio, Danile Sampaio, Jorge Sampaio, Isabel Soares, Joshua Sparrow.

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The first Swiss NBO training took place at the Bern University of Applied Science in the beautiful city of Bern, Switzerland, Nov, 19-20th, 2015.  Trainers were Drs. Kari Slinning and Kevin Nugent, while the trainees were made up of nurses, psychiatrists, pediatricians, Physiotherapists, home visitors and infant specialists. The extremely successful training was convened by Professor Eva Cignacco and Natascha Schuetz Haemmerli.

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Dr. Susan Nicolson conducted the first NBO training with Aboriginal workers in Northern Victoria, Australia, in June 2015.

 

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The first NBO training to take place in Africa, was held in Johannesburg, South Africa, on May 11-12th, 2015, at the Ububele Parent Infant Programme. (Click here Ubulele NBO Exclusive Invitation). The NBO training team consisted of Drs. Campbell Paul and Susan Nicolson. Ububele is an educational and psychotherapy trust providing training and services to improve the emotional development of children under 7 years. Ububele’s training in mental health focuses on preventative strategies for children under the age of seven, their parents, families and other caregivers, so that the NBO will be used in this context. The program is directed by Katherine Frost and Tony Hamburger, who hosted the NBO training. For more information see: http://www.ububele.org/

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The international conference “Mi fido di te – I TRUST YOU! ” – A tribute to T. Berry Brazelton, which was presented by Professor Gherardo Rapisardi, NBAS trainer for Italy, was a spectacular success.  Seven to eight hundred health care and education professionals from all over Italy attended the conference, which took place in Rome on March 13-14th, 2015.

Speakers included Nadia Bruschweiler-Stern, C. Calzone, S. Facchini, S. Federici, L. Migliaccio, G. Nebbiosi, J. Kevin Nugent, Joshua Sparrow, G. Tamburlini, G. Valeri, F. Banella, Colwyn Trevarthen.  Professor Nugent’s opening talk was entitled, “The Development of the Sense of Trust and the Gift of Hope: the contribution of T. Berry Brazelton”.  This was followed by Dr. Bruschweiler-Stern’s lecture on “Supporting Early Relationships and the Birth of the Family”.  Dr. Luca Migliaccio spoke on co-parenting and the use of video feedback as an intervention, while Dr. Sergio Facchini spoke on the use of video intervention therapy in a primary care setting.

Professor Colwyn Trevarthen opened the second day of the conference with a lecture on “Motivation, Intentionality and Intersubjectivity in  Neonatal and Infant Behavior”, beginning with a discussion of his work with Drs. Brazelton and Bruner at Harvard over 60 years ago.  Dr. Susan Federici discussed motivational systems in childhood and adolescence, while Dr. Joshua Sparrow spoke on “The Touchpoint of Adolescence”.  Dr. Migliaccio also spoke on the Touchpoints approach.  Dr. Giovanni Valeri addressed the issue of continuity and discontinuity in child and adolescent development and Dr. Carlo Calzone spoke on the neurobiology of adolescence.  Dr. Fabia Bannella presented a case study before the final panel of Drs. Manuela Orru, Luca Migliaccio, Susanna Federici and Conference Organizer, Gherardo Rapisardi offered their concluding remarks.

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The Møller Centre, Churchill College at the University of Cambridge was the setting for a special meeting of UK NBO trainers which took place on 29^th – 31^st January, 2015.  Professor Kevin Nugent joined this special Trainer of Trainers Meeting, which was convened by Dr. Joanna Hawthorne (assisted by Betty Hutchon and Maggie Redshaw) and included workshops and discussions on the NBO.  Among the other Trainers and Trainer Associates were: Jeanette Appleton, Megan Eccleson, Melanie Gunning, Inge Nickell, Emily Hills, Deanna Gibbs, Lisa Hodge, Libi Deller, Maureen Lancaster, Guillermina Marquine, Maggie Wood, Alison Pritchard and Christine Bartram.  Each Trainer discussed her experience both as a user and as teacher of the NBO in her own particular setting.  These individual presentations and the discussion that followed offered a picture of a vibrant training program that, according to the data presented, is making a significant difference in the lives of the practitioners and the infants and families whom they serve across England, Scotland and Wales.  Many of the themes which were introduced at the Edinburgh International meeting in June were discussed in an effort to carve a vision for the expansion and refinement of the training process and the facilitation of research using the NBO (and NBAS) in the UK.

The two days were crowned by a formal dinner in honor of Professor Nugent, at Churchill College, where tributes were paid to all the trainers and to Dr. Hawthorne especially, for all she has done to make the UK Training Centre what it is today – the largest in the world.  A Joint meeting with the Brazelton Centre UK & The Cambridge Centre for Perinatal Neuroscience then took place on Saturday Jan 31st at the Seminar Room 5, Clinical School, Cambridge University Hospitals, NHS Foundation Trust, Cambridge.  Speakers included: Professor Kevin Nugent, Director, Brazelton Institute, Boston; Professor Jonathan Hill and Dr. Helen Sharp (Universities of   Reading and Liverpool), Dr. Susan Pawlby, Institute of Psychiatry, London, Pauline Lee, Clinical Psychologist, Tameside and Glossop and Drs. Topun Austin, Cristine Costa and Cheun Wai Lee from the Cambridge Centre for Perinatal Neuroscience.  For the full program visit: Brazelton meeting 31st Jan. 2015.

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The first NBO Training to take place in Brazil took place at the Department of Pediatrics, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte on March 27-28th, 2015.  The trainers were Drs. Lise Johnson and Beth McManus, while the facilitators were Prof. Claudia Regina Lindgren Alves, MD, PhD and Profa. Titular Lívia C.Magalhães.

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Twenty-five NBO trainees received their certificates from NBO Trainers Drs. Kari Slinning and Nancy Moss at a meeting in Lillehammer in November, 2014.  Trainees were made up of nurses, midwives, psychologists and one physiotherapist, all of whom are working with parents with drug problems or are suffering from mental illness.

In this innovative  individualized mentorship program, the completion rate was almost 100%.  On-line mentoring was an integral part of the program over the first three months.  Subsequently, each trainees submitted a video of one of their NBO sessions for review, and the Trainers provided both oral and written feedback to each trainee.  The photograph on the left includes most of the successful trainees, with NBO trainers, Nancy Moss and Kari Slinning in the foreground.  Congratulations to all!

On Dec 3rd 2014, another group of NBO trainess received their certificates from trainers, Unni Tranaas Vannebo and Inger Pauline Landsem, in Bode, in northern Norway.   New trainees are made up on midwives, public health nurses and physiotherapists.   Inger Pauline’s work with premature infants was featured in the Norwegian press and on Nov 29th, 2014, her work with the NBO was featured on Norwegian TV.  Congratulations!

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The first NBO and NBAS Training to be presented in China took place in Xi’an Children’s Hospital, Affiliated Medical School at the Xi’an JiaoTong University on November 3-4th.   Drs. Susan Nicolson (Royal Women’s Hospital, Melbourne, Australia) and Kevin Nugent, the Brazelton Institute were the instructors on this auspicious occasion.  Thirty neonatologists, pediatricians, nurses and social workers from all over China participated.  NBAS training was also offered on Nov 5th by Professor Nugent. The training was facilitated by Professor Hui Li, MD., Ph.D., Division of Pediatrics and Neonatology, Xi ‘an JiaoTong University and First Affiliated Hospital, Medical School, Xi’an Jiaotong University.

The NBO training was preceded by an International Conference entitled Neonatal Behavioral Observation system applied in the family and medical rehabilitation, which was held on Sunday November 2nd. in Xi’an. Invited speakers include Chuen Wai Lee (UK), Shohei Ohgi (Japan), Xiulan Bao (China), Susan Nicolson and J . Kevin Nugent.

Attendees at the conference included neonatologists, pediatricians and nurses from Xi’an and other medical centers from across the country, including Shannxi Province, Zhejiang Province, Shandong Province, Beijing and Hong Kong.

 

 

 

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Brazelton Institute faculty members, Drs. Lise Johnson and Yvette Blanchard conducted NBO Training in Iceland on Sept 18-19th., 2014, in Reykjavik.  This is the second NBO training to be held in Iceland and once again the training was facilitated by the dynamic and dedicated Stefanía Birna Arnardóttir.  Last year, it was Drs. Johnson and Hawthorne who made up the faculty and this year Dr. Blanchard joined Dr. Johnson, who reported that the training was very successful.

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The first NBO training program in Denmark was conducted in Thisted in North Jutland by NBO Trainers Jeanette Appleton and Inge Nickell (UK) (photo on the left) on October 1st-2nd., 2014.  ” The training was most successful…..and was a truly amazing experience….. We were impressed by the enthusiasm of the group“, as reported by Jeanette and Inge.  The sessions were conducted in Danish and Inge translated the NBO materials into Danish. The NBO session was enhanced by the presence of the the mother and her four-week old baby “who smiled through the whole NBO session“.

The success of the program was due in no small part to Convener Merethe Vinter’s “enthusiasm, knowledge and passion”, according to Jeanette and Inge’s report.  Group photo on the left includes Merethe Vinter, seated second from the left with Jeanette Appleton on her right and Trainer Inge Nickell standing behind on the far left.

 

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Drs. Kevin Nugent and Joanna Hawthorne coordinated the International NBO/NBAS Trainers meeting which took place on June 12th, 2014 at the Playfair Library, Edinburgh University and the “Understanding the baby and supporting parents using the NBO and NBAS: International Perspectives”  meeting which took place on the following day at the same venue.  The NBAS and NBO Trainers meeting was attended by researchers and clinicians from around the world.  This was an extraordinarily significant – and memorable – reunion, as the first international meeting of NBAS trainers was organized by Dr. Nugent in Berlin in 1985.  Many of these who attended that meeting were present for this Edinburgh meeting, almost thirty years later.   The focus of the day was on the NBO and NBAS and on their uses in research and clinical practice, while one of the main themes of this year’s meeting was to address the future of NBAS and NBO training and to plan accordingly.  There was unanimous agreement that that these goals were reached and that the lectures were excellent, the NBO and NBAS research poster presentations revealing, the discussions illuminating, and that all of this was enhanced by the ambience of the elegant Playfair Library venue.

To the surprise and delight of all present, Dr. Brazelton – now 96-years-old – attended and was actively engaged in the sessions from beginning to end.  The opening addresses on both days was delivered by Professor Colwyn Trevarthen, Emeritus Professor of Child Psychology and Psychobiology at the University of Edinburgh.

Read more on Trevarthen WAIMH 2014. to read his brilliant addresses.   Speakers on June 13th also included Kevin Nugent, Joanna Hawthorne (UK), Campbell Paul (Australia), Kari Slinning (Norway), Emese Nagy (Scotland), Heidelise Als (US), Joshua Sparrow (US), Beth McManus (US), Nadia Bruschweiler-Stern (Switzerland), Kristie Brandt (USA) and Topun Austin (UK).  Click here to view the June 13th programme.

The day of the 13th ended with a Forum: Looking toward the Future, moderated by Drs. Nugent and Hawthorne.  The panel included Eileen Hayes (UK), Hui Li (China), Beth McManus (US), Campbell Paul (Aus), Susan Pawlby (UK), Maggie Redshaw (UK), Kari Slinning (Nor), Debbie Weatherston (USA).

The International Trainers meeting on the 12th was addressed by Professor Joao Gomes Pedro, who spoke about the contribution of Berry Brazelton to his own discovery of the field of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics. This address was followed by trainers from the different countries discussing the status of NBAS and NBO training in their respective settings.   The day included a series of roundtable discussions on training and research challenges.  In the meantime, delegates reiterated their commitment to continuing to discuss these proposals on line with a view to strengthening the network and ensuring the deepening and expansion of our NBO and NBAS programs and research initiatives. The session ended with an action plan for the future and a decision to meet again in Boston in October 2016.

The day ended with a musical evening at St. Leonard’s Hall, where traditional Scottish harpers, Patsy Seddon and Mary Mcmaster (Sileas) played the electric harp and gut-string harp and sung in both Gaelic and English.  It was a night of toasts, stories and music.  Inger-Pauline Landsem led off with a spontaneous Norwegian toast, while our colleagues from French-Speaking countries, Marie Grenet, Nadia Bruschweiler-Stern, Claire deVriendt-Goldman and Marie-Paule Durieux sang a traditional French children’s song.

Our Australian colleague – who has strong Scottish ties – Campbell Paul gave a virtuoso performance on the bagpipes featuring Scotland the Brave and Marie’s Wedding and added a rousing vocal version of Harry Lauder’s classic, “I belong to Glasgow”.   Joao Gomes Pedro shared a philosophical vignette from Portugal and Kevin Nugent sang the traditional Gaelic song, “Bheir me O”, accompanied by Patsy and Mary. UK colleagues, Joanna Hawthorne, Jeanette Appleton, Deanna Gibbs and Kim Benn led a chorus of “Loch Lomond”, while Jeanette also gave a beautiful rendition of a traditional English song Bonny at Morn.  Other contributors included a recitation by Claudia Quigg, while Berry Brazelton himself sang one of his favorites, “Deep in the Heart of Texas” with gusto and flair.  Kevin Nugent offered a final “slainte” and an invitation to all to meet again in Boston in 2105.  The evening ended – fittingly – with a traditional version of “Auld Lang Syne” accompanied by Mary and Patsy on the Scottish harps.  (See photo gallery on the right for more photos)

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Over 250 people attended the Nordic Conference on Perinatal Mental Health at the Regionsenter for Barn og Unges Psylkske Halse in Oslo on October 21, 2013.  This very successful conference was organized and hosted by Drs. Marit Bergum Hansen and Kari Slinning.   Speakers included Birgitta Wickberg, Uviversity of Goteborg, Sweden; John Cox, University of Keele, UK; Cindy-Lee Dennis, University of Toronto, Canada; Jane Morrell, University of Nottingham, UK;  Pamela Massoudi, Kronbenberg, Sweden; Lynne Murray, University of Reading, UK; Susan Ayers, City University of London. Dr. Kevin Nugent gave the keynote address on “Preventive Intervention in the Newborn Period: using the NBO to reduce postpartum depressive symptomatology”.