GOL NFP Featured in Yahoo! News Film
MEDIA ADVISORY
MEDIA CONTACT: Mona Davis, Director of Marketing and Community Outreach
Office: (334) 273-7800 / Mobile: (334) 399-0158 / Email: mdavis@golfound.org
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: December 10, 2019
Gift of Life NFP Featured in Yahoo News Documentary on Poverty’s Effect on Fetal Development
The Gift of Life Foundation’s (GOL) Nurse-Family Partnership (NFP) Program is featured in the new Yahoo News documentary “Baby Brain”, which will debut online today on Yahoo! News and later this month on Roku and Apple TV.
The documentary highlights research by the Harvard University Center for the Developing Child which shows the effects of poverty and toxic stress on pregnant women and fetal brain development.
In “The Impact of Early Adversity on Children’s Development”, the center’s research on the biology of stress shows how major adversity, such as extreme poverty, abuse, or neglect can weaken developing brain architecture and permanently set the body’s stress response system on high alert. Science also shows that providing stable, responsive, nurturing relationships in the earliest years of life can prevent or even reverse the damaging effects of early life stress, with lifelong benefits for learning, behavior, and health.
GOL Executive Director Dr. Regina Traylor said Yahoo News selected GOL’s NFP based on its strong record of positive outcomes from program participants. NFP partners first-time moms with a registered nurse who provides support and education in the home to help moms form protective relationships with their baby.
“Neuroscience science is taking us far beyond old notions of what prenatal care should look like,” said GOL Executive Director Dr. Regina Traylor. “We know through our work that improving health outcomes has to include an approach that seeks to help moms and children living in poverty address toxic stress.”
Yahoo’s film crew accompanied GOL Nurse Home Visitor Lori Rogers on home visits with two Montgomery moms — Latreta and Brianna — who spoke candidly to producers about the challenges they faced and how NFP provided the physical and emotional support they needed to set goals, access community resources and form a strong, protective relationship with their baby, which the findings suggests can reduce abnormal levels of stress hormones, improve early learning and help reduce generational poverty. Former GOL Nursing Programs Director Amy Trammell also participated in the production with Nurse Home Visitor Kristi Gay, who will be featured with one of her mom’s in future production.
“Being a part of this project was a great experience because it shows just how needed Gift of Life’s work is,” said Rogers. “The film shows how toxic stress is a problem that is affecting moms and babies throughout the nation. I hope it sparks meaningful conversations on how we can improve prenatal care for moms living in poverty and the need to support home visiting programs like NFP.”
To view the documentary, click here.
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ABOUT GIFT OF LIFE FOUNDATION: Since 1988, Gift of Life Foundation (GOL) has worked to decrease infant mortality in through programs that empower women to reduce the challenges they face that threaten their health and prevent a healthy birth outcome. Reducing those challenges helps children survive infancy, lower complications related to low birth weight and decrease child abuse and neglect. Our parent educators, mobile family coaches and registered nurses work with first-time and parenting moms and dads to develop effective parenting skills and connect them to community resources that help them increase self-sufficiency.