A Maternity Grant to build your baby’s brain!
Infant Mental Health week 12-18th June 2023 promoted bonding in pregnancy for a healthier baby, highlighting the importance of the time before birth for mother and child. See their video Bonding before birth. Mental resilience and healthy bodies are the result of a good start in life, when a baby is loved and talked to and respected. The first 1,000 days can shape a child’s future. We have one chance to get it right. The website of UNICEF says “Early Moments Matter”. It should be reinforced that the 1001 days do not start at birth, but at conception. It is a time of particularly rapid growth and brain development. Experts agree that the care given during the first 1001 days has more influence on a child's future than at any other time in their life.
Recently published research found that payments to mothers in pregnancy in the UK, which took place for a period of two years, from 2009 to 2011, were associated with enhanced birth outcomes, with the impact greatest for the most vulnerable mothers (Reader, M., 2023 https://www.whataboutthechildren.org.uk/research-summaries). The research hypothesis was that the grant reduced stress among pregnant women, thereby reducing the risk of prematurity and boosting birth weight. In contrast, when parents have the time to think about and talk (or sing perhaps) to their bump and take steps to prepare for the arrival with excitement, rather than with the competing demands of employment, oxytocin is helping their baby’s brain to grow.
So, it is time to think (again!) about a “Brain Building Maternity Grant”.
The foetal brain can be sensitive to maternal stress all through pregnancy. For the first 20 weeks the neurones of the brain in utero are migrating to their final position. But, in the second and third trimester, neurones are starting to make links and synapses with each other, forming pathways. The last few months of a baby’s time in the womb are the critical ones for the number of connections forming between the brain cells or neurones in the brain. Genes control the chemicals that encourage the direction and growth of the neurones to make connections, or synapses, with other parts of the brain. Successful connections are strengthened, and unsuccessful connections lead to the neurones dying away (so-called neurone pruning). Chemicals such as alcohol, drugs and stress-induced cortisol, during pregnancy are very likely to damage some of the normal synapse formations. The result can be behavioural, emotional and cognitive problems, as well as physical (Gangophadhay, 2016, Schore, 2017).
Grants in pregnancy
I am suggesting that it should become the norm for mothers-to-be to have a choice, to reduce their employment hours to around 20 hours per week, starting at about 6 months pregnant. The mothers’ gradual slowing down at work, through a drop in hours in months 7 and 8, would be supported by the Government as a “brain-building grant”, in addition to the current standard Maternity Pay, taken at 4 weeks before the planned due date. The employer would employ the replacement maternity-cover employee to overlap and begin at the time of the start of the ‘brain-building grant’.
In several European countries such as Austria, Greece, Czechia and Slovakia, it is mandatory to take 8 weeks off before the expected birth date (European Parliament). In contrast, in the UK, mothers are entitled to take up to 11 weeks of their paid maternity leave before the birth (losing those weeks after the birth), but it is non-mandatory. This results in many mothers taking as much as possible of their leave after the birth. A flat-rate or blanket grant for all mothers who apply to reduce their work hours down to 60% or less, between 4 and 12 weeks before the birth, could be based on 40% of the average UK male wage (40% of average male wage in England and Wales in 2021 was £1,100 per month) i.e., a £2,200 grant. It should be the same for all infants, and not dependent on the rate of their mother’s salary.
Mothers would have time to meet up with other mothers-to-be, and mothers with babies, to make friends in their area. Their workplace would have time to find employees to learn the role and cover for the mothers on Maternity Leave. The expectant mother would have time to bond with her unborn, to sing, laugh and love, to involve their partner and close family in thinking about the couple’s future life bringing up their family, and to form networks within their community. All this will help to build her baby’s brain, build attachment and build her baby’s physical and mental health for the future. It will also be good for the mother’s own mental health, by giving her time to adjust to her new role and reduce post-natal depression. In the short term, grants in pregnancy can reduce prematurity in birth, and save hospital bed-night costs for mother and baby (Reader, M., 2023). In the longer term, the expenditure on brain-building grants will be more than paid back, by improving the health of the nation, reducing heart disease and diabetes and improving the outcomes for children.
When children’s brains are allowed to build resilience from the earliest times, we should expect a reduction in teenage mental health problems, and an improvement in happiness. We need to petition our Government to kick off with a brain-building grant as one aspect of a joined-up approach to supporting the development of children under 3 and their families, the mission of What About The Children?
Dr Elizabeth Bland