Judy Bailey - Why She’s Passionate About Helping Mums & Babies

Judy Bailey, one of Brainwave’s founding members, a current Trustee, Committe Member & Presenter is  featured in The Australian Women’s Weekly March 2008 issue.

The article is entitled “Judy Bailey, Mum’s the Word”.  AWW’s Karen Burge tells why the well-loved newsreader has become a poster girl for positive parenting.

Here are some quotes and passages from the article:

Stepping away from television has not so much meant “retirement” as a chance to move ahead with the work that drives her - a passion to ensure all New Zealand children start life with “someone who is madly in love with them”.

Jude is intensely involved with the Brainwave Trust which raise public awareness about how a child’s experiences in the first three years of life affect their brain development and future.”

Its all about the first three years and it is all about simple consistent love and care.  It’s about being madly in love with this little being and then you instinctively do the right thing.  Attachment is the critical thing to get right and it’s what happens when you cradle a baby and you coo at it and give it that warmth and that love.  Every time you do that chemical signals are going off in the brain and forming those positive pathways that make a child feel good about themselves.

Brainwave is not about perfect parenting because I defy anyone to be perfect.  We have all shouted at our children from time to time and we all lose the plot occasionally.  It is all about being good enough. It’s about being better more often than not.

When a child is born it has a hundred billion neurons rocketing about in its brain and only 15 percent of those are connected and that is the basic survival mechanism really.  The remaining 85 percent of connections are triggered by what a child experiences in the first three years.  Experience both good and bad literally wires up the brain.  The more good experiences parent give their kids, the better it will be for the children, families and for wider society.  If we really committed ourselves to this zero to three age range, we could make a real difference.

Jude says supporting young families is something we can all do in our own communities.  Offer to babysit and give parents a break together.  Help clean the house or take the children on outings.  Take them to the beach and let them feel the sand between their toes and let them splash about in the water.  Let them experience life, that’s all they need.