Project Lead(s): Guilherme Polanczyk, Euripedes Constantino Miguel Filho
A novel, intensive, nurse home visitation program for first time pregnant youth in poor areas of São Paulo will be tested with a randomized controlled trial – the first of its kind in Latin America.
The aim is to mitigate the harmful effects of toxic stress over the developing brain when still in the mother’s womb and infancy and so improve outcomes for the developing child. The innovators took two well-known interventions (Nurse Family Partnership and Minding the Baby) and tailored them to the socio-cultural situation and health system of Brazil. The model could be adopted for use nationwide and in other developing countries with similar characteristics.
About 30 first-time pregnant youth will receive the intervention and it is estimated that their babies’ exposure to toxic stress will be reduced by half.