Rock and Hold

Posted on | December 5, 2007 | Comments Off on Rock and Hold

The surprising impact of the Rocking Chair Project

By Mike Magee

Seven years ago, on the birth of our first grandchild, Anabella, Trish and I gave our son, Michael, and his wife Susanna a glider rocking chair. It had such a comforting and nurturing effect on both the child and her parents, that we made an offer to Susanna, who at the time was a second year resident in Family Medicine at Brown. We would donate a glider chair to each of her fellow residents if they would identify the single economically disadvantaged mom in their practice who was about to give birth, offer the chair to her, and make a home visit to assemble the chair for the parents. They all agreed, and we repeated the practice the following year. By the third year, we took the idea to the leadership of the American Academy of Family Physicians (pdf) and they agreed to partner with us on a broader effort. With that the Rocking Chair Project (RCP), a 501C3 non-profit organization, was born. Today 36 family medicine training programs in 30 states participate in the project. In addition, the Edward Zigler Center in Childhood Development and Social Policy at Yale is the RCP’s research partner. They believe, and are looking to prove, that this early simple, cost-effective intervention could simultaneous increase infant brain development, decrease rates of maternal post-partum depression, and have the beneficial side effect of increasing empathy levels in young physicians.

At a recent event sponsored by Ambassador Jean Kennedy Smith in honor of the moms, babies and doctors who have participated in the RCP, Dr. Edward Zigler, a renowned expert of 50 years in early childhood development (pictured in the photo above), and an advisor to all presidents from JFK forward, spoke about the project and early childhood development. I share Dr. Zigler’s remarks with all of you today because it is my experience that the people and the people caring for the people have surprisingly little knowledge how critically important those first months and years of life are. Indeed, if you are familiar with my concept of the 100-year-long Lifespan Planning Record( LPR), it is fair to say that if ages 0 to 2 are mishandled, the remaining 98 years are very likely to be seriously compromised.

Click on the link below to read the Dr. Zigler’s remarks.