Actions for Parents, Caregivers and/or Society
(abridged)
© 2001 by the Alliance for Transforming the Lives of Children
Permission granted to freely reproduce in whole or in part with complete attribution.

1. Encourage prospective parents to carefully consider their readiness to assume the roles and responsibilities of becoming a parent.
    
2. Honor pregnancy as a natural event (not a medical condition) and recognize the importance of the mother's emotional, mental, and physical wellbeing; a safe environment; a strong support system; and communication with the unborn as an aware, sensitive being.
    
3. Consider all birthplace options, recognizing that birth experiences are enhanced in home, birth center, or hospital settings that support parents’ birthplan detailing their informed choices for labor, birthing, and the postpartum period.
    
4. Select a birthing environment that clearly supports the infant-parent attachment process, e.g., actively encouraging immediate and continual physical contact, breastfeeding, and the involvement of the father in supporting the mother and connecting with the newborn.
    
5. Support secure infant-parent bonding through the early days, weeks, and months by respecting attachment-promoting behaviors, e.g., breastfeeding on cue, carrying infants in arms or slings, avoiding substitutes for human contact–strollers, pacifiers, stuffed toys, etc.
    
6. Assist in building additional support for the single parent.
    
7. Recognize and nourish every child’s innate goodness and wholeness of spirit, innate motivation to learn, and unique rhythm of development.
    
8. Meet children’s innate needs for caregiver constancy, unconditional love, a nutritious diet, and security.
    
9. Protect children from harmful environments, e.g., physical or emotional trauma from people or media exposure, and environmental toxins and pollutants.
    
10. Minimize our own barriers to nurturing children as parents, caregivers, and a society by addressing any dysfunctional patterns caused by our own early unmet needs or traumatic experiences that occurred around pregnancy or birth.
     
11. Foster children's sense of belonging to a responsive and responsible community by providing them with opportunities to contribute to others.
     
12. Provide ready access to education and support for parenting.
     
13. Develop family-friendly economic, political, and social structures that clearly support and value the raising of children understanding they are the promise of our planet's wellbeing.
     

    "Children need your presence more than your presents." ~Jesse Jackson

Proclamation

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