ABSTRACT
It is not easy being a baby in the hurried, post-industrial world of twenty-fi rstcentury Britain. Although their chances of survival are much higher than in the past, babies are not naturally designed for a noisy, fast and over-stimulating environment. The task of parenting has also been made much harder by the wideranging social changes that have taken place in the family, and a falling-off in the level of support that has been available during pregnancy and the postnatal period to date. There is, in addition, a general lack of understanding in the UK about how to intervene effectively to support parenting and the parent-infant relationship during the perinatal period, and a paucity of primary preventive, early intervention and infant mental health services.
