The Brazelton Institute is dedicated to promoting the healthy development of infants and families, through research and education programs for people who care for children and their families in the first years of life. The Institute is based in the Department of Pediatrics at the Children's Hospital in Boston, which is an affiliate of the Harvard Medical School.

Dr. J. Kevin Nugent founded the Brazelton Institute in 1995. Building on T. Berry Brazelton's pioneering work with infants and families and based on more that 25 years of research and clinical practice, the Institute has as its goal the development of innovative service delivery models that target the changing health needs of children and families in today's society.

The work of the Brazelton Institute is based on the assumption that parents and families have the central and primary role in ensuring the health and well-being of their children. However, we believe that doctors, nurses, psychologists, psychiatrists, physical and occupational therapists, infancy and early intervention specialists, therapists, social workers and other allied health and education professionals in the community, are significant partners in providing services to parents. The Institute is committed to promoting and conducting research and training to ensure that the information offered to professionals and parents is reliable and trustworthy.

The Institute is the home of the Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale and provides training for clinicians and researchers on the Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale (NBAS) (Brazelton and Nugent, 1995) and of the Newborn Behavioral Observations (NBO) system. (Nugent, Keefer, O'Brien, Johnson, Blanchard, 2005)

The NBAS is regarded as the most comprehensive examination of newborn behavior available and is used in both research and clinical settings across the world. It is used to examine:

• The effects of prematurity, low birthweight, undernutririon and a range of pre-and perinatal risk factors
• The effects of obstetric medication/mode of delivery
• The effects of prenatal substance exposure
• Studies of neonatal behavior in different cultures
• Prediction studies
• Studies of primate behavior
• The NBAS as a form of intervention with families

One of the aspects of the work at the Brazelton Institute is centered on developing a new version of the classical NBAS scale, NBAS-R (revised) as a standardized form to be used for newborn research. The NBAS-R takes less time to administer (approimately 10 minutes) and provides a standard administration protocol for every newborn examination.

The NBO is used in clinical settings. It is a relationship-building tool, so that the goal of the NBO is to foster parents' senstitivity and responsiveness to their newborns, on the one hand, and to help the practitioner develop a supportive relationship with the family, on the other.

The Brazelton Institute is recognized at local, national and international levels as a leader in developing and providing educational programs for professionals who care for young children and families in both hospital and clinical settings around the world.

The Brazelton Institute International Network consists of a network of professionals around the world who are dedicated to promoting the healthy development of infants and families, through teaching and research. The primary goal of the Brazelton Institute International Network is to provide training in the use of the NBAS in different settings across the world.

AB INITIO international is the newsletter of the Brazelton Institute. It was first published in 1989 to foster scholarly exchange among professionals working with infants and families.