The Ububele Baby Mat Project: A Community-Based Parent-Infant Intervention at Primary Health Care Clinics in Alexandra Township, Johannesburg

This paper describes the Ububele Baby Mat Project – a community parent-infant mental health intervention offered at primary health care clinics in Alexandra (an impoverished township in Johannesburg, South Africa). The paper traces the project's history and theoretical underpinnings. At its core, the Baby Mat Project aims to support the caregiving component (parents/caregivers and their support structures) of the attachment system, through a focus on reflective functioning, observation and direct communication with the infant. The facilitating of wondering, mhlawumbe in isiZulu, encourages deeper thought about the meaning of the presenting problem, which is usually of a seemingly concrete nature. An in situ example illustrates the process of a Baby Mat session.