‘Abazali abazamayo’ (parents who keep on trying): mothers' responses to the Ububele Mother-Baby Home Visiting Programme

ABSTRACTEarly parent–infant home visiting interventions have been found to be effective in both developed and developing countries. However, there is a need to build an evidence base for these interventions in the South African context, to inform local early childhood development policy. The Ububele Mother-Baby Home Visiting Programme in Alexandra, Johannesburg, combines a psychoanalytic approach to thinking about parent–infant relationships and local infant care knowledge. Trained, local women offer a 14-visit intervention, which aims to support mothers, increase knowledge about the relational needs of infants, and increase maternal reflective function capacities. A mixed-methods approach was used to evaluate preliminary findings regarding mothers' responses to the programme and found significant increases in the mothers’ levels of perceived support, in levels of knowledge regarding the relational needs of infants and in maternal reflective function capacities. The supportive relationship between home vi...