Nurse visitation

• aims to prevent early childhood stress, which target men and women who are expecting a baby, and who are considered high risk of mistreating the child
• The intervention operate on the principle that the best way to prevent harm to the child is to reduce the stress in parents
• A nurse visits the parents at home before the birth and for sometime afterwards and pairs specifically trained nurses with a family for 2.5 year period beginning several weeks before birth.
• usefulness


  Avoids the risk of damaging brain structure and processes at a sensitive period in development

  Actively stimulates the brain development by encouraging the parents to provide a better nurturing environment for the child

  They are better equipped to do this if they cope with better stress
• effectiveness


  izzo conducted structured interviews with mothers 15 years after the program

  They were better able to cope with uncontrollable life stress as the mother is not in the program

  Olds found that those who are part of the program were less likely to run away, arrested less and had fewer sexual partners
• practicalities


  Defectiveness of olds study produced further results that these involved in a limited program in the months before birth, but not afterwards had teenagers with less positive outcomes than those with full interventions, suggesting the program is the most effective when fully implemented