Mommy brain is real. 

And if we want to improve the quality of the lives of our children, we need to learn to speak to it — and make the most of it. 

Dr. Sarah Watamura, co-director of the Stress, Early Experience and Development Research Center at the University of Denver, shared research Wednesday that showed the transition to first-time parenthood is one of the most transformational periods of growth in the human brain. 

Right up there with those crucial first 1,000 days of life. 

Watamura, also a fellow at the Aspen Institute delivered the opening keynote at the First 1,000 Days Summit in West Palm Beach on Sept. 26. The conference continues through Friday, Sept. 28.

“Parents are agents of change and a changing agent,” Watamura told the crowd of nearly 800 advocates and professional who work with young children and their parents. “We all want to do something for children. Adults are a little less cute. But they are the person uniquely chosen to do this job. They need to know they can do this job.”

The research Watamura and others have been part of has focused on improving outcomes for our children under 3 — often by focusing on on how parents and their choices and behavior influence early brain development.

But as professionals consider projects, plans and interventions that aim to boost early brain growth in a child by changing parents’ behavior, they need to keep in mind that a new parents brain is changing, too.

Watamura suggests asking does your intervention:

— Improve a parent’s sense that they can do it, that they have the power to do what you’re asking of them (enhancing parent efficacy).

— Take into account a parent’s mental bandwidth and emotional load?

— Make time for the parent as a person?

— Can you use tools like video-coaching (and in-person coaching) so parents can see what right looks like?

“Mommy brain is real for both parents,”  Watamura said. “Postpartum anxiety happens in moms and dads. Both new parents are at risk for mood disorders.”

Watamura shared research that outlines the impact that a parents voice and interaction have on a child’s brain, even while that baby is still in the womb. She also shared findings about how babies can sense stress in the faces and voices of their parents. And she shared that the impact of that stress has far-reaching consequences for that child’s cognitive, emotional and physical well-being.  

By way of example, she shared that smoking, on average, takes 10 years off of a person’s lifespan. Children who experience toxic stress in early childhood loss 20 years of their lifespan. 

Several of the sessions that continued throughout the day focused on the importance of engaging parents and families in any and every effort to improve an outcome for a child. Such sessions included strategies specifically to engage fathers, moving forward on coordinated intake and referral for home visitation programs, and promoting relationship building.

It is that kind of focus that is needed to make a truly transformational change in Florida for our children. State Sen. Bobby Powell Jr., D-Palm Beach, and State Rep. Erin Grall, R-Vero Beach, both spoke at the summit. 

Grall said she has had success in efforts in Tallahassee by “meeting legislators where they are, as parents, or grandparents, wherever they are. That is where we have had success.” She suggests a similar strategy to reach parents.

“We need to explain to all kinds of families to make those first 1,000 days meaningful,” Grall said.

Powell used the example of a Maasai traditional greeting: “How are the children?”

“Even warriors who didn’t have children would ask this question. And the answer would be “The children are well.”

“We need to teach people and show people to ask ‘how are the children?’” Powell said. “And we need to make sure that the answer is always, ‘the children are well.’”