A landmark study mentioned in the Jan. 16 story “State-backed Parenting Classes?” found that nurturing a baby is as influential as nature in forming its brain. The more a baby is cuddled and talked to, according to the report by the National Academy of Science led by the director of Harvard University’s Center on the Developing Child, the more the baby learns to pay attention, remember and use impulse control. Our IQ is largely determined before age 3. Without nurturing by parents, a baby’s stress responses kick in and it becomes more likely that the growing child will ditch school and fall into a life of crime.
It’s easier for parents to provide loving attention to a baby that they wanted and can support. In order to stop perpetuating the problem of babies being born into a hostile environment, i.e., to parents who do not want them or cannot care for them, provide easy access to family planning. This should be a purely social issue, but certain politicians are not connecting the dots between family planning, poverty and poor child development that can result in criminal behavior. Both men and women must have easy access to contraception, so they can choose when the time is right to have a child. It benefits the parents and the child, and it benefits society.