The Brain Architects Podcast: Toxic Stress: Protecting the Foundation (Episode 2) from Harvard Center on the Developing Child

Diapers are a basic need, as important as food and a mother's love (I purposefully left out "a home" because I find people often say we first have to get families into a home, before we can do anything else. (please see: babies of homelessness.org)  In 2019, a story  by Belinda Luscombe titled Starting a Diaper Bank came out in TIME. The story is  about Joanne Goldblum, a social worker in New Haven, Conn. who founded The Diaper Bank of New Haven to address the desperate need for diapers she had observed in her work with impoverished families. This story prompted Kimberly-Clark, manufacturer of Huggies Diapers, to bring together Global Researcher, Abt SRBI in collaboration with Dr. Cybele Raver, Director of New York University of Human Development and Social Change, and Dr. Nicole Letourneau, Canada Research Chair in Healthy Child Development & Professor at the University of New Brunswick. Staff from Huggies and four diaper bank founders from across the nation helped with the study. The Every Little Bottom Study revealed "diaper need" to be  a critical issue in the United States.  Diaper Need is the struggle to provide infants and toddlers  with an adequate supply of diapers to keep them clean, dry and healthy.  The study revealed: "One in three American mothers struggle with diaper need."  Doctors Raver and Letourneau discuss  information and  concepts about mothers, parents and diapering (some not  previously recognized); ie; mothers, in general, report that keeping their babies in clean diapers is one of the most important things they do for their children; that diapering can be a source of joy and a time of emotional connection for all mothers; and mothers who can't afford diapers report more anxiety and feeling like a "bad mother". The study points our that diapers are not only a basic need for babies, but also for families. (This study is available and downloadable on line.)  The National Diaper Bank Network was founded in 2011 and has grown to 215 certified member Diaper Banks. The NDBN is a leading national movement to end diaper need in America by building and supporting a national network of diaper bank capable of supporting their local communities. (Contact  the NDBN and request a list of research including most recent by  Kelley E. Massengale, PhD, Department of Public Health Education, University of North Carolina

Calista Scott, MSN (Maternal-Child Nursing)