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Parenthood is an amazing adventure with huge responsibilities. Just as it’s important to feed babies’ growing bodies, parents have got to feed their babies’ growing brains!

Nearly 85% of a child’s brain will develop in their first three years, and those years influence how ready for school they’ll be. What grows a baby’s brain? Parents do! With time spent together and every word they say, parents help keep their babies’ brains healthy as millions of neural connections are built day after day.

All parents have everything they need to build babies’ brains and make sure they’re ready to start school when the time comes, but our new project is aimed at supporting Acadiana’s parents in this important work with tips, techniques and resources.

Starting Spring 2023, the parents of every baby born at Our Lady of Lourdes Women’s & Children’s Hospital and Ochsner Lafayette General Hospital will receive a bag of Resources for Developing Minds.

This effort, a collaboration among the hospitals and United Way Acadiana, is designed to narrow the achievement gap between children of different socioeconomic levels. We’re working to universally educate all new moms in Acadiana—about 6,000 each year—on the importance of building and strengthening their children’s brains from infancy.