New Parent Support Program

The New Parent Support Program is a team made up of nurses, social workers and home visitation specialists who offer support and guidance by helping parents:

• Build strong, healthy bonds with their infants and toddlers that will lay the foundation for their social and emotional development
• Manage the demands of parenting, especially when impacted by deployments and other military operations
• Remain flexible and responsive when navigating daily life
• Build a strong support network
• Respond to infant and toddler behavior sensitively and be attuned to their developmental needs
• Find services in the local community in time of need

Learn more about the New Parent Support Program and contact your installation New Parent Support Program office to find out what’s available at your installation.

The New Parent Support Home Visitation Program is an early intervention service for families who are expecting or have one or more children under the age of 4. The program is designed to meet the needs of expectant active-duty military service members, their spouses and other dependents. It offers comprehensive early intervention services that include maternal and infant health education, parent and child bonding techniques, positive parenting practices, child development and child safety education. The New Parent Support Home Visitation Program enhances a military family's quality of life by empowering them to meet the challenges of parenthood while maintaining a military lifestyle.

• Home visitation delivers parent education and coaching in the intimate setting of the participants' home.
• The Nurturing Parenting Program uses evidence-based curriculum to promote child safety, nurturing attitudes and healthy parenting beliefs and practices.
• Child development education helps parents establish healthy parenting practices through the understanding of child developmental stages and milestones.
• Father Outreach Initiative supports military fathers in enhancing their knowledge of healthy parenting practices and strengthens father and child bonding during the deployment cycle.
• Infant massage teaches parents to understand their babies' cues and learn new strategies to relieve their babies' discomfort while strengthening parent and child bonding.

Parenting can be fun! Childhood is a special time of watching a young life grow, exploring and finding excitement in many things. In this program, parents will experience fun, closeness and enjoyment in growing together. A home visitor assesses each family, so sessions can be tailor-made to fit individual interests and needs. Parents and their children receive a sequence of lessons and activities in home-based sessions. The home visitor works with each family, promoting positive parent-child relationships, improving parental knowledge and skills and fostering healthy child development. The program partners with other key community services, such as community health agencies, hospitals, social workers and educators to provide a rich and comprehensive resource base for families.

New Parent Support Program staff are child development professionals, including registered nurses, clinical social workers, and para-professionals trained in the delivery and practice of established home visiting models. The program is supervised and monitored at the installation level by the Family Advocacy program manager.

The program is available to military families who are expecting a baby or have children age 3 or younger. Marine Corps eligibility includes families with at least one child under 5.

Contact your installation New Parent Support Program office or Family Advocacy Program office.

Contact your local Fleet and Family Support Center to find out more about home visitation and related resources in your area. If a home visitor is available, he or she will screen your family and determine what resources would be the best fit. If a home visitor is not available the Fleet and Family Support Center can offer information and referral resources in your community. For more information, please contact the FFSC 504-678-7569.

The Navy New Parent Support Program home visitor team includes educators with experience in maternal and infant child health, child development, OB-GYN, pediatrics or other public health professions. Home visitors have a bachelor's or equivalent degree in education, nursing, social work, marriage and family therapist or child and family-related studies, and many have additional training. All home visitors, in accordance with DODINST 1402.5 and PERS letter 1754 Ser 660/173, who have regular contact alone with children under 18, undergo a criminal background check.

All home visitors have been trained to deliver the Nurturing Parenting Program©. This program has been empirically proven to help new parents learn positive and fun strategies that make families successful. The author and creator of this program, Stephen Bavolek, Ph.D., has consulted with the Navy New Parent Support Home Visitation Program to develop materials and information relevant to today's military family. Dr. Bavolek personally teaches the Nurturing Parenting Program© philosophy and program to Navy home visitors so they can best serve military families.

This parenting education and support program assists families in many ways that friends and family often do when new parents are back at home. NPSP professionals provide supportive and caring services to military parents-to-be and with children up to 3 years of age to help parents cope with stress, isolation, deployment, reunion, and everyday demands of parenthood and military life.

The program is free to all expectant and new parents of prenatal up to 3 years of age and who are eligible for services at a Military Treatment Facility. Some of the NPSP services include: telephone consultation, education regarding pregnancy, birth and parenting, hospital and home visits, telephone consultation, resource library, referrals to parent support classes/groups, and a playgroup.

The goals of NPSP are:

• to increase parent's knowledge of child development and demands of parenthood
• to increase parent's skills in coping with the stresses of infant and child care
• to enhance parent-child bonding, emotional ties, and communication
• to increase parent's knowledge and confidence about home and child management
• to increase access to military and civilian social health services for all family members
• to improve prenatal care through referral to services and health-related education
• to aid in the reintegration of a deployed parent back into the family

For additional information, or if you have any questions please contact the NAS JRB New Orleans NPSP at 504-678-7569.