New Families Program – Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital

There are two parts to the New Family Program: the Mother-​Baby mornings from 0 – 6 months and the Movers and Shakers group for babies 5 – 18 months. The 0 – 6 month group meets at 10:30am on Tuesday mornings, and the 5 – 18 month group meets at 11am on Mondays. The older group used to have a small, one-​time fee, but both groups are now free.
I’ve been attending the Mother-​Baby mornings for the past 4.5 months, and I can’t say enough good things about it. The sessions are led by either Marilyn (a RN and lactation consultant) or Nancy (a family therapist), or sometimes both. The moms sit around in a circle with their babies and we go around and say how our babies are doing and we ask each other and the group facilitators all the questions (that Google can’t answer) about babies, baby development, poop, pee, milk v formula, sleep, etc. Most of the moms worked before having a baby, and intend to go back to work again — so there is a career advice and professional networking component as well.
When I came to the group for the first time, baby was only 4 weeks old and it was the first time that we had left the house alone together, but this group was totally worth it. The advice is invaluable (particularly to first time moms like me) and I’ve made a bunch of friends, and having a little bit of structure to the week really helps.