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Summit Resources

Responsive Parenting

Jan Tedder, BSN, FNP, IBCLC presented “Sharing Baby’s Behavior (Responsive Parenting): A powerful tool for engaging, empowering and educating prenatal and postpartum families" at Injoy’s 2026 Summit. In order to make it easy for birth, lactation and parenting professionals to share basic Responsive Parenting information with parents, she created the resources below.

These resources are available for your use AT NO CHARGE for three months.

If you find these resources enhance you current work, click HERE for information on purchasing ongoing use of the ten-minute “Responsive Parenting” video and Teaching Exercise on Responsive Parenting.

Sharing Responsive Parenting Resources

Although each of you will develop your own way to integrate Responsive Parenting into your work, we suggest the following as a possible way to begin.

  1. Introduction: Explain why you want to share this information with your students. The information below may be helpful.

    1. Research shows Responsive Parenting benefits both babies AND parents. (References below.)

    2. Child Development experts explain that during the first few years of a baby’s life more than one million brain connections are made every second!  Every responsive back-and-forth interaction with a loved one encourages the effective maturing of a baby’s brain.

    3. Responsive Parenting is associated with stronger cognitive, emotional, and social development in babies. These babies have enhanced attachment to their caregivers, increased breastfeeding rates, improved self-regulation and fewer behavioral problems over the years ahead.

    4. Families who practice Responsive Parenting report greater confidence, less anxiety and lower rates of postpartum depression. They have enhanced couple communication, increased attachment to their baby and more breastfeeding  success.

    5. National and International organizations (ACOG, AAP, UNICEF, WHO) recommend families learn about Responsive Parenting during pregnancy and into early parenthood.

  2. Video: Show Responsive Parenting, the ten-minute video. (https://vimeo.com/1208580463/c97cef19f5?fl=tl&fe=ec)

  3. Teaching Exercise: Print out this Teaching Exercise on Responsive Parenting pdf of PowerPoint slides or download these PowerPoint slides to add to your teaching slides. You are invited to use the words in the slide notes to engage students to think through Responsive Parenting information.

  4. Handout: Click HERE to download and distribute to your students. This handout covers the Zones and SOSs (Signs of Over-Stimulation) reviewed in the video.

  5. Feedback: (Jan and Debbie will add to website)

  6. References:

    a.Campi, E., Nye, E., & Baranek, G. (2025). Defining Parental Responsiveness: A Systematic Review–Based Theoretical Model. Journal of Infant and Child Development, 34(1), e2565.

    b.Center on the Developing Child, Harvard University. (2026). Serve and Return. Retrieved from https://developingchild.harvard.edu/key-concept/serve-and-return/

    c.Hahn-Holbrook, J., Little, E., & Abbott, M. (2021). Mothers are more sensitive to infant cues after breastfeeding compared to bottle-feeding human milk. Hormones and Behavior, 136, 105047.

    d.Sokolovic, N., Rodrigues, M., Tricco, A., Dobrina, R., & Jenkins, J. (2021). Teaching Parents to be Responsive: A Network Meta-analysis. Pediatrics, 148(2), e202003356