Infant Mental Health Awareness Week 2026 — Attunement
This Infant Mental Health Awareness Week (8th–14th June 2026) will focus on the theme of ‘Attunement’. During the week we will highlight how attuned early relationships support babies’ development.
Attunement is the ability to tune in and connect with others on an emotional level. It is important for everyone, but particularly for babies and their parents or carers.
The Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood describes attunement in the following way:
Emotional attunement involves noticing, understanding and responding to another person’s emotional state in a sensitive and appropriate way. When adults are emotionally attuned to babies and young children they notice cues, validate children’s emotions and appropriately respond to them.
Attunement helps babies to feel safe and loved. It helps babies learn to regulate their emotions, supporting good infant mental health.
Specialised parent-infant relationship teams and services play an important role in supporting and strengthening attuned relationships between babies and their parents or carers.
How is the concept embedded into what you do and how you support babies and families?
Everyone can benefit from learning more about attunement and there are lots of resources and tools available to help. We have pulled together this list of videos, learning resources, support tools and links to training which can help with understanding and supporting attuned relationships.
This is not an exhaustive list. If there are other resources you think would be helpful to highlight, please let us know [email protected].
Learning resources and tools
New IMHAW Attunement poster
Created by the Parent-Infant Foundation for IMHAW2026 the poster used baby voice to explain what attunement means.
Love matters in the early years poster
Poster created from the North West Coast Clinical Network.
‘Best start in life’ campaign resources for families
Bonding with your baby resources.
AVIG Principles of attunement resources
AVIG UK has resources to help understand attunement. They are all about creating space for babies and young children’s cues, spotting these and responding in an attuned way.
Royal Foundation explainer series and science briefing
The ‘Noticing and Navigating feelings’ animation from the Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood unpacks the concept of attunement. There is also an in-depth science briefing which brings together research and highlights why attuned relationships are so important for babies, and what can happen when a relationship is missing attunement.
AVIG UK - Association of Video Interactive Guidance
Video Interaction Guidance (VIG) is a strengths-based, brief intervention that promotes attunement, sensitivity, and mentalisation in relationships. The principles and practice can be used to work within any relationship.
Institute of Health Visiting (IHV) – Alarm Distress Baby Scale (ADBB)
The Institute of Health Visiting (iHV) saw overwhelmingly positive findings from their mixed-methods feasibility study into the use of its baby observation aid, the Alarm Distress Baby Scale (ADBB) in routine health visiting practice in England.
Blackpool Better Start – Think Baby Tool
Launching a new version for IMHAW, the Think Baby toolkit is to support practitioners in deepening their connection with babies and their families. It should offer a chance to self-reflect, consider your approach and strengthen confidence in how to keep baby in mind and capture the voices of our youngest children in practice. Think Baby – Better Start
‘Building Early Attuned Relationships (BEAR)’ Parent-Infant Foundation pilot project in Wales
BEAR is a pilot project based in Wales, led by the Parent-Infant Foundation and supported by National Lottery funding. The aim is to increase knowledge across professional and community domains about the importance of early attuned relationships. We will be celebrating the success of the pilot at a special ‘Big BEAR’ event during IMHAW. (More info in the events calendar). Watch the BEAR video here.
The Royal Foundation’s Centre for Early Childhood – Foundations for Life – A guide to social and emotional development
A very thorough and helpful overview from the Royal Foundation, with a specific section on Attunement – Page 74 onwards.
Training
Brazleton Newborn Observation training
The Newborn Behavioural Observations (NBO) system is a tool designed to help parents and practitioners share together the fascinating uniqueness of a baby, though observing their behaviour, which is their language. Brazelton offer training and certification for practitioners, giving them enhanced knowledge, skills and confidence in supporting parent-infant relationships.
AVIG UK training
Association of Video Interactive Guidance UK has an established UK training and accreditation programme which includes on-going video-reflective supervision, and rigorous accreditation criteria.
'Ready to relate’
Created by Bradford District Trust, The Ready to Relate training and cards are designed to help practitioners assess, discuss and share healthcare information with families and to make NICE recommended interventions accessible. The cards aim to improve and enhance the parent‐infant relationship and promote infant attachment and optimal infant development.
https://www.bdct.nhs.uk/our-services/mental-health-services/ready-to-relate/
Erikson Institute - Facilitating Attuned Interactions (FAN) approach
The ultimate goal of this approach is strengthening the professional / provider-parent relationship, resulting in parents who are attuned to their infants and ready to try new ways of relating to them.
IMHAW 2026 will explore how professionals and practitioners working with babies use the concept of attunement, and what more we can do to support families.
Please download and use this IMHAW2026 communications pack which includes key messaging, suggested social media posts, the logo and shareable content to help you promote Infant Mental Health Awareness Week 2026. Keep an eye on this page for further updates during the week.
Events
There are many events taking place across the week. Please let us know if you are holding events so we can share them. Email the event details to [email protected]
What is Infant Mental Health Awareness Week?
Infant mental health is an often overlooked and misunderstood subject. Infant Mental Health Awareness Week provides an annual opportunity to discuss the importance of supporting babies’ mental health and wellbeing.
The Parent-Infant Foundation has set the theme and co-ordinated Infant Mental Health Awareness Week since 2017, during which time it has grown into a global event.
For information on previous IMHAW activity, see below.
Previous Infant Mental Health Awareness Weeks
IMHAW 2025 ‘Who is holding the baby?’
Infant Mental Health Awareness Week (IMHAW) 2025 took place from 9th-15th June 2025.
The theme was, 'Who is holding the baby?'
Why ‘Who is holding the baby?’
Not everyone bonds easily with their baby. Parents who are overwhelmed by trauma, or struggling with mental or physical health difficulties, need support. More than one in ten babies in the UK today, are living in fear, confusion and distress.
Infant Mental Health Awareness Week 2025 shone a light on gaps in services that support these vulnerable babies and their families. Our research shows a growing number of parent-infant relationship teams. But in many areas, help is still not available. During IMHAW we launched our 'Who is holding the baby?' report, highlighting new data and some of the excellent practice that is happening across the UK. The report urges commissioners, service planners and policymakers to make sure they know ‘who is holding the baby’.
IMHAW 2025 tried to highlight the crucial job that specialised teams and services do, both supporting families and helping local services to join-up.
We kickstarted IMHAW with a webinar where we heard from the authors of the 'Who is holding the baby?', as well as Maya Ellis MP, Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Babies (Pregnancy to Age 2). You can watch this back on our YouTube channel here.
IMHAW 2024 ‘Speak up for babies’
Infant Mental Health Awareness Week took place from 10th – 16th June 2024 and focussed on the theme ’Speak up for babies’.
Why ‘Speak up for Babies’?
In the run up to the UK General Election in July 2024, Infant Mental Health Awareness Week 2024 called on candidates of all political parties to join our campaign to ‘Speak up for babies’. Too often babies are forgotten about during elections. Babies don’t vote of course, so it’s easy for politicians not to consider what support they need from policymakers. At least one in ten babies is living in fear and distress, at risk of disorganised attachment. Too often babies are overlooked. IMHAW 2024 wanted to make sure babies’ voices are heard! So we asked candidates standing in the 2024 general election to ‘Speak up for babies’.
IMHAW activities
As part of IMHAW we asked candidates to join the campaign to ‘Speak up for babies’ and share a photo of them with our campaign board on our online photo wall and via social media. Where practical, we also encouraged candidates to visit a specialised parent-infant relationship team, Family Hub or other service that supports babies.
At least 86 politicians engaged positively with our campaign and 10 candidates asked to visit their local services.
IMHAW 2023 Bonding Before Birth
Infant Mental Health Awareness Week took place from the 12th–18th June 2023, on the theme of ‘Bonding Before Birth’.
Why Bonding Before Birth?
Research shows that the experiences and relationships we have in the earliest years of our lives, including before birth, impact on the development of our brains. Stress and adversity experienced during pregnancy can have a negative impact on babies’ physical and mental health as they grow, but this doesn’t have to be the case. The services in place to support mothers, birthing people, partners and families in pregnancy can make a huge difference.
Resources
During IMHAW 2023 we launched three new resources to highlight the importance of bonding before birth and the need to support parents:
- The results of a survey of over 1,000 UK mums that showed pregnant women are not being supported to ‘bond before birth’, despite NICE guidance. See the full story here.
- Our film explained why bonding before birth is so important:
- Our Bonding Before Birth infographic - ‘Michelle's story’ details a case study of parent-infant relationship work.
Infant Mental Health Awareness Week is a chance to focus attention on the wellbeing, and social and emotional development of our babies and young children, and the importance of early relationships.
During the week there are local and national activities happening to increase understanding of infant mental health and to showcase the amazing services that work with babies and their families.
The Parent-Infant Foundation has set the theme and coordinated Infant Mental Health Awareness Week for six years, during which time it has grown into a global event.
Why Understanding Early Trauma?
In order to focus on the babies whose mental health and relationships are most at risk, this year’s IMHAW is focussing on #UnderstandingEarly Trauma.
Babies can experience psychological trauma when their environments are repeatedly harmful or threatening to them or to their parent or caregiver. Traumatic experiences might include physical and emotional abuse, neglect, exposure to domestic abuse or high levels of stress or conflict at home.
Trauma early in life is influential because the brain is particularly “plastic” and susceptible to influences in pregnancy and the earliest years. Because early development lays the foundations for what happens next, experiences at that stage can have potentially widespread and long-term consequences.
A significant predictor of how adversity will impact a child is the strength and security of their relationship with their parent. Without a nurturing relationship to support them, young children experience negative events as more traumatic. If the relationship between parents and a baby is abusive or neglectful, this can be more damaging than other forms of early trauma.
Understanding trauma helps us to understand why infant mental health and early relationships are so important.
New resources
This week we are launching three new resources relating to early trauma:
- Our new policy report about the impact of early trauma on children, and how this is understood by the public and professionals.
- Our new film explains more about early trauma.
- Our new podcast mini-series explores our IMHAW theme #UnderstandingEarlyTrauma from different perspectives. The first episode is out today featuring a discussion between Lucy Morton and Andrew on trauma informed practice in a Scottish context.
Our new infographic tells the story of how trauma can affect children, and how we can mitigate its impact.
Comms Pack
Our Comms pack is designed for organisations who want to help promote IMHAW. It provides a range of content for them to use and help them think about how they could become involved with IMHAW. You can download our comms pack here.
IMHAW 2021 provided an opportunity for everyone working in the sector to raise awareness of the importance of babies' social and emotional development, and to share work they are doing.
2021's theme was "Including Infants". The goal of IMHAW's 2021 theme was to encourage everyone working in children and young people’s mental health policies, strategies and services to think about and include babies. Children and young people’s mental health should refer to the mental health of all children from 0-18 and beyond, but too often it is focussed on older children. During IMHAW21 we encouraged everyone to think and talk about infant, children and young people’s mental health, and to consider how babies’ mental health needs can be met.
- Throughout the week we asked professionals in mental health to pledge to include infants when they talk about Children and Young People’s Mental Health. Over 100 professionals did so during the week with more following in the weeks after. If you would like to join the growing list of pledgers, there is still time to take the #IncludingInfants Pledge here.
- The Parent-Infant Foundation released a survey of Children and Young People's Mental Health professionals which found a “baby blindspot” in both workforce development and mental health services.
- The Foundation facilitated the All Party Parliamentary Group for Conception to Age Two meeting focused on IMHAW, "including infants" and the upcoming health and care bill. You can watch a recording of the event on our YouTube Channel.
- We released a new information film called ‘What is Infant Mental Health?’
- Our Head of Policy and Campaigns, Sally Hogg, spoke at a number of events about the findings of our survey and "baby blindspot" in policy and services across the UK. You can see a list of the events which took place during IMHAW here.
There was huge engagement in 2020's Infant Mental Health Awareness Week across the UK and around the world.
Face-to-face events could not take place because of the Coronavirus pandemic but IMHAW saw huge amounts of activity on facebook, instagram and twitter using the hashtags #IMHAW20 and #IMHAW2020. Analytics suggest that #IMHAW2020 was used in 7,400 twitter posts, reaching 14.2 million people!
During the week, the First 1001 Days Movement was re-launched with a new vision, mission and consensus statement. This was accompanied by an open letter to the Prime Minister about the importance of babies' emotional wellbeing and development.
We created a new infographic explaining what infant mental health is and why it matters, see here.
The Parent-Infant Foundation was very busy during the week!
- We created an Infant Mental Health Briefing document for Commissioners explaining infant mental health, the role of teams and the impact of Covid-19, see here.
- We pulled together a rich resource outlining Online Infant Mental training resources for professionals, see here.
- Sally Hogg contributed to various blogs including: ACAMH: “Where is the I in CAMHS?”, iHV: “IMH matters now more than ever”, NHS Confederation: “Where is the ‘I’ in Mental Health?”
- Karen Bateson contributed to the Mind Matters podcast, listen/watch here
Thank you to everyone who contributed and participated!