Jeanette Appleton who was one of the original Brazelton trainers, is now retiring from her work as senior NBAS and NBO trainer for the Brazelton Centre UK. Jeanette is an Occupational Therapist and Developmental Care Specialist by training and has been the source of so much valued expertise and experience over many years for trainees, fellow trainers and parents. We will very much miss Jeanette!
A reflection from Jeanette of her time as a Brazelton trainer:
“When I trained in the Neonatal Behavioural Assessment Scale (NBAS) back in 1996 it was a one-day training, with no PowerPoint presentations. Just the demonstration of the NBAS, with a mother and baby and then scoring the assessment as a group with the trainer. How things have progressed.
I was working then as an occupational therapist on a level three Neonatal Unit of the Wirral. Being in the north was to my advantage when I asked about becoming a trainer, as cities such as Manchester were investing significantly in the NBAS.
My motivation for becoming a trainer was to enable as many professionals as possible to access this training. In 2011, the Newborn Behavioural Observations (NBO) was introduced and training sessions took off across the country.
I really enjoyed the aspect of travelling to new places, meeting health care professional and of course the session with the mother and baby. The locations for where the training would take place was the responsibility of the local manager. I have trained in cricket pavilions, in the banqueting suite of pubs and on one occasion in an anatomy demonstration room. This was a squeeze and halfway through one presentation the skeleton at the back of the room fell over.
Trainees have often found it hard to believe how effective the consoling manoeuvres in the NBAS and NBO are. When a baby arrived, crying very loudly, I could see all the trainees look at me in a way that said ‘You are not going to be able to soothe this baby’. But by just looking at talking to the baby, the crying stopped, and I said a silent YES to myself.
As well as the formal training sessions I have enjoyed being an examiner for the NBAS and developing a refresher course for the NBAS, as well as working with the Brazelton Centre UK to produce a Brazelton based parent workshop for the local Children’s centre in Cambridge.
I am now taking my occupational therapy skills in a new direction and hand over the baton to the next generation of Brazelton trainers.”