I’M GREER KIRSHENBAUM, A NEUROSCIENCE PHD, DOULA, AND MOTHER ON A MISSION TO CHANGE THE FUTURE OF PARENTING AND HEALTH

Approach

Nurture Neuroscience's Spoil Your Baby approach is based on creating layers of support for families. Our work is supported by over 70 years of scientific research and evidence in neuroscience, psychology, biology, genetics and infant mental health. We support caregivers including parents, grandparents, child care professionals, teachers, therapists, doctors, doulas and infant practitioners, because everyone does their best given the tools they have. With the best tools, caregivers nurture and enrich infants to give them the lifelong daily gifts of mental health, physical health, positive relationships, success, confidence and flourishing.

1. Research and evidence based. 

My approach to birth, pregnancy, infancy and parenting is exclusively research and evidence based.  I keep up to date with the newest research and constantly evolve my work. 

Over 50 years of research shows that responsive, respectful and emotionally connected relationships build a strong brain, a secure mind and provide children with the best start in life. Spoiling your baby with attention and affection truly nurtures the developing nervous system - at the systems, cellular, molecular and genetic level- allows children to reach their full potential.  Children raised by this approach thrive and become individuals who are as healthy, successful, intelligent, confident, creative and social as they can be. 

There is no longer room for a debate over which fundamental approaches are best for the developing brain.  Research from neuroscience, psychology, biology, genetics, epidemiology and more shows us how our children succeed.  Scientists, therapists and infant health professionals know exactly what infants need to thrive as adults. We talk about it in meetings, conferences and in our published work – it is time to bring these ideas directly to families.

2. All individuals and families are unique and will apply scientific concepts in their own way. 

Every infant, parent, infant-parent relationship, infant-caregiver relationship and family dynamic is unique and I support every type of individual and family without exception in a personalized way.  I do not provide step-by-step instructions to pregnancy, birth, infancy or parenting.   Rather I educate and support with sound scientific information and help families meet personal goals to incorporate practices into their unique lives.  My goal is for parents to use science to inform their decisions and a general framework for their parenting style.

3. You are the only expert on the topic of your child.  I enhance your expertise.    

Parents have intuitive capacities and instincts to know and learn what their infants need - even when society tells us to override them. The parent is the only expert on Earth in regards to their child.  The science of early life experience supports an instinct driven parenting style, which frees people to be the parents they were born to be.

4. Every parent/caregiver/family does the best they can with the information and tools they have.

I will provide you with the best evidence based information and practices.  With this knowledge you will have confidence, in any situation, that your choices are building the healthiest brain possible for your children.

5. Our personal best is what our children need.

Parenting is one of life's greatest rewards as well as one of its biggest challenges.  Our children do not need us to be perfect.  If we aim to do our personal best the majority of the time, and offer repair when we don't connect, our children thrive.  We are humans, we all have our challenges and we are not perfect.  

Science

In recent years scientists have made monumental discoveries about the brain with extraordinary potential to positively change lives.  One of the biggest discoveries is that lifelong brain, mind and body health as well as success in school, work and relationships crucially depends on a regulated emotional system.  The emotional system is the core or foundation of the brain and influences almost all brain functioning, including: stress management, resilience, thinking, reasoning, attention, decision making, intelligence, navigating social and romantic relationships, self confidence and self worth.  The emotional system also influences the health of the brain, mind and the body.  A regulated emotional system is our defense against the incidence of mental health issues like anxiety, depression or addiction and physical health issues like obesity, heart disease or metabolic syndrome.  Finally a regulated emotional system can mitigate inherited genetic vulnerabilities to various mental and physical illnesses.

Incredibly the emotional system and its ability to be regulated develop at the beginning of life, during pregnancy and infancy.  In early life the emotional system has neuroplasticity, which means it is highly flexible to changes from the environment.  Experiences physically build connections, chemistry and structure in the brain during early life.  The brain makes an astonishing 1 million connections per second in early life and we want to build these connections to support health for life.  After infancy the emotional system and its ability to be regulated becomes less flexible.  Because of the flexibility of the brain in pregnancy and infancy, early parent/caregiver/family relationships and the early environment form the emotional system in profound ways. Nurturing the neuroscience of the early brain - though emotional connection, touch, love and responsiveness - creates an emotionally regulated brain that brings benefits for life.

These discoveries show us why experience is so important in pregnancy, birth and infancy.  If we provide a healthy environment in early life, we can nurture our children’s emotional system to bring them all of advantages of lifelong health, good relationships and success. 

TRAINING & EDUCATION

Neuroscience and Mental Health

Dalhousie University: BSc Honors Neuroscience 
University of Toronto: PhD Medical Science and Neuroscience 
Columbia University: Canadian Institutes of Health Research Postdoctoral Research Fellow - Integrative Neuroscience
Columbia University: Research Scientist – Integrative Neuroscience   ​

Parent Infant Relationships and Mental Health

New York University Medical School Institute for Psychoanalytic Education: Psychodynamic Thinking and Practice  
Yale University Child Study Center: Minding the Baby
The Toronto Psychoanalytic Society and Institute: Parent Infant Psychotherapy   
The Hospital for Sick Children: Infant Mental Health Promotion

Doula

DONA International: Birth Doula 
DONA International: Postpartum Doula 

Life Coaching

Center for Applied Neuroscience: Life Coach.  

Continuing Education

As a lifelong learner I continue to educate myself in new and exciting areas that promote health starting from early life.