Infant Mental Health Awareness Week 2025, with the theme “Who Is Holding the Baby?”, presents an important opportunity to educate people about the crucial role of infant mental health and how a healthy early mental state can have long-lasting effects on a baby’s life. This week also aims to highlight services dedicated to supporting families, especially parents who may be overwhelmed by trauma or physical and mental health challenges—all of which can impact an infant’s mental health. There are several gaps in these services that need to be addressed, and this awareness week seeks to raise attention to them. By doing so, more families and parents who struggle to bond with their baby can receive the help and support they deserve.

A movement worth mentioning for its exceptional work and profound impact is the First 1001 Days Movement. This movement is a collaboration of organizations and professionals who aim to highlight the importance of babies’ mental health during the first 1001 days from pregnancy. Their collective vision is that every baby experiences loving and nurturing relationships within a society that values the critical impact of this early period, recognizing it as the foundation for a healthy life.

Several research papers, such as Thompson (2001), discuss the early development of the brain and the critical importance of the first years of life. Thompson highlights the rapid brain growth during this period and explains how early experiences shape a baby’s ability to socialize, solve problems, and communicate by age three. Similarly, Balbernie (2013) emphasizes the importance of attachment and its potential long-term impact on the infant’s life. Secure attachment, formed through sensitive and appropriately responsive parenting, is directly linked to the child’s capacity to recognize and take advantage of various opportunities later in life. The parent-infant relationship has been proven to be one of the most important factors influencing an infant’s mental health and developmental outcomes.

Infant Mental Health Awareness Week is a reminder of the importance of not just mental health of infants but mental health as a whole. Highlighting the effect of mental health in our overall life satisfaction and fulfillment but also in the way the Parent-Infant relationship effects our life as well. Movements like the First 1001 Days Movement highlight the importance of this and aid in the advancement of overall awareness and education on the matter.