DVDS

This set of DVDs presents the findings from a Nova Scotia study on the effectsof mother-infant skin-to-skin contact along with parents’ accounts of their experiences.

Skin-to-skin contact is a method of caring for newborn infants that involves putting the infant on the mother’s chest skin-to-skin. Through body contact with her infant, the mother provides warmth and stimulation that simulates the prenatal environment. Although the benefits of skin-to-skin contact both for premature and full-term infants have been extensively researched, there has been less attention paid to its effects on the mother and the developing mother-infant relationship. A multidisciplinary team of researchers and practitioners in Nova Scotia, Canada, conducted a study to examine the impact of mother-infant skin-to-skin contact on mothers and their developing relationship with their babies. The DVDs, “Enhancing Baby’s First Relationship: A Parents’ Guide for Skin-to-Skin Contact with Their Infants” and “Enhancing Baby’s First Relationship: Results from a Study on Mother-Infant Skin-to-Skin Contact”, highlight findings from this study along with accounts by mothers and fathers about their experiences with skin-to-skin care with their infants.

<--- Click on image to watch the parent version.

Three youth from Botswana, Africa, were able to travel to Atlantic Canada in October 2008. They were joined by three First Nations youth (between the ages of 18-25) from Makkovik, Labrador; Charlottetown, PEI; and Tobique, New Brunswick. Together, the youth embarked on a ten-day tour of three provinces, exchanged experiences, collaborated, participated in workshops, and engaged close to 1000 people at six different performances/discussions, targeting in particular First Nations communities and youth. Though coming from a diversity of musical backgrounds and traditions, the group was nevertheless able to blend their traditional pasts with contemporary influences, and vocalize upon themes that highlighted their similar, as well as unique, cultural identities, challenges and achievements. This year’s participants have created a lasting tribute to their musical talents and shared experience by recording a compact disc which will be released along with a DVD documenting their time together in spring 2009.

Honour in the Woods highlights the quiet passion and deep commitment of woodlot owners, who live and work along the Eastern Shore of Nova Scotia, show through with honesty and clarity. Their combined knowledge and understanding of the forest ecosystem is expressed through a variety of speakers…from the inspiring words of a young Forest Planner to the wisdom of 104-year-old Dr.Wilfrid Creighton who was a forestry worker in the Sheet Harbour area in the 1930s.

Dr. Creighton makes the same point as a representative from the Environmental Action Centre located in Halifax. Government policies rule the day when it comes to Crown Land. These local landowners have shown how it is possible to harvest lumber sustainably, thus retaining and supporting a portion of the Acadian Forest…perhaps even how to restore it…in “forest time – not people time”. But both speakers believe it cannot be done on a large scale without political leadership in establishing those policies.
The half-hour DVD was produced by Eastern Shore Forest Watch, now in its tenth year as a non-profit environmental group. The group was founded by local citizens due to their concern about the clear cutting of some wilderness areas which once formed part of the original Acadian Forest.