Why babies’ voices matter

As adults, we have a duty to listen to babies and take seriously what we hear.  

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) recognises that babies and very young children have rights, not only to things like protection from harm and discrimination, but also to “express views” and “be consulted in matters that affect them”.¹ 

There is growing recognition within families and communities of the rights of babies to have their perspective taken into account. However, not all babies are heard and all too often, it is the voices of babies in families from marginalised groups that are missed.  

As part of this year’s Infant Mental Health Awareness Week, co-ordinated by the Parent-Infant Foundation, we want to highlight the importance of listening to babies, especially those who are seldom heard. Here we draw on some key messages in our National Centre for Family Hubs resource, ‘See us – hear us: Listening to babies’.²  

What does it mean to listen to babies? 

Given that babies can’t talk, how do they tell us how they feel?  

Babies are born readily able to communicate and they do this through their physical movements and vocalisations. There are many ways babies talk to us, for example, through crying, cooing, smiling, babbling, zoning out, yawning, kicking and even hiccupping. Through warm and sensitive relationships with adults, babies’ behaviours can be interpreted and responded to, and their wishes taken into account.  

Working out what a baby might be telling us isn’t always straightforward. Key to this is careful observation of the baby, keeping a curious and open mind, and prioritising ‘serve and return’ communication. 

What is serve and return?

“When an infant or young child babbles, gestures, or cries, and an adult responds with eye contact, words, or a hug, this back-and-forth interaction—known as serve and return—helps to build and strengthen neural connections in the child’s brain.” Serve and Return: Back-and-forth exchanges 

Why is listening to babies so important?  

Early relationships shape the development of babies’ brains and lay the foundations for lifelong mental and physical health. It is through relationships that babies learn about themselves, others and the world. When babies’ thoughts and feelings are responded to in a sensitive way, babies feel safe, secure and ready to learn.  

Listening to babies also means they have their say in the design of services.  

There are a wide range of services that support families in the early years, including universal services like midwifery, health visiting and family hubs, and more specialist provision like parent-infant relationship services.  

Centring the voice of babies in service development, and especially those who are seldom heard, means that support is more accessible, suitable and useful to the whole family.  

Inequity and babies’ voices  

Social determinants of health, like poverty, discrimination and poor housing can affect all aspects of children’s family life and development, including their voice and agency.  

These contextual factors can contribute to mental and physical health difficulties and trauma, overwhelming families and putting pressure on early relationships.  

At the same time, there are barriers to accessing support for perinatal mental health and parent-infant relationship difficulties, like stigma associated with seeking help, a lack of awareness of available support and long waiting lists. 

Barriers are more pronounced for families from Black and Asian backgrounds or who are experiencing poverty. As such, there is an urgent need to pay particular attention to the voices of young children who are seldom heard.  

How can services hear the voices of all babies?   

We recommend this happens by utilising something called the Lundy model.  

The Lundy model is a framework that provides a holistic, rights-based approach to listening to babies through its four domains of space, voice, audience and influence. These domains can be applied through direct professional practice with families and the wider system around them.   

The Lundy model is something we know well at Anna Freud. Our Participation Strategy, which guides how we act on the voices of children, young people and families with experience of mental ill health, is based on this model.  

Here are some ways you can create contexts in which babies can be heard using a similar framework:  

• Develop a deep understanding of the communities supported by services and in particular communities that have historically been underserved.  

• Carry out targeted outreach work to develop relationships with underserved communities.  

• Co-produce services with a diverse range of families to develop support that is accessible, trusted, appealing and responsive to local strengths and needs.  

• Create safe, inclusive and baby-friendly spaces that are welcoming and boost new parents’ confidence. 

• Model baby-centred behaviours for parents, like serve and return interactions. 

• Support professional skill development about babies’ brain development, parent-infant relationships and cultural humility.  

• Support professionals to reflect on their own experiences of being parented and the impact those experiences may have on their work with babies and families.  

• Record information on babies using the first person (using ‘I’ statements), which helps to put the practitioner in the shoes of the child.  

 Critically, to achieve system-wide cultural change informed by the strengths, needs and perspectives of babies and their families, these approaches must be underpinned by wider strategies to address the root causes of disadvantage.  

Learn more about us 

At Anna Freud, we offer a range of resources, training and networks developed by expert clinicians to support early years professionals. We offer consultancy for local councils, family hubs and early years services. For example, we have worked with NHS trusts in London to understand need and improve community and in-patient perinatal mental health services. In North Northamptonshire, we co-produced two strategies to support the development of their family hub offer for perinatal mental health and parent-infant relationship difficulties, and infant feeding.  

We were also previously commissioned by the Department for Education to lead the National Centre for Family Hubs. Read our learning in this blog. 

If you are interested in finding out more about our bespoke consultancy work, please contact clinicclinicalservicesenquiries@annafreud.org.

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Learn about activities planned for Infant Mental Health Awareness Week. 

Notes

¹ United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. (2006). General Comment No.7, Implementing Child Rights in Early Childhood. III, 14(a), p7. https://www.refworld.org/legal/general/crc/2006/en/40994

² Hingorani, M. (2025) See us – hear us. Listening to babies: learning from Start for Life and family hubs transformation. London: Anna Freud