For Our Babies paints a bleak picture of how societal changes in the United States over the past 60 years have affected babies. Today’s infants and young children have less access to their parents, spend longer time in child care, and receive substandard child care and services.

Written by J. Ronald Lally, former Co-Director of the Center for Child & Family Studies at WestEd, the book shares the hopes, worries, and frustrations of American parents, who receive little support for their children or themselves as parents. It also reveals their lack of awareness about how little assistance they receive compared to parents in other countries.

In addition, the book provides crucial testimony from developmental psychologists, child care providers, health and mental health professionals, economists, specialists in brain development, and early learning educators. These specialists address how U.S. policy and practices must change if all parents are to raise children to be physically and emotionally healthy and productive members of society.

To learn about WestEd’s For Our Babies initiative, visit ForOurBabies.org.