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On Wednesday, June 24, the Massachusetts Babies Coalition and State Rep. Marjorie Decker cohosted Strolling Thunder Massachusetts, an event which brought more than 60 attendees (including elected officials, families with babies in strollers, and community partners) to the Massachusetts State House to champion the need to strengthen the systems of perinatal, infant, and early childhood mental health (IECMH) and Early Relational Health (ERH).

Strolling Thunder Massachusetts was the inaugural event for the Massachusetts Babies Coalition, a new coalition of community partners, lived experience professionals, policymakers, and advocates who elevate and prioritize an advocacy and policy agenda centered on the mental health and well-being needs of young children (prenatal to six) and their families. The event was modeled on successful national Strolling Thunder events led by Zero to Three, a national organization focused on the healthy development of babies and toddlers.

In addition to Rep. Decker, the event’s speakers included:

Rep. Christopher Worrell, 5th Suffolk District

Lisa Garcia, Director of Early Relational Health, Neighborhood Villages

Mary Margaret Gleason, Chief, Early Childhood, Training, and Education; Department of Psychiatry, Boston Children’s Hospital

Aditi Subramaniam, Director of Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Policy, Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (MSPCC)

Anat Weisenfreund, President, Massachusetts Association for Infant Mental Health (MassAIMH)

Natalie Cintron, family

Katherin Hudkins, family

Voices of Strolling Thunder

“Babies are us. We are babies. And today, in this inaugural Strolling Thunder, we’re not here with a specific ask. Today is the day that we introduce ourselves and tell you that we are here, that we want our legislators and all of you to see us, to meet us, to learn our names and the names of our children. …Babies are not abstract. They’re not showing up on quarterly earnings reports or lobbying, but their needs are present and real and urgent. And I want you to see that this is who we’re talking about when we’re talking about babies.” Katherin Ludkins, who was joined by her two-year-old son, Toby

“When we live in a society that prioritizes the behavioral and mental well-being of all of our families – our moms, our dads, our birthing parents, and our children – we are a better society.” Rep. Marjorie Decker

“At the end of the day, the true test of who we are is how we treat our children. Because when a baby is held in love, that love grows. And when that love grows, so does the family. So does the neighborhood, and so does our Commonwealth of Massachusetts.” Rep. Christopher Worrell

“The question for us isn’t how to fix or repair families, it’s whether we’re building the conditions, the relationships, the belonging, and the joy in which the wholeness that every baby already holds can flourish…Right now, there are nearly 400,000 children under the age of six that call Massachusetts their home. Babies whose families have crossed oceans and borders to get here, who are raising their children in two cultures, multiple languages, carrying lullabies from all over the globe and singing them right here to them in the Commonwealth.

Every one of these babies already arrived here, reaching because that’s what babies do. Before words, before steps, a baby reaches for a relationship. Born, wired to connect. This is infant mental health. And this is early relational health. And this is the soil everything grows in.” Aditi Subramaniam, Director of Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Policy, MSPCC

“Our responsibility is to work in relationship and in solidarity, to think and plan and fund and advocate and do whatever is necessary to ensure that all our youngest children, their families and those who care for them are safe, healthy, connected and prepared to grow and to thrive.” Anat Weisenfreund, President, Massachusetts Association for Infant Mental Health (MassAIMH)

“Thriving is a system where families are not required to become experts to receive support. Where care is connected. And where no one has to translate their life in order to be understood. Because what is good for children is good for families. What is good for families is good for communities. And what we build for communities is what we all inherit.” Natalie Cintron, family member

“It’s never too early to start investing in the foundations of emotional, behavioral, relational well-being. We can reduce suffering. We can decrease symptoms. We can decrease family stress, we can normalize biological stress responses. And we truly change brain functioning….We can create a system in which all children and families have access to timely, equitable, effective mental health supports when they need it.” Mary Margaret Gleason, Chief, Early Childhood, Training, and Education; Department of Psychiatry, Boston Children’s Hospital

“To our lawmakers making budget decisions today: babies are here and they are here now. A three-year-old’s brain is forming one million neural connections every single second. They cannot hit pause on their development while we wait for a better fiscal year. They’re growing right now, at this very moment, and we’re asking the state to treat early childhood as the foundation of our entire future.

Invest in our families. Invest in our communities. Because when we underinvest in a child’s first three years, we spend the next 13 or 30 trying to fix what we broke. Our babies are doubling today. Let’s invest in them today.” Lisa Garcia, Director of Early Relational Health, Neighborhood Villages

Click here to learn more about the Massachusetts Babies Coalition and its work!