Learning to Listen

May 6, 2013
Influential pediatrician Brazelton (To Listen to a Child) shares his personal history and professional insights in this engaging memoir. Born in Waco, Tex., in l9l8, Brazelton had an affinity for little ones from early on: he cared for nine cousins at the age of 10 while the grownups prepared dinner, and as a teen mended the broken leg of a chicken with a Popsicle stick. Intrigued by family relationships, he pondered his jealousy of his younger brother, and was concerned about his father’s emotional distance (the senior Brazelton, who owned a lumber company, died at 49). Brazelton takes us through his early years of study, his interest in combining the fields of pediatrics and psychiatry, and his development of the NBAS (Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale, now the “gold standard of infant assessment”), noting the many changes that have transpired since he first began practicing. He was among the first to question medicating mothers during childbirth, and significantly influenced the natural childbirth movement. Although many may know Brazelton from his books and TV show (What Every Baby Knows), here, he also chronicles his years of researching infants and families in such places as Kenya, Greece, Mexico, Guatemala, and Japan, with characteristic warmth and humor.

April 1, 2013
Memoir of the much-admired pediatrician and prolific author. Brazelton (Emeritus, Pediatrics/Harvard Medical School) opens with frank comments about his own unhappy childhood, his distant relationship with his parents and his early talent for taking care of small children. He skims through his medical education and naval service and hits his stride when he turns to the years when he began to combine the practice of pediatrics and psychiatry. A more accurate title for this book would be Learning to Observe, for Brazelton became a keen observer of newborns and from these observations developed with his colleagues the Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale, a comprehensive scale for understanding the temperament of newborns that is still taught and used today. He also explains Touchpoints, a theory of the forces that drive child development that is taught to professionals at the Brazelton Touchpoints Center at Boston Children's Hospital and to parents in a series of popular books. For general readers--i.e., those who are not new parents--the most fascinating parts of the memoir are most likely to be his accounts of his experiences studying newborns in other cultures: Mayans in southern Mexico, Guatemalans, Kenyans, urban and rural Japanese, Chinese, Navajos in Arizona and Greeks on the island of Thera. The author is not shy about his accomplishments, and he appears to take special delight in telling of encounters with vocal admirers, of his put-downs of those less respectful, and of his brushes with the famous. Readers familiar with Brazelton's books and articles on babies and children may relish this close-up look at the man who guided them through the vicissitudes of parenthood; others, not so much.

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June 1, 2013

One of Brazelton's (pediatrics, emeritus, Harvard Medical Sch.; coauthor, Touchpoints: Birth to Three) contributions over a long and significant medical career is the Neonatal Behavioral Assessment scale, or Brazelton scale, which is used all over the world to assess newborns. In this memoir, Brazelton discusses how the scale was developed and some of the places it has been used. He also writes about his childhood, family life, and education. Most interesting is his experience teaching mothers worldwide how to care for their newborns and communicate with them. His observations on newborn behavior are also significant. In particular, Brazelton features a set of quintuplets whose stories and ability to survive are a highlight of the book. VERDICT This autobiography is a fascinating account of a long and distinguished career in medicine and an education in child-care techniques.--Karen Sutherland, White Oak Lib. Dist., Romeoville, IL

Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 1, 2013
Brazelton has held a lot of babies in his lifetime. In this affable memoir, the celebrated pediatrician reviews a lifetime of service to children and their parents. Growing up in Texas, Brazelton was placed in charge of his nine young cousins at all family gatherings beginning when he was only 10 years old. During adolescence, he figured out that the way animals behaved was their form of communication. To help pay for medical school, Brazelton sold his blood and waited on tables. He served in the navy in WWII. Combining an interest in pediatrics and child psychiatry, he became an expert in child development and early parent-infant relationships. His curiosity, research, and advocacy for newborn children have taken him around the world. He's written many popular books, including his Touchpoint series, and columns for Redbook and Family Circle, and he had his own cable TV show, What Every Baby Knows. It takes a special person to be a pediatrician, and Dr. Brazelton's remarkable life stamps him as a truly exceptional one.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)