Our Speaking for the Baby Campaign was launched in 2018 to coincide with the international Infant Mental Health Awareness Week
We love advocating for babies.
At the Centre for Perinatal Psychology, we help parents ‘see’ their baby with fresh eyes, and understand how their baby communicates.
One of things we love doing and encourage parents to do, is to curiously wonder about what is going on inside for their baby. We like to wonder about their minds – what they might be sensing, feeling, thinking, wanting, needing, experiencing. And if we were to put that into words, well, we’d be ‘speaking for the baby’!
Our Speaking for the Baby Campaign is a series of illustrations bringing voice to the infant’s experience. We have created this campaign with the help of the supremely talented Jess Racklyeft, a Melbourne-based illustrator who has beautifully brought our ideas to life.
Collaboration with SMS4dads
In a terrific 2025 collaboration, Speaking for the Baby and SMS4dads have joined forces to develop a joint series of free resources for Dads and perinatal health professionals: a suite of 19 illustrations and 10 accompanying handouts representing positive father-baby interaction based on SMS4dads messages.
SMS4dads is a free, text-based service for fathers and fathers-to-be. SMS4dads supports men in their role as fathers and helps them understand and connect with their baby and partner. Many of the 200 text messages use the ‘voice’ of the baby.
In this collaboration, some of the SMS4dads messages that are in the voice of the baby have been developed into illustrations as part of the Speaking for the Baby campaign. Informative handouts have also been developed to encourage positive father-baby involvement.
Freely available
All of our Speaking for the Baby resources are available for free download and can be widely shared, but they must remain in original form, maintain our Centre for Perinatal Psychology and SMS4dads logos and note the relevant creators as Bronwyn Leigh or Bronwyn Leigh and Richard Fletcher and Jess Racklyeft as the illustrator. The illustrations may be shared on social media sites and used in clinical settings. If you have other intended uses for our images please Contact Us to seek our permission first.
