Parent-infant support groups offer first-time parents an opportunity to share their experiences and concerns with each other. This paper discusses the parent groups component of Perinatal Positive Parenting, a program for parents who deliver their firstborn children at the William Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, Michigan. Formation of the support groups follows the program's hospital and in-home components. Group organization, structure, and meeting format are described and the volunteer group leader's role as facilitator is examined.
IN TROD UCTIO N
Amid an impressive array of goals and methods developed in search of parent intervention programs that "work," the parent-infant support group model is new, innovative, and difficult to evaluate. However, while researchers continue to collect statistical data on the value of support group participation for parents in the postpartum period, participants of those groups have been consistently enthusiastic about their group experience. Their comments and evaluations provide important incentives for the development and continuance of support group programs (Wandersman, 1978, in press).
Rather than the traditional professional-as-teacher, parent-as-student approach, the parent support group model offers a flexible, largely selfdetermined discussion framework that seeks to strengthen parents' feelings of