Malta has made important strides in monitoring babies’ development and supporting mothers’ mental health, but Maltese researcher Nina Mallia believes another crucial part of early development deserves greater attention, the relationship between mother and baby itself.Mallia, who pursued an MSc in Psychology, Neuroscience and Human Sciences at the University of Pavia through the Maltese government’s Tertiary Education Scholarships Scheme, has explored how the everyday interactions between mothers and their babies can shape development.Drawing on the work of developmental and clinical psychologist Ed Tronick, Mallia points to seemingly simple interactions such as peek-a-boo to illustrate how babies continuously connect, lose connection and reconnect with their caregivers.Tronick’s well-known “still-face” experiments demonstrated how strongly babies react when the normal flow of interaction with their mother suddenly stops, as well as the efforts they make to restore that connection.“These moments of mismatch and repair happen thousands of times during early life,” Mallia explained. “Together, they form part of the relational environment in which development unfolds.”Her own research examined this relationship in circumstances where an infant is born with very limited or no vision.Under the supervision of Professor Livio Provenzi, Mallia studied how mothers and babies adapt their communication when they cannot rely on shared gaze, focusing not simply on the infant’s limited vision but on how it changes the interaction between both mother and child.Mallia argues this perspective could have practical implications for how families are supported in Malta.Rather than always approaching the difficulties experienced by mothers and babies separately, she suggests professionals can also consider the pair as an interconnected system — something she compares to a dance where each person’s movement influences what happens next.“This is not about blaming the relationship for a difficulty or suggesting that changing an interaction is the answer to every challenge,” she stressed.Instead, paying attention to those interactions could create additional opportunities for connection, regulation and healthy development when families require support.Mallia pointed towards Mater Dei Hospital’s Perinatal Community Mental Health Service and organisations such as the Parent-Infant Mental Health Alliance as signs that Malta is increasingly recognising the importance of wellbeing during the earliest stages of life.However, she believes relationship-focused support could complement existing efforts to monitor babies’ physical development and care for mothers’ mental health.“A baby develops through thousands of small, everyday exchanges with the people who care for them,” Mallia concluded.“Perhaps it is time we paid more attention to what happens in the space between them.”What do you make of this?•