The pregnant women we contacted in the first phase of our research in 2018-19 had become parents of six-month-old children by the second phase of the study. In the second wave, these families were contacted again six months after the birth of their child.

In the second wave of the data collection presented here, we also relied heavily on the Hungarian network of health visitors. On the one hand, in the first two waves of the study - among pregnant women and women with six-month-old children - the data were collected by these health visitors. On the other hand, the sample design was based on health visitor districts.

In the second wave of the study, almost the same number of the 8,500 expectant respondents, now new mothers, shared their experiences with the health visitors. And some of those who were not interviewed during pregnancy, now mothers with young children, were also involved for the first time at this stage and reported on their experiences of pregnancy retrospectively. We also had new respondents from families where someone else than the mother took care of the 6-month-old child.

The newly published "Infancy in Hungary" provides a comprehensive overview of the main characteristics of infancy in Hungary, based on the responses of parents raising six-month-old children in this second wave of the study. The book can be downloaded HERE.

The genre of our publication is a research report, which means that it is a descriptive presentation of the results of the Cohort '18 Growing Up in Hungary study. It is structured around four main themes - chapters - presenting the findings on the lives of families with a six-month-old child. First, a retrospective analysis of the course of childbirth and its circumstances are presented. This is followed by an overview of the family structure and living conditions, including a description of changes since the gestation period. The main characteristics of the mother and the six-month-old child are then also discussed in detail in respective chapters.

A special feature of the volume is that it is coloured by drawings of children associated with the Real Pearl Foundation. The Real Pearl Foundation was founded in 1999 under the leadership of Nóra L. Ritók. Initially, it reached the disadvantaged children of Berettyóújfalu and its region through art education. After several years of experience, visual education was complemented by a kind of disadvantage-compensating methodology, which helped children to improve their skills in creative, and in other subjects. Finally, the focus on the development of social skills to help children integrate completed the foundation’s toolkit. Today, art education has grown into a complex development program, an opportunity-creating strategy in which education, family care and community development, and institutional cooperation are the three decisive pillars of support.