The Healthy Beginnings program is designed to help parents of prematurely born infants adjust to parenting challenges and opportunities of the first 2 years of the infant's life. The Healthy Beginnings Program provides parents of premature infants with support and guidance by offering: (1) monthly education and support meetings; (2) evaluations for the infant at the Meyer Center for Developmental Pediatrics at the Baylor College of Medicine on a regular basis; and (3) instruction in ways to improve parent-child interaction patterns. The discussion of the program elaborates on these program offerings, and also covers family life after infants leave the neonatal intensive care nursery, parental stress 2.5 months after the birth, and family life after a year of program participation. Typically, parents of premature infants magnify and attempt to fulfill irrational beliefs involving the words "should,""ought," or "must" which are incompatible with reality and cause an inordinate amount of tension and dissatisfaction. Program staff use group and individual meetings to help parents identify and overcome their irrational beliefs. The program places a strong emphasis on the deliberate use of logic, the development of flexible and appropriate expectations, and the introduction of specific behavior patterns. (RH)