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A new orientation to child guidance has been employed at Hadassah community health centers in Jerusalem. Instead of providing treatment for patients seeking it, the program is geared to locating and treating parents before the child's difficulties reach the stage of overt neurosis or frank and advanced maladjustment. Parents seeking help and guidance in problems of pregnancy and child care have habitually turned to these centers, which were established thirty years ago. Public health nurses, visiting the homes, perform the functions of social workers as well as health visitors. Intensive efforts are directed at molding the attitudes of pregnant women. Group techniques are aided by the ease with which pregnant women identify with one another. At infant health centers, mothers who comment on difficulties with their children are brought the same day to 'one of our doctors who deals with such matters', without being told that they need psychiatry. Experience has shown that reassurance in this first contact may lessen anxiety to the point of terminating the relationship promptly. Therefore conscious efforts are made to heighten the mother's anxiety, without unduly frightening her. Increase in guilt, relieved by pointed discussion and active 'ventilation', strengthens the desire to return for further work, as does the planned attempt to build up the mother's hope and confidence regarding the child's future development. Subsequent interviews with