Support Available for Expectant and New Parents

Bonding with your baby is the focus for expectant and new parents in Tameside during this year’s Infant Mental Health Awareness Week from 13 to 19 June.

Perinatal and Parent-Infant Mental Health (PIMH) services will be organising events during the week related to this theme. This year, there will be a stall at Ashton Market on Tuesday 13 June, which will bring together a range of health, local authority and voluntary sector services who work with babies and their families in Tameside. They will provide information and activities that highlight the importance of ‘Bonding before Birth’.

Professionals from a range of services will be on hand with advice and support related to babies’ mental health and wellbeing. This includes a booklet called Your Baby and You, which helpfully offers advice on attachment and bonding, soothing and settling, and learning about your baby, and is being given out to all new parents in Tameside.

Research shows that the experiences and relationships we have in the earliest years of our lives, including before birth, impact on the development of our brains. Stress and adversity experienced during pregnancy can have a negative impact on babies’ physical and mental health as they grow. This does not have to be the case, and having access to helpful information and support for parental wellbeing from early pregnancy, can really make a difference.

Executive Member for Population Health & Wellbeing, Councillor Eleanor Wills commented:

“Pregnancy and the early weeks and months of life are key times for bonding and attachment, and we want to ensure help and support for parents is there every step of the way. The Your Baby and You booklet explains in a caring and empathetic way that you are not alone in what you might experience, and there is a network of help and advice available. I’m really pleased that with this campaign we’re reaching as many parents as possible.”

Your Baby and You has been written in collaboration with Greater Manchester families and professionals, and is packed with information to help parents to get to know and understand their baby. It is accompanied by a series of videos, which can be found online at Your Baby and You: Pennine Care NHS Foundation Trust