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Baby Week Bradford 2020 - Why Wellbeing Matters

A huge thank you to everyone who took part in Baby Week Bradford 2020 including all the organisations who put on events or created online content, and everyone who attended.

Here are some of the great resources that were launched or showcased through the week, including event recordings where available:

Event Recordings

• Watch Laura Dockrill’s moving conversation with Saima Mir about her journey through postpartum psychosis (PLEASE NOTE this interview comes with a trigger warning as we discuss difficult themes like depression, postpartum psychosis and suicidal thoughts)

• Watch our exploration of maternal health inequalities, with keynote addresses from Agnes Agyepong (Best Beginnings), Ghazala Mir (University of Leeds) and Clotilde Rebecca Abe (fivexmore).

• Join developmental psychologist, director of Goldsmith’s InfantLab, and author of The Laughing Baby, Caspar Addyman, for this illuminating and uplifting talk and Q&A event

Antenatal, Postnatal and Perinatal Support

• Find out about the virtual antenatal classes we’ve been providing for families across the Bradford district throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, along with colleagues from Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
• Here are some great wellbeing tips for new parents from the Bradford West Family Hub team
• Read the Feeding Express: Baby Week Special from Bradford District Care NHS Foundation Trust, with lots of information on breastfeeding and signposting to local support
• Watch this video from Born in Bradford with some of their findings about perinatal mental health and signposting to support

The Parent-Infant Relationship

• Little Minds Matter: Bradford Infant Mental Health Service has developed a special action card for practitioners working with families with infants. Download the five-point action card here (PDF).
• Read Little Minds Matter’s article ‘Taking action to keep the infant in mind’ here (published in the International Journal of Birth and Parent Education)
• Bradford District Care NHS Foundation Trust developed Ready to Relate cards: a visual, interactive tool to help practitioners assess, discuss and share healthcare information with families and aim to improve and enhance the parent‐infant relationship and promote infant attachment. Find out more here…
• Download the Parent-Infant Foundation’s infographic which explains what infant mental health is, and why it matters. Anyone can download this and use it to help them to champion babies’ emotional wellbeing and development.
• Find out more about the concept of ‘serve and return’ and its importance in early childhood development: https://developingchild.harvard.edu/science/key-concepts/serve-and-return/
• Visit the Anna Freud National Centre for Children and Families website
• Find out here about the Me and My Baby questionnaire developed by Born in Bradford

Getting Outdoors

50 Things to do Before You’re Five created some gorgeous content for Baby Week Bradford 2020, primarily focusing on the outdoors:

• Here’s Project Lead, Andrea Layzell, with some background
• Find out how Chloe found spending time outside so beneficial as a new mum
• Here’s a lovely video showing how a little bit of rain doesn’t stop children from having fun and learning

Born in Bradford also used the week to highlight the benefits of spending time outdoors:

• Find out here what they found out through a survey carried out with local families about how they use the outdoors

Stories, Rhymes, Music and Movement

Of the 25 events that took place during Baby Week Bradford 2020, a whopping 10 of them centred around stories, rhymes, music and movement. Here are two examples, both of which are available online for families to take part in anytime:

More storytime fun can be found via:

• The Bradford Libraries website
• The BHT Early Education and Training Facebook page

Wellbeing

Here’s some useful content on wellbeing highlighted during the week:

• Visit Bradford’s fantastic Living Well website for a wealth of information, advice and resources on all aspects of your health and wellbeing
• Here’s Born in Bradford discussing how COVID-19 has had an impact on the wellbeing of families in Bradford
• Visit the Parent People Boosts website – a collaboration between Home-Start and Shift – for three virtual care packages, and more, created in response to COVID-19

Sign up for the Baby Week Bradford mailing list here to receive updates about Baby Week Bradford 2021

If you have any questions about any aspect of Baby Week Bradford, please contact [email protected]