- Contact and support from your Midwife and Health Visitor. (They will have lots of advice and resources to share, to help prepare you for your baby's birth.)
- If you are deciding how to feed your baby, it may help to talk to a Breastfeeding Peer Supporter.
- Whooping cough vaccination for mum at 16 weeks.
Child development
Your child is developing every day, so from conception onwards is an epic journey for them.
- You can find out more about their development by downloading the Best Beginnings Baby Buddy app.
- For a useful guide to help you have a healthy and happy pregnancy, visit: Start4Life - Pregnancy.
Parental support to child
If you look after your own health and well-being, it will give your baby the best start on this journey.
- Other ways you can help your baby's development are to talk and sing to them.
- Even if you sing out of tune, your baby loves to hear your voice. This will stimulates their early brain development.
If you are not sure where or how to start, visit: Tiny happy people - Pregnancy: Tips, advice and ideas (BBC).
Advice and support
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Your midwife is one of the first steps on your pregnancy journey. As well as checking your physical health and well-being your Midwife can give you lots of useful advice and support. They will guide you through your pregnancy.
For more about this, visit: Calderdale Maternity Services (NHS).
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Your Health Visitor will join your pregnancy journey towards the end, around week 28 to 32. They are part of a team who will:
- Offer support and advice around health and well-being.
- Offer advice and support on social/environment issues that may impact the health and well-being of you and your family.
- Support you from pregnancy through to when your child is school age. They will cover advice on child development, breastfeeding, nutrition and local support in your community, which includes Children's Centres.
For more about this, visit: Calderdale - Public Health Early Years' Service (Locala).
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There are ways you can support your health in pregnancy and in the future:
- Have a good diet.
- Understand how important it is to eat well.
- The key message is no level of alcohol, at any point in pregnancy, can be thought of as being safe.
For more about this, read: Eating well for a healthy pregnancy - A practical guide (First Steps Nutrition Trust)
- Breastfeeding:
- You might be deciding how you want to feed your baby.
- Breastfeeding has health benefits for both mum and baby.
- Information and support is available from groups or on a one-to-one basis from your:
- Midwife;
- Health Visitor;
- or trained Breastfeeding Peer Supporters.
- You do not need to decide right now. If you speak to one of these people, it may help you choose.
- Join the Calderdale mum to mum breastfeeding support group (on Facebook).
- Pregnancy week-by-week (NHS).
If you worry about your emotional well-being, speak to your Midwife, GP or Health Visitor. You can have perinatal mental health problem any time from getting pregnant up to a year after you give birth.
- For more about this, visit: Postnatal depression and perinatal mental health (Mind).
Other useful websites
- DadPad App. A great guide for new dads, with information to help you care for your new baby and partner.
- Locala Health Visiting Calderdale (Facebook). Find information on health and development support for families with children aged 0 to 5.
- Children's centres. These run workshops and courses for families. They are also a great place to go for advice and support. Find the closest centre to you and look at the activities you can get involved with.
- Calderdale Public Health Early Years' Service - PHEYS (Locala). Each family has a named Health Visitor. They offer advice and support around health and well-being for the whole family, as well as signposting to other agencies.