Resources for life with your baby

Sleep

Book recommendations Safer sleep info How babies sleep
How Babies Sleep
by Helen L. Ball

A factful guide to the first 365 days and nights.

This book will give you some excellent insights into how and why babies sleep the way they do.

Its a reassuring and straightforward review of research and knowledge.
Let’s talk about your new family’s sleep
by Lyndsey Hookway

This gentle and holistic guide is sure to allay many parents’ fears and help everyone in the family get the rest they need.

Supporting your baby’s development

Getting to know your baby (babies) Supporting emotional development Language development Developmental milestones The neonatal experience
More resources from Brazelton centre UK

The Institute of Health Visiting has resources on getting to know your baby, with tips on understanding your baby’s behaviour and taking care of yourself:

Read more
Baby Brain Map

The Baby Brain Map is a developmental scientist-approved tool that equips you to understand more about how to support your baby (babies) during the critical window of infant brain development up to age 3 years old.

Speaking for the Baby Campaign

Curiously wonder about what is going on inside for your baby? We like to wonder about their minds – what they might be sensing, feeling, thinking, wanting, needing, experiencing. And if we were to put that into words, well, we’d be ‘ speaking for the baby’!
Scroll down the page for a collection of resources and activities that will help you and your baby get to know each other:
Building a Happy Baby: A Guide for Parents

Building a strong relationship between parents and their new baby will give them the best possible start in life and will help them to grow up happy and confident. This leaflet is free to download and will help you to develop that strong relationship, starting in pregnancy and continuing into the early days, weeks and months of a baby’s life.

Experiences Build Brain Architecture: Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University
How Every Child Can Thrive by Five: Molly Wright | TED

Taking care of yourself

Postnatal planning Physical recovery Mental health and wellbeing The transition to parent Being a parent Legal things to consider
Plan for your Postnatal RECOVERY

Rest, relax and recuperate, take time out.

Eat the food that makes you feel good.

Chores? Can you get help? What can be left?

Optional, make choices about what’s important.

Visitors, who and when?

Emotional, give yourself time to think and feel.

Receive nurturing support.

You are important, take care of yourself.

Postnatal planning templates
Postnatal book recomendations
Where to find support:

This list includes a selection of local and national mental health support resources for parents, but it is not exhaustive. If you or someone you care for needs support, please seek help from a qualified professional or appropriate service (such as midwife, health visitor, GP, NHS 111, or 999 in emergency situations).

Support for Mothers in Cheshire
Support for fathers in Cheshire
Online support or apps for fathers
Matrescence
A new way to think about the transition to motherhood | Alexandra Sacks
Patrescence
Patrescence – How a man changes when he becomes a father & how this affects his relationship
Partners before parents

The transition to parenthood is consistently associated with a decline in romantic relationship quality for many couples, especially in the first year after birth. The research says that is is not that parenting always harms relationships, but that it increases stressors that can reduce satisfaction, increase conflict, and weaken emotional connection if parents lack support.

A letter from your baby

Caregivers need only “get it right” 50 percent of the time when responding to babies’ need for attachment to have a positive impact on a baby. Securely attached infants are more likely to have better outcomes in childhood and adulthood.

The first message gets at the core of getting the job done – supporting the baby in exploration and not interrupting it and welcoming babies in when they need us for comfort or protection.

The other part is that you don’t have to do it 100 percent – you have to get it right about half of the time, and babies are very forgiving and it’s never too late. Keep trying. You don’t have to be perfect, you just have to be good enough.

Read more: A New Approach to Examining Links Between Maternal Caregiving and Infant Attachment (2019)

A letter from your baby
Legal requirements and considerations