How we have adapted our services
Our perinatal services, Pregnancy in Mind and Baby Steps, continue to support parents during the pandemic.
Pregnancy in Mind
This service is delivered during the middle trimester of pregnancy. It supports parents-to-be who are at risk of or who are experiencing mild to moderate anxiety and depression. It aims to develop parents’ relationship with their child, help them manage any difficulties and build their capacity to provide sensitive, responsive care to their babies, before and after birth.
How we’re adapting the service
Our practitioners speak to each parent taking part in the programme to identify their individual needs. We’ve put the following measures in place to make sure parents get the personalised support they need.
We’ve adapted the programme and its materials into packs, which are provided to participants ahead of sessions via email each week. These materials support participants during the sessions and beyond.
- Phone contact and support
Practitioners call parents weekly to discuss their wellbeing and general concerns or anxieties. This ensures support is targeted and specific to each person. We may signpost parents to further support if required.
- Remote group meetings or individual support
Our practitioners provide weekly one-to-one or group sessions via telephone or an online video conferencing platform. The learning materials from the programme are used within these sessions.
Some Pregnancy in Mind teams use a messaging app so the participants of the programme can chat 24/7. These conversations may be about pregnancy or anything they wish to talk about. A practitioner is in the group to help answer any queries and identify concerns or anxieties.
> Find out more about Pregnancy in Mind
Baby Steps
Baby Steps is designed to help prepare people for becoming parents. It’s aimed at those who are more likely to need extra help, including parents with low-level mental health issues. Usually, a practitioner would do a home visit in the seventh month of pregnancy, followed by six group sessions in the six weeks before the baby is born. One home visit and three group sessions would follow the baby’s birth.
Since 2015, we’ve trained and supported other organisations to provide Baby Steps in their local area.
How we’re adapting the service
We’ve worked closely with the organisations delivering Baby Steps, to help them continue to provide the service virtually during the pandemic.
Baby Steps facilitators will work with individuals and couples rather than running group sessions. This includes:
- working remotely through phone and video calls
- providing nine videos for parents that share the key messages from each of the planned group sessions
- circulating electronic or hard copies of information and work sheets from the programme so parents can work through the exercises at home
- talking to parents about their wellbeing so we can understand how they are doing
- holding shorter video calls on a more frequent basis than the original group sessions
- directing parents to helpful external materials and sources of support
- taking new referrals so that new parents can receive help and support from the programme.
> Find out more about Baby Steps
