Giving babies the best start in life (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)

The new NSPCC project helping Bradford parents

8:35am Thursday 2nd February 2012 in Behind the News By Sally Clifford

Babies don’t come with an instruction manual.

Nurturing a new life isn’t without its challenges and, for every parent, raising a child is a learning curve.

Having family around and a support network helps, but for those whose lives are in chaos there is often no-one close to hand to help out.

Last year, children’s charity the NSPCC launched its All Babies Count campaign to highlight the vulnerability of babies and to call for better and earlier support for new parents.

The charity revealed that babies are eight times more likely to die than any other age group in childhood. Factors such as domestic violence, mental health problems, drink and drug dependency among parents are highlighted as high risk factors for abuse and neglect.

Two-thirds of serious case reviews for infant fatalities or serious cases of abuse involve one or more of these issues, and more than half the contacts to the NSPCC helpline involve concerns about children in families with these problems.

The impact of early trauma, abuse or neglect is particularly acute in the first year of life and is linked to behavioural problems in childhood, anti-social behaviour in adolescence and physical and mental health problems, including heart disease, in adulthood.

In response to that, the NSPCC, as part of the range of services it already offers, has developed a programme based on a model by the Department of Health to find more effective ways to protect babies and support parents.

Of the charity’s 40 service centres nationwide, Bradford is only one of eight to launch a project called Pregnancy, Birth and Beyond.

The eight-week parent-education programme is for at-risk parents, preparing them for the transition to parenthood.

The programme, provided at the service centre’s new offices in Bradford’s Eastbrook Hall, begins from the 30th week of pregnancy and includes two sessions after the birth.

Sharda Parthasarathi, the Bradford service manager, believes the city’s high infant mortality rate, partly due to chromosonal diseases, could have had a bearing on Bradford being selected to introduce the programme.

“We have a very high infant mortality rate in Bradford. We have pockets of poverty and lots of diverse needs,” she says.

Sharda says that, historically, the NSPCC in Bradford has an excellent working relationship with their partner agencies such as Children’s Social Care, health services and other statutory agencies they liaise with who are involved in child protection, making Bradford well-placed for hosting the programme.

Working alongside midwives Dawn Gibbon and Anne Du Chemin, who are on secondment from Bradford Royal Infirmary, the charity will deliver the programme over two years initially, but Sharda hopes it will eventually have the resources to extend it.

It is hoped that between 125 and 130 women a year will embark on the Bradford programme. Other centres involved include Leeds, Hull, Sheffield and York.

“It’s about improving opportunities and chances for vulnerable babies. It may be that fewer children come into care, Children’s Social Care become involved in fewer cases, they do better in school,” says Sharda.

Babies who have a better start in life are more likely to flourish. Sharda says studies in America of similar projects have demonstrated that numbers of children going into youth-offending teams dropped due to intervention from an early age.

“It’s about teaching parents to be able to improve life chances for children and all the things associated with it; improving health and well-being, preparing them for school and it will enable them to access better services because it is cumulative,” says Sharda.

“If they have a bad start as a baby they will have a bad start as a toddler, then when they start school there are so many issues.

“The NSPCC vision is about ending cruelty to children. We have to start somewhere and this commission is the best possible place to start.”

Midwife Anne Du Chemin says that with a national shortage of midwives and more pressures placed on their time, the programme is welcome.

“It is filling a gap. I think the programme can make huge changes to women. It helps in their relationship with their babies and their life together,” she says.

* For more information about the NSPCC Bradford centre programmes, call (01274) 381440. To find out more about the NSPCC’s All Babies Count campaign visit nspcc.org.uk/allbabiescount.