Parent resources

Baby Buddy App

Baby Buddy is a free mobile phone app for parents and parents-to-be with personalised content approved by doctors and midwives that spans from pregnancy right through to the first six months after birth.

It's produced by Best Beginnings (see below).

If you use the app when you're pregnant, then it will be 'Bump Buddy' - helping you with pregnancy developments. When your baby is born, it changes to 'Baby Buddy', which will support you and your family through the first six months of your baby's life.

You can download Baby Buddy on Google Play and in the App Store.

There's also a web version - please see:

Baby Friendly Initiative

The UK Baby Friendly Initiative is based on a global accreditation programme of UNICEF and the World Health Organization.

It is designed to support breastfeeding and parent infant relationships by working with public services to improve standards of care he UK Baby Friendly Initiative is based on a global accreditation programme of UNICEF and the World Health Organization.

The Great Western Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is accredited by the Baby Friendly Initiative (please see below).

This website also includes some foreign language resources.

Basis (Baby Sleep Info Source)

Basis aims to "provide online access to up-to-date research based evidence about infant sleep, in forms which are accessible to parents and health professionals, supported by references to research relevant to families in the UK".

Their website includes lots of information on how and where babies sleep, and it offers advice on how to cope with sleeping problems.

There's also an Infant Sleep App, which provides similar information for mobile devices.

Best Beginnings

Best Beginnings is a charity dedicated to ending child health inequalities in the UK - to giving every baby the healthiest possible start in life.

Their vision is "a future in which all children in the UK enjoy excellent care from the very beginning".

They use innovative approaches to ensure families have the information and support they need to protect their children's health.

One of their newest innovations is the Baby Buddy App (see above).

Best Beginnings focuses on the time period between preconception and two years of age because "this is where the foundations for a healthy life are built".

DadPad

An online resource designed by new fathers and health professionals to better equip them through the transition to parenthood.

It includes practical information, in bite size chunks, on things like feeding, communicating and bonding with their baby, how babies like to be held and help to cope with less sleep.

Dads can dip in and out when they need to and get the information they need quickly and easily.

First Steps Nutrition Trust

The First Steps Nutrition Trust aims to provide "better information and support for good nutrition - and good food - from pre-conception to five years".

The website is divided into three main sections:

• Eating well in pregnancy
• Infant feeding
• Eating well - birth to five

Each of these sections includes useful general information, and more specific guides on things like vegan diets and nutritional information for pregnant teenagers.

Going home from the Maternity Unit (video)

If you are new parents, are expecting a baby or gave birth in the last six months, this video will teach you all you need to know about your newborn.

Health Visitor Services

Health visiting services work alongside midwives, nurses, general practioners, obstetricians and pediatricians, caring for families from conception until the age of five.

Children have a health review at specifica points in their development:

• At birth
• At age six weeks
• Between two and two and a half years

Healthy Start

If you are pregnant or have a child under four years old you could get Healthy Start vouchers to help buy some basic foods.

This important means-tested scheme provides vouchers to spend with local retailers.

Pregnant women and children over one and under four years old can get one £3.10 voucher per week.

Children under one year old can get two £3.10 vouchers (£6.20) per week.

Lullaby Trust

The Lullaby Trust provides specialist support for bereaved families, promotes expert advice on safer baby sleep and raises awareness on sudden infant death (also referred to as 'cot death'.

Working with the NHS, it runs a national health-visitor led service for bereaved parents, Care of Next Infant (CONI) programme, which supports families before and after the birth of their new baby.

They also support research into understanding why 600 babies a year die suddenly and unexpectedly in the UK and to find out more about how to prevent these tragic deaths.

Pregnancy in Mind

Pregnancy in Mind is a new, preventative mental health service for parents-to-be that has been developed based on the latest evidence.

The service, which is provided by the NSPCC, is designed to support parents who are at risk of, or experiencing mild to moderate anxiety and depression during pregnancy and the first year after birth

Parents-to-be are able to attend between 12 and 28 weeks gestation (the middle trimester of pregnancy).

This links well with the Baby Steps programme, which begins at or after 28 weeks gestation, so that parents can get high quality support with their mental health as well as preparing for parenthood.

South West Neonatal Network

One of 12 clinically managed operational delivery networks for neonatal services in the UK.

It provides information, advice and support for parents and health professionals.