Parents-to-be in Leeds can now avail of a special support toolkit developed by the child health charity Best Beginnings and local health visitors and midwives.
The toolkit will include the Baby Buddy smartphone app, Bump to Breastfeeding videos, a monthly magazine and a DVD offering support for babies who are sick or premature.
The toolkit has been designed in an effort to provide parents with extra support and information that they might need.
The impact of this idea will be monitored by health organisations in the city to see how mums feel about the added support.
Mums and mums-to-be recommended #babybuddy at #BestBeginnings launch pic.twitter.com/iJRiPfGsGI
— Leeds H&WBoard (@HWBBoardLeeds) May 12, 2016
Executive member for health of the Leeds City Council told the Yorkshire Evening Post:
“We know how valuable it is for children to get the best start in life, from conception onwards. Having access to timely, trustworthy information when you need it can be so much easier if you can access good quality online help.
“That’s why I’m so pleased to see the Baby Buddy app and other sources of information being available for parents and parents-to-be, helping make a difference in the vital early weeks and months of the lives of children in Leeds.”
Alison Baum from Best Beginnings spoke about the idea, adding:
“Baby Buddy has been designed with input from huge numbers of parents and professionals to support and enhance relationships – the relationship between parents and professionals, between partners and other family members and crucially between parents and children.”
