I want you to love our time together. Of utmost importance to me is that the content of our time together is driven by your wishes and ever-changing needs.Your antenatal appointments can involve collaboratively assessing, planning, facilitating and reviewing care at every contact. I can guide discussions, encouraging you to share relevant information as well as sharing my knowledge and experience to optimise your health and wellbeing. I aim to prepare you as parents to think about and manage your expectations of parenting and life with a newborn, and to consider the impact of your childhood experiences on your child rearing ideas. I will be building my understanding of you and your family, steadily comprehending your perspective, to enable me to offer you the best service. I believe that having a real connection with you is the foundation for effective interactions and an effective service.

I can discuss any current family health issues, that may impact your parenting or the baby’s health and wellbeing. I can review mothers’ physical health and facilitate any unmet needs. I can explore parental mental health and emotional wellbeing. I can help foster positive relationships within the family, and how to manage sharing family responsibilities. I can help you to identify sources of support within your wider family, your friends and in the wider local community.

I can explore your plans for feeding, demonstrate breastfeeding positioning and attachment with a baby doll and a knitted breast. I can also show you how to safely prepare formula milk if this is your chosen method of feeding. I can demonstrate basic baby care such as bathing your baby. I can also review your baby equipment.

I can discuss how to enhance your bonding and attachment with your baby. I can talk through your plans for your labour and delivery. Let me help you to understand your baby, their communication and their unique strengths and needs. I can talk about parenting responsively to meet your baby’s needs. I can also discuss ways to reduce the risk of a Sudden Infant Death, and the safety of your baby both at home and whilst out and about.

My discussions aim to pre-empt any difficulties, and to provide you with some strategies to give you confidence as you embark on your parenting journey.

Your postnatal appointments will continue to involve assessing, planning, facilitating and reviewing care at every contact. Your first postnatal appointment is an opportunity to reflect upon and talk through your labour and delivery. Key to my postnatal contacts with you will be to discuss your physical health, your mental health and your emotional wellbeing. I will revisit many of the topics discussed at your antenatal appointment, particularly your transition to parenthood, amongst other topics of your choice and those that seem pertinent on the day.

Your choice of feeding will be central to your postnatal appointments too. I will support you in any choice you have made with regard to feeding your baby, to ensure you and your baby are both happy, comfortable and satisfied. I am highly experienced in supporting breastfeeding, so if you would like additional support with breastfeeding we can either focus our contacts on this or I can offer additional time as an add-on.

Your postnatal contacts will also contain a definitive practical element too. Every parent loves to know how much their baby weighs and this is a focus of many home and family conversations. I will weigh your baby to gain clear evidence of growth and fully assess them with the use of the most innovative medical grade Marsden M-300 portable baby scales. These are Class III approved, designed for accuracy, reliability and comfort, designed for neonatal units, health visitors and lactation consultants. The scales are highly accurate to 2 grams, and calibrated by specialists every six months.

I will measure your baby’s length with a Marsden HM-110 baby measuring mat, designed for professional use and accuracy, highly hygienic yet comfortable against the baby’s skin.

I will also measure your baby’s head circumference regularly with a head circumference tape, central to a comprehensive assessment of your baby’s proportional growth.

I will transfer all your baby’s measurements into your Child Health Record, precisely plotting and interpreting the results for a holistic assessment of your baby’s growth.

During your postnatal appointments I will also fully assess your baby’s physical health, for example I will assess your baby’s skin for jaundice, dryness and integrity. I will also re-explore any topics covered in your antenatal appointment and any new topics related specifically to your baby.

If you choose our Elite Bundle I will also be able to discuss at length topics related to your baby at a later age, such as weaning, developing good sleep hygiene and adaptation for everyone with your return to work. The Elite Bundle also includes a developmental review at any stage of your baby’s growth and development, at the timing of your choice.