Antenatal advice
During your pregnancy you will be seeing your midwife and occasionally other professionals to support yours and your baby’s health and wellbeing. Your Health Visiting service becomes involved after your baby is born and your health visitor will see you at home between day 10 and day 14.
This section will provides lots of valuable information and resources for you to read and explore during your pregnancy. We have created a virtual presentation for you so that you can get an understanding of the Health Visiting Service and how we support families throughout the first five years. It covers important topics such as safe sleeping, infant feeding, immunisations and mental health too.
We appreciate that the internet is full of lots of different websites to visit to gain information, but we’ll make it easier for you! Below you'll find lots of websites which are the resources we use ourselves.
Antenatal sessions with our health visitors
If you are due to have a baby in the next couple of months, the Health Visiting Team warmly invite you to attend one of their antenatal sessions. We'll talk to you all about how the Health Visiting Team will support you, and answer any questions you may have. This will be a group session so you will be in the company of others about to embark on their parenthood journey and those about to expand their family. You are welcome to bring one guest along with you. We are really looking forward to meeting you all.
These sessions are offered by invite from your local Health Visiting team. If you have not received an invite and are more than 36 weeks pregnant, please contact us via our ChatHealth text message service for information on how to attend a local session. Text 07312 263283
We also run breastfeeding and Well Baby clinics across the area. Find out more here (opens in new window).
The resources below provide advice for things you can do to remain happy and healthy as your pregnancy progresses. There's advice on diet, vitamins and supplements, your mental wellbeing, vaccinations during pregnancy, stopping smoking during pregnancy and an active lifestyle.
Remember, if you are concerned about your health or your baby’s movements, please make sure you contact your midwife as soon as possible.
Keeping well in pregnancy (NHS)
Pregnancy_Patient_info_leaflet_2020 (movingmedicine.ac.uk)
Sometimes its hard to imagine your growing baby and what they may look like at every week. The relationship with your baby starts as soon as you know they are there. Building a bond can be a really exciting time for you and your family. Talk to your baby as they grow and as they kick. Sing songs or play music. Imagine them here and tell them what you are doing during your day. Your baby will get to know your voice, your rhythm and the family members around them.
The following resources will help you to start to think of your baby as a little person, to help you bond with them and respond to them as they grow.
Building a Happy Baby (Unicef)
Meeting baby for the first time (Unicef)
Thinking about feeding your baby when they arrive can feel quite daunting. The best course of action is to be relaxed and calm. You don’t need to decide until they are in your arms. The midwives will help you to give the first feed to your baby in skin to skin once they are born, however you want to feed. Babies respond well to skin to skin, and it kick starts breastfeeding well.
If you are thinking of breastfeeding, it is a good idea to have a read of the following resources to help you prepare and get breastfeeding off to a good start. There’s information to help you hand express colostrum, the basics on positioning and attachment as well as a video with mums' experiences of the first breastfeed.
There is support out there to help you breastfeed and to give you advice if you are finding it tough. You can always speak to your midwife before your baby is born and afterward, please contact your local health visiting service.
You can find more detailed information on our breastfeeding and bottle feeding pages.
Off to the best start (Unicef)
Positioning and attachment video (Unicef)
Hand expression video - Baby Friendly Initiative (Unicef)
Infant formula and responsive bottle feeding (Unicef)
Guide to Bottle Feeding (Unicef)
Infant milks for parents & carers (First Steps Nutrition Trust)
New products come onto the market all the time and social media can play a huge part in influencing your decisions about what to buy for your baby. The following resources will hopefully help you to plan the important equipment to consider purchasing and give you some advice on those things that aren’t essential.
What you'll need for your baby (NHS)
How to choose baby sleeping products (The Lullaby Trust)
A guide to buying safer sleep essentials (The Lullaby Trust)
Congratulations on your new baby! We've created a presentation for you so that you can get an understanding about who the Health Visiting Service is, what we do and when we’ll be meeting you. It also touches on really important topics such as safe sleeping, infant feeding, immunisations and postnatal health too.
We hope that you find this presentation useful. Please get in touch with your Health Visiting team if you need any further advice, information or support. And enjoy your new baby!
View the antenatal presentation (PowerPoint file, 32MB)
How to listen to the audio clips in the presentation
To listen to the audio clips, you'll need to look at this presentation on a PC rather than a mobile.
On most of the slides, we've added a commentary. To hear it, you'll need to find the loudspeaker icon:
Hover over it and you'll be able to click the 'play' button to hear the commentary:
Give us your feedback
We'd love it if you could send us your feedback on this presentation and let us know how it helped you.
If you need help or support during pregnancy, please contact your midwife.
Once your baby is born, please get in touch with your local health visiting service. You can just send us a text us and we'll help you.
Text 07312 263283
If you need to make or change an appointment, please contact your local health visiting team.
This telephone number is not for professionals who need to speak to the Health Visiting Service. Please use your normal method of contact.