Baby Café
News Summer 2015
You’re welcome! – Tips for a friendly Baby Café page 7
of ages m i and New ing, d e e stf ge 5 brea s. pa w e r n othe
Mum-offour Cat Coulson: Baby Café help ed me – now I’m giving s omething back. pa ge 4
Job number: 385 Job description: Baby Cafe newsletter Designer: freelance@nct.org.uk
Hello! Hello
-
to all 20,000 of you!
to thank you for all the I’d like to take this opportunity hers through the Baby work you do supporting mot in 2014 was amazing. Café. Reaching 20,000 mothers
of the time you put in How do we know this? Because using all that data we to complete the annual returns, ask you to collect. you find this one of I do understand that many of er not do, but it’s so those extra jobs that you’d rath worthwhile. Without figures, Thanks to we can’t show we’re making a difference. It helps us apply everyone involved for awards like the C4EO in the data validation we achieved (see page 3 of this issue), and for collection and grants, sponsorship and other evaluation process funding (see story right). lved Thanks to everyone invo ion process, we can in the data collection and evaluat ting funders, and show how effective we are to exis worth supporting. convince prospective ones we’re
Money, money...
who needs it? We do!
Our annual report - see Coordinator Tr ina’s letter left - shows that for a lot of you, securing eff ective and reliable funding to keep your Baby Ca fé open is a major challenge. Some highly successfu l Baby Cafés, reachi ng a range of mothers and babies and making a real dif fer ence in their communities, are som etimes forced to close bec ause funding comes to an end. UK Baby Cafés are fun ded in a variety of wa ys. The report shows the largest pro portion of funding com es from children’s centres and NHS funds. Our figu res show that public funding of this sort tends to be more rel iab le than individual fundraisin g or grant funding (wh ich often needs reapplying for, every year). Nevertheless, pub lic funds are also subject to change s in budgetary prioritie s, with unpredictable results. However, Baby Cafés represent excellent val ue for money whether that money is from the public purse, or from elsewhere. Staying in touch with the money people is im portant. Make sure they’re on your ma iling list, and send the m copies of Baby Café News. It ma kes it easier to reappl y for further support when the tim e comes.
ual evaluation is The report showing the 2014 ann e highlights. available now - see page 8 for som p up the good work!
Have a good summer, and kee
Trina Warman
In this edition... Everybody’s talking about it: news from the Baby Cafés Baby Café helped me!
page 3
In the news: snips and clip s
page 4
Birthdays and beginnings
page 5 page 6
Q&A: make your Baby Caf é page 7 work well Annual report
page 8
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Job number: 385 Job description: Baby Cafe newsletter Designer: freelance@nct.org.uk
Everybody’s
talking abo ut it... Baby Café ‘excellent’ it’s off icial!
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Baby Café goes shopping …at the mall. Peterborough’s Baby Cafés got a prime spot recently to promote the service to families, and bring even more mothers and babies to the four venues in the city. Balloons and smiling faces enco urage parents and parentsto-be to stop for a chat and mak e the timetable and venues of Baby Cafés more widely know n.
s a number of other Hats off to us... Baby Café join dren across the UK, in services for families and chil l Children’s Bureau’s being validated by the Nationa comes (C4EO). Centre for Excellence and Out tice, service delivery, C4EO takes a close look at prac , results. Experts on the cost-effectiveness and, crucially well other areas could C4EO panel also scrutinise how awards full validation to implement the service, and only boxes. organisations that check all the ‘what works’, according to Baby Café is a prime example of we’re in the top category of C4EO, and our validation means ion about C4EO, see http:// best practice. For more informat c4eo.org.uk/home.aspx
le Laid-back, Beckenham-sty comed 65 new mums Beckenham Baby Café has wel ks. through its doors in just 15 wee Marina with baby Hannah, Our picture shows Beckenham mum sometimes known as biological demo’ing laid back breastfeeding, icalnurturing.com for more nurturing. See http://www.biolog gical nurturing positions, and information about different biolo way of feeding so comfortable why mothers and babies find this arrive at Baby Café with and effective. ‘Sometimes mothers feed, but when they try sore nipples, dreading the next surprised at how comfortable laid-back feeding they are usually counsellor Kate Cameron. it feels,’ says NCT breastfeeding
Left, health visi facilitator an tor Bekkie Cochrane, an d NCT brea stfeeding co d right, Baby Cafe unsellor Abi gail Salehi.
Workington saved Good news for a last-minute resc ue for Workington Baby Café in Cumbria. When the loca l council changed the provider for its children’s cen tres, it looked like the Baby Café was at risk. The new provider had not even mentioned breastfeeding sup port in their bid to take over the contract - leaving the Baby Café without funds. Co-ordinator Ann-Marie Steel succ essfully convinced the new provider to pay for the Baby Café licence and to provide a venue. But facilitators’ fees? The answer was a clear ‘no’. So she got in touch with the Frances C. Scott Trust, who support charities working with families and young people in the area. “I completed the application onlin e,” says Ann-Marie. “The form was very simple and I supp lied a copy of the previous year’s accounts. I also put in data which we recorded using the Baby Café evaluation tools from that year.’ Result? A cheque for £3,000 from the Fran ces C. Scott Trust came at the start of the summer - sufficient fund s to keep the Baby Café on its feet for a further year.” Hint to other Baby Cafés: Ann-Ma rie found the contact by getting in touch with her local coun cil’s engagement officer. They’re often a good source of infor mation and contacts.
h, rina with baby Hanna Beckenham mum Ma g. din fee ast bre k bac demo’ing laid
ings d happen n a s t n e ...ev s by Café a B d n u o ar
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Real life stories
Baby Café helped me! Baby Café is the place to go for friendship, and to get some first-rate informa tion and support. This issue, we hear from Cat Coulson, who found her Baby Café helped her achieve her plan to breastfeed her fourth baby. “Matilda’s my fourth baby. I had tried to breastfeed my other babies, but I ended up using formula top-ups, and ultimately around four to five months, they were on formula alone. “I was super-determined to get it right this time. It didn’t start well - Matilda was read mitted to hospital on day five with 15 per cent weig ht loss. We went home, using formula top-ups once mor e, and I tried to cope. “Thank goodness for the Baby Café and the wonderful support I received. A posterior tong ue tie was suspected on our first visit, though I had been assured there was no
“The workers at the Bab y Café listened
to me, shared information , empowered
me to seek more help, and helped me
feel safe, secure and nor mal.”
tongue tie present in hospital. Mat ilda had her tongue tie snipped at nine weeks, and thin gs seemed to improve. However, her weight gain started to slow right down, and she became very unsettled once more. I got back in touch with the tongue tie clinic. Matilda needed a second snip, and this time, it was fully successf ul. I managed to stop all formula top-ups. I had made it! “The workers at the Baby Café listened to me, shared information, empowered me to seek more help, and helped me feel safe, secure and normal. Matilda is now nearly 11 months and still going strong!
Baby Café in Matilda. Cat’s e right help. by ba ith w t th Cat Coulson ed her to ge ey, encourag Horley, Surr
“I couldn’t have done it without the Baby Café. I was offered the opportunity to become a peer supporter and I grabbed it with both hands. I am now able to give something back. If I can do for another mother what was done for me, I will be forever happy.”
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Job number: 385 Job description: Baby Cafe newsletter Designer: freelance@nct.org.uk
ews... n e h t n I When breastfeeding feels like despair - Dysphoric Milk Ejection It’s something of a mouthful ise figures on its incidence Reflex, or D-MER - and prec w that for a small number are not known. But we do kno effect on mood is dramatic, of women, D-MER is real, its g unbearable. and it can make breastfeedin etimes alongside anxiety, D-MER is a feeling of despair, som thoughts... all happening hostility, anger and even suicidal h happens when milk is in response to the ‘let down’ whic t of a breastfeed. released in the breast at the star
Skin to skin
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there’s nothing quite like it! More evidence that skin-to-skin care of vulnerable, pre-term or sick babies brings benefits: increased protection from ‘superbug’ MRSA has emerged in a study of babies in intensive care in Brazil. The babies given ‘kangaroo care’, skin to skin with their mothers for at least two hours a day were less likely to show signs of MRSA colonisation (presence of the bacteria) than their counterparts given routine care without skin to skin.
ur baby Skin to skin with yo . brings many benefits
Read more online: http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2393/15/63
Wow! Stunning pictures alert! Duis sed metus et eros sagittis volutpat vitae at massa. Phasellus sit amet luctus libero.
Watch out for a brand new book coming later this year, full of magical images of mothers and babies breastfeeding.
eeding leads to For some mothers, breastf feelings of despair.
hing from 30 seconds to a These negative feelings last anyt r. few minutes and then disappea Maberly told her story to Recently, London mum Rebecca /1KS7qxb). “I found the Daily Telegraph (http://bit.ly as the pain subsided it was breastfeeding painful at first, but replaced by devastating feelings
It’s thought
of despair,’” she said. “For around 30 seconds at the start of feeding I really wanted to die.”
of plunging levels
It’s thought D-MER is a result of plunging levels of the hormone dopamine - in most women the drop is not as
D-MER is a result
of the hormone
dopamine
sudden, or their bodies cope who suffer from D-MER, the effectively. However, in women l feelings, for which there is fall in dopamine creates powerfu women find the feelings currently no treatment. Some on, disappearing after become less intense as time goes rience more intense, about three months. Others expe w.d-mer.org longer-lasting effects. See http://ww
Just one of the beautiful breastfeeding images from Ivette Ivens. Photographer Ivette Ivens presents mums and their children in amazing settings, sometimes fairy-tale like, and always imaginative and creative. Lithuanian-born Ivette posts on Instagram and Facebook, and you can see more of her beautiful photographs at her website: http://www.ivetteivens.com/
s, t babie u o b a s p and cli ...snips e nd mor a g in d ee breastf
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Beginnings a nd birthdays Tunbridge Wells is three!
Crowds of happy mums , babies and toddlers at Tunbridge Wells Baby Café celebrated their third birthday recent ly. Says facilitator Jen ny Yelverton, “our donati on pot is inscribed wit h the words ‘big dream s start small’ and it wa s with these thoughts tha t we hoped one day the Baby Café would bec ome the place people associated with breast feeding support in Tunbridge Wells. We wanted to be memorab le: to offer a service, to we lcome women, to make them feel comfortable so that they would return over the weeks , build their confidenc e feeding in public and recommend us to others .” All that has happened , and the group recently moved to a big ger venue, as more mothers turn up each week.
(Photo cre
dit Tim Josep
and more
A great atmosphere at Tunbridge Wells, where success has led to moving to a bigger venue.
S om the U r f s w e N
gth. A h to stren om strengt fr g in the go s are rst one in Baby Café alia, the fi ed S in Our USA hair ed -c co open Shane, Baby Café Mary Lou r. a ye at brand new t is n th a rlier on consult issouri, ea d a lactati n a state of M on ti a li Coa e Sedali astfeeding spaper, th of the Bre their e local new th ld can bring to , Café come. ‘They el w the Baby e id. ar sa s her here,” she that all mot sy atmosp co is Observer, th in x nd just rela children, a , New , in Buffalo Baby Café l a tr en grant C a am ring with e the Durh day this sp th ir Meanwhil b d ! n m seco Durha brated its Well done, York, cele $290,000. of h lt ea H era from Univ
Diann Holt, facilitator at the Durham Central Baby Café, celebrates its second birthday.
Becoming a teenager...
birthday this spring. Fantastic work, everyone! ...at last! North Abingdon, in Oxfordshire, celebrated its 13th breastfeeding the normal thing to do. Keeping a Baby Café going over a long period really helps make
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Job number: 385 Job description: Baby Cafe newsletter Designer: freelance@nct.org.uk
h)
seph)
. . . A & Q mothers come for Sometimes, we notice that é and then we don’t one session of the Baby Caf g wrong somewhere? see them again. Are we goin
Q
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want to come once, A - Maybe not! Some mums only to a specific question. maybe to seek support and answers don’t need to return. Once they have what they want, they making people feel Read some of our ideas here on g what you can. welcome, just to check you’re doin Q
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le to come again? What about trying to get peop
resses, then you can A - If you have people’s email add ts, change of venue, a circulate them with news of even can also circulate link to your Facebook/Twitter. You a note of their phone information by text if you keep es up to date, too. If numbers. Keep your Facebook pag to come again, it looks someone is wondering whether posts and especially much better if you have recent a great job for a pictures on there. This could be take turns to update couple of volunteers. Perhaps every session. once a week - and take a picture Q
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ome people to the What’s the best way to welc
Baby Café?
to find! Half an hour A - Firstly, make sure it is easy signs directing people before you open, place posters and Nothing flusters a to the venue, outside and inside. about opening the new person more than worrying wrong door. Whoops! nteers specifically Secondly, draw up a rota of volu ly people who have detailed to greet people - especial still feel a little shy. not been before, or the ones who the door to see This means keeping an eye on g up to them to say everyone who comes in, and goin ’t assume all your hello, with a friendly smile. Don ugh to do this, though. volunteers will be confident eno for this job; the less The ones who are can be rostered dow’ someone else the confident ones can perhaps ‘sha that if someone has to first few times. Make it known rota, someone else miss their turn on the welcoming should step in. Q
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Baby Café is a great place to make frien ds for you and your baby.
a bit left out, just ask them abo ut their baby - how old, what their baby’s name is - and how they have found the experience of feeding. If they have something specific they’re concerned about, offer them a chat with whoever is there that session dealing with breastfeeding questions. A lot of mothers welcome the cha nce to chat about everyday concerns, and to share experiences. Q
How can we get the messag e about the Baby Café out to antenatal mum s? -
A - Coming along before the bab y’s born can be really helpful to pregnant mums. Perhap s you can ask the health visitors and midwives link ed with your Baby Café if one or two of you can visi t an antenatal clinic, either at the hospital maternity unit or in the community, with flyers about the group. Don’t just turn up at the clinic - ask first! If you take some homemade cakes with you, it’s easier to approach people. Make sure your posters are in the right places, too.
sure everyone What can we do to make
feels included?
reputation for being A - The Baby Café has a great everyone is there friendly and warm - it helps that g, and recognise that because they value breastfeedin volunteers and it doesn’t always go smoothly. So point for conversation. facilitators have a good starting anyone else, or looking If you see someone not talking to
...som
e gre at tip s to m your ake Baby Cafe a suc cess page
7
Café
Baby
port: e r l a annu
48 Baby There are 1 wide, Cafés world e UK, 45 with 97 in th exico, four in M in the USA, e in pore and on one in Singa d. New Zealan
some highlights from the data you collected:
20,000 women were an helped last year Café. average of 135 per
UK en in the 247 wom eer p to follow went on , g r trainin s supporte C aby afé cent of B s part of r e p 2 7 with rters a er suppo using pe vice. their ser
Overall, quality is going up... up... up. 73 per cent of Baby Cafés met all their quality standards last year (compared with 56 per cent the previous year).
hers who 57 per cent of mot first s fé attend Baby Ca by is ba come when their . old s under six week
51 per ce nt attend m of mothers ore than once, and 20 p er cent a more tha ttend n six tim es.
Breastfeeding o n the web Our favourite w ebsites
thebabycafe.org Loads of information,
nct.org.uk
for breastfeedin g mothers
facts and figures
Search on ‘breastfeedin
g’ for information sh eets, short articles g/whats-your-babys -n appy The useful ‘nappy shee t’ which tells new pa rents what to look for in the first we ek, to help check fee ding’s going well kellymom.org nct.org.uk/parentin
Useful and comprehe
nsive, it will answer a
lot of your questions
Ring ring… Bre astfeeding help line numbers
NCT Helpline 0300 330 0700 National Breastfeedin g Helpline 0300 100 0212 Breastfeeding Networ k Supporterline 0300 100 0210 Drugs In Breastmilk Helpline 0844 412 46 65 La Leche League Helpl ine 0845 120 2918 Association of Breastf eeding Mothers Helpl ine 0300 330 54
Baby Café News is published quarterly by NCT. We welcome contributions to Baby Café News. Editor: Heather Welford Graphic design: NCT Design Team Baby Café News is published by NCT, Alexandra House, Oldham Terrace, London, W3 6NH © 2015 NCT
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Baby Café is a trading name of The National Childbirth Trust Limited company registered in England and Wales: 2370573 Registered address: Alexandra House, Oldham Terrace, London, W3 6NH
Job number: 385 Job description: Baby Cafe newsletter Designer: freelance@nct.org.uk
DES385
Registered charity in England and Wales: 801395 and Scotland: SC041592