Support for new parents

Baby Steps

Baby Steps is a parental education programme offered to all new parents from around 26 weeks of pregnancy until the early weeks following birth.

The aim of Baby Steps is to support new parents. You'll learn more about caring for your baby, reduce the stress that often occurs whilst caring for a newborn and better understand their health, development and emotional needs.

This course covers:

baby’s development
parent infant interaction
relationships and support
mental and physical health and wellbeing
the practicalities of parenting
labour and birth
babycare

Both parents are welcomed to nine sessions (six antenatal and three postnatal). We'll visit you at home before the course to explain what the course covers and then again when you complete the course. The whole experience spans over a five month period.

The teams providing the course includes:

FNHC health visitors
midwives
Baby Steps facilitators

The sessions are delivered at a range of venues in town and in the east and west of the island.

If you would like to attend these sessions, speak to your GP or midwife to book a spot before you reach 20 weeks pregnant.

NCT Breastfeeding Helpline

You can get breastfeeding advice and support by calling the NCT Breastfeeding Helpline on +44 (0) 300 33 00 771 . The line is open 8am to 10pm, seven days a week. You can call their volunteers if you have any questions or concerns about breastfeeding.

Breastfeeding Buddies

All pregnant and breastfeeding mums are welcome to Breastfeeding Buddies drop-in centres with their partners or family members to get help about all aspects of breastfeeding. Your midwife or health visitor will be able to give you information about the drop-in groups.

Parenting support services at The Bridge

Parenting support services work in conjunction with the family support workers in primary and secondary schools across the island delivering the Triple P (Positive Parenting Programme).

Triple P doesn't tell you how to be a parent, but it does offer a range of simple strategies and ideas to help you deal with the big and small parenting challenges that are part of family life.

Triple P Positive Parenting helps you:

raise happy, confident children and teenagers
manage behaviour in a positive way
set family rules and routines that everyone follows
get along better with your children or teenagers
balance work and family without stress

We aim to help parents and carers of children up to 18 years. We also deliver a programme for parents and carers of children with special needs. Our programmes can also be delivered in Portuguese.

Brighter Futures

Brighter Futures works in partnership with parenting support services at The Bridge to meet the needs of families and young people effectively. You can be referred into the service and / or you can self refer.

Brighter Futures: parenting support services

Friends of The Bridge

Friends of The Bridge is a charity based at The Bridge. It works in partnership with all agencies based at The Bridge including:

Brighter Futures
Community Midwives
Family Nursing and Home Care
Jersey Childcare Trust
Parenting Support Services

Friends of The Bridge charity

Family Nursing and Home Care

Family nursing and homecare health visitors provide help and support to expectant and new parents and children under 5. They offer advice and information on health topics as well as other services including:

post natal support groups
child health clinics
parentcraft classes (in conjunction with midwives)
baby massage classes.

Nursery nurses working under the direction of health visitors also provide additional support to families. Health visitors also have safe guarding responsibilities and work closely with other agencies such as Children's Services.

Paediatric nurses work with children and their families in their own homes, providing advice and assistance with nursing care and assessment of medical and nursing equipment. These nurses liaise closely with health visitors and hospital staff. The team includes a respite care worker who can provide one to one support or support at the 'Tiddlers Group'.

Family nursing and homecare

NSPCC Jersey Services Centre

The NSPCC is an Island-wide service that provides support to local families. They offer an 8 week group programme called Pregnancy in Mind (PiM), which is designed to support mums and dads to-be who are at risk of, or experiencing, mild to moderate anxiety and depression in the perinatal period.

The programme aims to minimise the impact of anxiety and depression directly on parents themselves, and in this way support them in building a positive relationship with their unborn babies.

NSPCC Jersey Service Centre