Support for Parents going on Parental Leave
Maternity Action – Maternity Action is the UK’s leading charity committed to ending inequality and improving the health and well-being of pregnant women, partners and young children – from conception through to the child’s early years.
Parental Rights at Work – Citizens Advice
Overview for Parental Leave – Working Families; changing the way we live and work
Maternity, Paternity and Adoption Leave and Pay – Acas
Support for Parents Returning to Work
Don’t Underestimate the Power of Women Supporting Each Other at Work by Anne Welsh McNulty
Notes to my younger self as my toddler turns 18 by Lisa Unwin
Mother Pukka by Anna Whitehouse and MattFarquharson
Flexible working pioneers, Anna and Matt have taken a game-changing stand on the way the world works with their #FlexAppeal campaign. They are successfully breaking the outdated 9-5 mould and encouraging more workers and organisations to ask for and trial flexible working. Co-founders of motherpukka.com, the platform for ‘people who happen to be parents’, the parenting duo have also written a Sunday-Times bestselling book called Parenting the Sh*t out of Life”.
Returning to Work – Working Mums
Returning to Work Guide for Parents – NCT
How to Launch a Working Parents’ Support Group in Your Organisation – Harvard Business Review
Working with Parents – NCT
Returning to Work and Reconnecting course – Parents at Work: creating a family friendly future
Parental Support in your area – Bliss: for babies born sick or premature
Free Helpline for Parents and Carers – Working Families; changing the way we live and work
Returning to Work after Children: twelve tips from our experts – The Guardian
Continuing to breastfeed when you return to work – Maternity Action
Breastfeeding after returning to work or study: Information for employees and employers, students and course providers – NHS and Unicef
Tips for Employers and HR Departments
Returning to Work Guide for Employers – NCT
Supporting New Parents in the Workplace – Benenden Health
4 Easy Ways Employers can Support New Mothers in the Workplace – Forbes
Working Forward – Supporting Maternity and Pregnancy Rights – Equality and Human Rights Commission. This document is here to support you in making your workplace the best it can be for pregnant women and new mothers. It offers best practice guidance from Working Forward Founding Members including case studies, advice and top tips.
Information for Employers: Helping a Bereaved Parent Return to Work – Sands
How to Promote Flexible Working & Support Parents Returning to Work – Change
Cityparents is an award-winning organisation providing expertise and support to over 20,000 working parents in corporate roles. Based in London with a global reach, we offer access to a carefully curated programme of expert-led webinars/seminars, articles and resources – all available online and covering a range of relevant careers, wellbeing and parenting topics. All content and webinars are free for Cityparents members with Full or Online Access. Find out more here.
Postnatal Depression
Postnatal depression is a type of depression that many parents experience after having a baby. It’s a common experience, affecting more than 1 in every 10 women within a year of giving birth and can also affect fathers and partners.
Postnatal Depression – NHS
Postnatal Depression and Perinatal Mental Health – MIND
Association for Post Natal Illness – Support Line 0207 386 0868 (open 10:00 – 14:00)
Postnatal Depression Support Groups – Mothers for Mothers
Bereavement Support
Bereaved Parent Support – Caring for the Family
Bereavement Support – The Lullaby Trust. If you would like the opportunity to talk freely, for as long as required, with a sympathetic and understanding listener please call our bereavement support helpline on 0808 802 6868 or email support@lullabytrust.org.uk.
Child Bereavement UK: rebuilding lives together – Helpline 08000288840
Helping Bereaved Parents – The Compassionate Friends
Baby Loss: an honest conversation with Jennie Agg and Elle Wright on Honestly Podcast with Clemmie Telford
This week’s episode marks Baby Loss Awareness Week as Jennie Agg and Elle Wright speak to Clemmie about the heartbreaking experience of baby loss. Navigating this difficult conversation, Clemmie learns how Elle and Jennie’s different experiences of grief have led them to encourage a more open dialogue for other women who have also lost children. This episode is sponsored by Tommy’s, a charity who fund research into preventing miscarriage, stillbirth and premature birth. If you’re affected by any of the themes in this episode, you can find support over at https://www.tommys.org.
Books
This Isn’t What I Expected: Overcoming Postpartum Depression by Karen Kleiman
A major addition to both maternity and psychology literature, here is a guide to self-help and professional treatment of postpartum depression–one of the most misunderstood and misdiagnosed mental illnesses. The authors debunk the myths surrounding PPD and provide compassionate support and solid advice for women with PPD.
Surviving Post-Natal Depression: At Home, No One Hears You Scream by Cara Aiken
Research indicates that at least one in ten new mothers experience post-natal depression, yet there is little help available to sufferers. Cara Aiken’s book will help them, and the professionals who work with them, to understand this illness. The book tells the stories of ten women from very different backgrounds – including the author – who have suffered post-natal depression. Their stories, told honestly and informally, will be a source of strength and hope for other sufferers. The book will also raise awareness of the illness and the destructive effect it can have on individuals and families. It offers positive suggestions and practical advice, based on personal and professional experience. It is a fresh, honest and positive book which will help professionals to understand post-natal depression and will be an invaluable resource for the many mothers who experience it.
Sad Dad: An Exploration of Postnatal Depression in Fathers by Olivia Spencer
Taking in many different perspectives, this book sheds light on the many aspects of postnatal depression in fathers – an unknown subject to many people. It includes a review of recent studies and research in this area, investigating the reasons behind male postnatal depression and how this can effect family relationships. It also examines the the social and psychoanalytic factors which go some way to explaining why men experience this depression as well as women. The book’s author, Olivia Spencer, talks with Michel Odent, a renowned obstetrician, writer, and birth expert.
Daddy Blues: Postnatal Depression and Fatherhood by Mark Williams
Mark Williams led a content life; from a working-class background, he worked his way up into a promising career and then met the love of his life. When his wife Michelle fell pregnant, it seemed as though everything had fallen into place for them. Except Michelle’s labour didn’t go well. She was forced to undergo a C-section, an experience which deeply traumatised both of them. And when it was time to take their child home, Michelle seemed different. Gone was the woman that he had fallen in love with, replaced with someone who couldn’t pull herself out of a deep, dark depression. But it wasn’t just Michelle who felt the baby blues. Mark too felt as though he had lost something, succumbing to feelings of stress, anxiety, and depression. He had never heard of fathers going through postnatal depression, but with a baby that wouldn’t stop crying and a wife he could no longer connect with, he felt like he was losing himself more and more each day. So he found solace in old habits, and found his escape at the bottom of a bottle. A touching story from a rarely explored perspective, Daddy Blues tells the tale of a man learning to deal with a problem he never knew he could have.
How to Fail: Everything I’ve Ever Learned From Things Going Wrong by Elizabeth Day
Novelist and journalist Elizabeth Day’s podcast, How To Fail With Elizabeth Day, is a salvation to an age, as Day puts it, of curated perfection. Celebrating and embracing the moments where life didn’t quite go to plan, Day’s guests (including names such as Dolly Alderton, Lily Allen and Fleabag’s Phoebe Waller-Bridge) have proven that through failure, we truly begin to understand the truth about ourselves. How to Fail is Elizabeth Day’s essential distillation of that knowledge, born through her own acute experiences and the stories of others. Frank, wise and witty, Day walks us through the impossibility of a flawless world to find a place where failure is our strength.
Parenting the Sh*t out of life by Anna Whitehouse and Matt Farquharson
From Mother Pukka and Papa Pukka, the minds behind highly popular parenting blog MotherPukka.co.uk, comes Parenting the Sh*t Out of Life, the Sunday Times bestsellingaccount of parenting told from both perspectives and a handy guide (kind of) on how to raise a small human. It’s the must-read for all parents and parents-to-be – and possibly the best (or worst) baby shower gift you could ever give a prospective mum or dad … This is one couple’s take on the horrors and humour of modern parenting told from his side and hers: honest, sad and laugh-out-loud funny. It will speak to anyone with a child or children of their own – or to those hoping to take that monumental step. It may not be easy and you might have no idea what you are doing but, as the Pukkas demonstrate, with a bit of teeth-gnashing, tongue-chewing and joke-cracking, you too will be parenting the sh*t out of life.
Mind Over Mother: Every mum’s guide to worry and anxiety in the first year by Anna Mathur
Mind Over Mother is a warm and accessible guide to understanding and addressing anxiety in motherhood, for every mother – based on grounded techniques that have been widely tried and tested, but most importantly, have changed the life of the author herself (a mum and psychotherapist).
Podcasts
The Long Road to Baby by BBC Radio 4
Sophie and Jonny take you on their long road to baby. A series of podcasts discussing a range of topics from IVF, adopting, fostering, fertility issues and everything in between.
The Scummy Mummies Podcast by Ellie Gibson and Helen Thorn
A comedy chat show for less-than-perfect parents. Hosted by comedians Ellie Gibson and Helen Thorn and featuring guest parenting experts, comedians and authors. The podcast covers the big issues affecting modern parents – from fish fingers to farting, to play-dates and pelvic floors. Expect frank and funny chat as well as wine, laughter and sophisticated boob jokes. Check out our Scummy Mummies Blog and dates for our Live Comedy Shows – www.scummymummies.com
Happy Mum – Happy Baby by Giovanna Fletcher
Giovanna Fletcher is known for her openness in discussing motherhood and has been an active force in removing the stigma surrounding miscarriage. This theme of openness continues in to her podcast, where she and her celebrity guests chat about the joy of becoming a parent, but without skipping over the bad bits. Funny, supportive and judgement free, Happy Mum, Happy Baby is like a friendly coffee morning you would love to be invited to.
Josie and Jonny are having a Baby with you by Josie Long and Jonny Donahoe
Josie Long & Jonny Donahoe are two comedians who are having a baby! As new parents, Josie and Jonny bring their humor and genuine curiosity into each conversation to get actual answers to questions they’re completely clueless about. Each episode features creators of all types talking candidly about what it means to raise a baby into a full on adult human.
Dadcast – Misadventures of Parenting by Adrian Barry, Nathan Murphy, Dave McIntyre and Ger Gilroy.
Parenting is tough. It’s also hilarious, annoying, brilliant craic, dangerous and soul destroying in small, and sometimes big measures. This podcast is for all the Dads and Mums who know this all too well, or indeed for anyone thinking of becoming a parent, or anyone who knows a parent. Caked in snot and puke this is the unvarnished truth of being a Dad. Dadcast will examine the worst excesses of sleep deprivation, unruly toddlers, inopportune poohs and escaping from the trap of middle age spread. Publishing weekly every Tuesday, or whenever the kids’ chicken pox allows, the Dadcast welcomes your feedback however tangential or nappy-brained.