Who are the Early Parenthood Specialist Nurses

The nurses within the service have specialist skills and knowledge of working with families in pregnancy and early childhood. They come from a variety of nursing backgrounds including Adult, Children’s and Community Children’s Nursing, Midwifery and Health Visiting, Sexual Health Nursing, the Child and Adolescent Mental Health service and the Youth Justice Service.

It is the aim of the Blackpool Pregnancy and Early Childhood partnership that all families are supported to be the best they can be by receiving the right support at the right time from the right people. We know that sometimes people who have had challenging or difficult life experiences may benefit from some extra support and encouragement as they start or continue on their journey into parenthood.

The Early Parenthood Service will therefore offer support to:

• Parents who have had very difficult experiences within childhood into adulthood, some of whom may be care experienced
• Parents with children no longer in their care
• Parents who are under 17 years of age
• Parents who are isolated with limited or no support from family or peers
• Parents who have additional support needs and/or disabilities and may require help to provide consistent care
• Parents who have higher levels of vulnerability and whose lifestyles may often be characterised by high levels of risk, such as those parents who are supported by the Changing Futures Team, meaning that they need extra support to provide safe or predictable care for their children

We know mums, dads, partners and other family and support networks are important to babies, so we welcome any of your close support network to be with you at visits if you wish.

Our aim is to support you to have a healthy pregnancy, plan for labour and your baby’s birth, improve your child’s health and development, build positive relationships with your baby and others, consider lifestyle choices that give you and your child the best possible start in life, develop support networks in the community and work with you to identify and achieve your goals.

If you do decide to have an Early Parenthood nurse, she will meet with you regularly at a time that suits you. Your visits will start during pregnancy right through until your child is around three months old. The length of time you work with your nurse and the frequency of visits will be personalised to you and your family’s individual situation. Throughout this time, you and your nurse will work on lots of different aspects of your pregnancy and becoming a parent, including parent-child attachment, feeding you baby including breastfeeding, immunising your baby, caring for you baby, developing health relationships and your child’s development

Your nurse will fit the visits around you and your baby’s needs, helping to improve your self-confidence as well as supporting you on other issues such as mental health, anxiety, housing and stopping smoking.

It is important your work with your nurse is tailor made for you and relevant to what is happing in your life and the stage your pregnancy or baby is at. Your nurse will use a tool called the Outcomes Star. This will help you both to talk about where you are on your journey of being a parent, consider the things that are going well, and discuss the things that maybe are a challenge for you. Together you and your nurse can plan the goals you would like to work towards and what you would like to discuss during the visits to support you to achieve your goals.

The Early Parenthood nurses work with outside agencies and can signpost you to relevant services for example, Family Hubs, community connectors, dad’s workers. They also work alongside midwives and health visitors. Your nurse will work with you to ensure you receive the right support from the right people at the right time. This is particularly important when your time with the Early Parenthood Service comes to an end, to ensure you continue you journey as parents with the support that is right for you.

The Early Parenthood Nurses are guided by the Nursing and Midwifery Council Code. Your visits with your Early Parenthood Nurse are confidential however they have a safeguarding responsibility. They are alert to signs of neglect and abuse and have a duty to report any concerns they may have. The Early Parenthood Nurse must follow safeguarding procedures if the nurse thinks that there may be risk of significant harm.

Your nurse will always discuss any concerns with you first before making any referrals unless under exceptional circumstances it would not be safe for you or your baby to do so.