Suffolk and North East Essex Maternity Strategy

Join our feeding forum to talk all things feeding.  Post your comments, thoughts and questions and share your experiences with this supportive community.  With feeding peer supporters, specialist midwives and health visitors taking part in the forum, there is no better place to talk about how we give our babies and our families the best start.

Being pregnant can be a stressful and worrying time for many, but this can be made even more challenging if you have to manage a health condition alongside your pregnancy.

From type 1 diabetes, to epilepsy, to auto immune disease, to long term mental health conditions the impact of your health condition on you pregnancy can be significant.

Join our forum to share you thoughts, ask questions and off load your concerns.  Supported by a team of healthcare professionals, this forum is a place for you to seek support and guidance and to help shape the future services for other pregnant people with a long term health condition

Some babies need specialist care to help them to have the best possible start.

This can be a really difficult time for parents, and we would like to understand how this experience could be improved in the future. Where did you and your baby have to travel for your care? Where did you stay? Were you kept informed? How were you supported to bond with your baby? And how were you supported when your baby came out of neonatal care?

Supported by our pediatrician colleagues and our partners in children and young people's services this forum is for you to share your experience and help shape the future experiences for other parents and their babies.

A healthy lifestyle is never more important than when you are preparing to become pregnant and during your pregnancy.

In this forum you are invited to share with us your thoughts, questions and comments on the challenges of having a healthy pregnancy.

Smoking cessation, alcohol consumption, healthy diet and regular exercise can all cause challenges in the journey to becoming a parent.

Supported by our colleagues from midwifery, public health and the Voluntary and Community and Social Enterprise Sector (VCSE) this forum is a space to understand what worked for you, how we could improve things for the future.

Do you work in maternity and neonatal services?  We would like to hear from you.  Tell us what you feel you need to deliver the care and support to the families you work with and importantly, what do you need in order to feel valued and appreciated in your work.

Having the baby is just the beginning of the amazing journey of parenthood.  It's not always plain sailing and it can sometimes be a very challenging time.

What do we need to know so that parents and families feel supported, reassured and connected during the early days of managing with a new baby?

Do you work with pregnant people and/or new parents?  If so, we would love to hear from you.

Pregnancy yoga, baby signing classes, support groups, exercise classes, baby massage, the list goes on.  All of these activities and many more can help to make the experience of pregnancy and parenthood  happier and healthier.

We would like to hear your thoughts, as people working in the maternity and neonatal world, outside of the NHS, what works for you? What would you like to see change? And how can we ensure that your contribution is valued?