From Nigeria to Leeds, “I am one of those statistics” – Mum shares her baby week experience
From Nigeria to Leeds – becoming a parent
Every year we meet parents and carers from all walks of life. We hear stories, we hear feedback on how to improve and we hear brilliant examples of where things have gone well. A few years ago, Chinazom attended the Baby Week launch with her two year old son Daniel. She had heard about baby week through her local children’s centre in Seacroft. as children centres and family hubs are a key part of the Baby Week partnership. Chinazom who is originally from Nigeria and has lived in Leeds for several years, had her son in lockdown and was linking her experience to the statistics – ‘I was listening to Nicola talking about the lockdown inequalities and especially focusing her presentation on the health needs and the impact of the pandemic in Leeds in my area. Nicola who worked at Leeds City Council touched upon the greater challenges in accessing services – and I was thinking ‘I’m one of those women, I am one of those statistics’!
Giving birth in Leeds during lockdown
Chinazom spoke about giving birth and leaving the hospital in the same day. She understood the risk to minimize increase in infection was high during lockdown but said there was a big difference between having her first two children and Daniel. She has been measuring the growth patterns against her other two children and wonders if her son has met the same physical and mental milestones of development. It’s hard to tell as he has older brothers to support his learning such as speaking for him, but he definitely learnt to crawl sooner. Maybe this has something to do with staying in the same safe environment for longer.
Accessing services & support in Leeds
Chinazom who enjoys attending the Seacroft children centre and libraries understands the value of local family services and urges mums and dads to make the most of what is on offer. ‘You have to make sure you don’t feel isolated there are services that can help you and that you’re not alone!’
Make use of the baby buddy app which helped provide a listening ear – and that it was okay to cry.
Find out what’s on through local children centre’s and libraries.
In Leeds, Child Friendly Leeds have a blog and social media accounts
There are many health related websites and support links
Baby Week hosts a Global parent panel
As part of the theme of the week, ‘identity and culture’, we hosted a Q&A panel with four parents from different backgrounds (including heritage from Afghanistan, Chile, Hong Kong, France and mixed African heritage) who had different experiences of raising children in Leeds. We worked with the Leeds City Council Resettlement team and thanks to Leeds Dads to put on such an informative session.
The panel highlighted the positives of the provision here in Leeds with the parents describing their experiences accessing support networks, developing relationships with healthcare professionals and . They also discussed some of the things they felt are missing in Leeds. Many attendees including service providers, activity organisers, senior decision makers in children services and public health, voice and influence leads and NHS colleagues.
Below, some of the sentiments from the panel are shared below:
I liked how I had the same midwife all the way through. It is very different from Afghanistan where it’s very procedural and formal.
– Mum from Afghanistan
It would be great for Dads to have more options around paternity leave. Women can attach paid holiday leave on the back of maternity leave, which can be vital in those first months, but men don’t have that choice.
– Dad originally from Hong Kong
The people who need support the most are those who aren’t reached enough, like young parents and parents whose English is a second and third language.
– Parent from mixed African heritage
In our shoes
The In Our Shoes report, which was Victoria Eaton’s first annual report as Director of Public Health for Leeds, has been commended by the Association of Directors of Public Health (ADPH). The Chief Executive of the ADPH said: “This report gives a powerful snapshot of the inequity of outcomes for children and young people in the city.”
