West Swindon Family Hub

Tomorrow we have breastfeeding support from 10am until 11:30am. Please try to arrive by 11am, if you want feeding support.

This will be followed by support choosing and using slings, with Swindon and Devizes Sling Library, from 11:30am until 1pm.

Even if you don't need any support with feeding or wearing your baby in a sling, you are still more than welcome to come along and chat to other parents, or to weigh your baby on our scales.

Kathryn Stutely is a mum of two, a birth and postnatal doula, an ABM Breastfeeding Counsellor and a Babywearing Consultant. She is also a qualified Nursery Nurse, and has trained as a maternity/nursing bra fitter. And she can be found at the West Swindon Family Hub most weeks.

As well as providing breastfeeding support, she also holds drop-in maternity/nursing bra fitting sessions (usually on the first Monday of each month).

Kathryn also brings Swindon and Devizes Sling Library to the Hub (usually on the second and fouth Mondays of each month), allowing parents to try on and/or to hire the library's slings. She can also help parents out with using their own slings.

And as Kathryn is a Nursery Nurse and Doula, she's also a good person to chat to about your options for birth, or any concerns you may have about your baby or toddler's development or behaviour.

IBCLC Elena Rossi is a mum of three, an NCT Breastfeeding Counsellor, an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant (IBCLC) and an amazing cook! And she can be found at the West Swindon Family Hub most weeks, providing feeding support.

As well as providing breastfeeding support, she also holds baby-led weaning talks, around every 3 months. Her next baby-led weaning talk will be on Monday 17th August.

This coming Monday, we will be having a talk titled 'An Introduction to Understanding How Parents Can Influence Their Baby's/Child's Brain Development', with IBCLC Elena Rossi.

Breastfeeding support will be available, as always, from 10am until 11:30am, and the scales will be out for anyone to weigh their babies.

Keep those babies safe in the heat wave.

And if you have any question about slings, Swindon and Devizes Sling Library will be at the Hub this coming Monday.

It is tempting in this hot weather to use sling hoods to shade your baby from the sun. But care must be taken that using a hood does not reduce air flow, trapping hot air in the sling, and that you can still see baby's face.

Hoods made of thick heavy material are the equivalent of putting a heavy blanket over yourself. It may protect you from getting sun burnt, but it will likely cause heat exhaustion (and possibly even heat stroke). Even lightweight hoods will trap hot air, increasing the temperature under the hood, and causing baby to constantly re-breath the same air. And if the hood prevents you from seeing their face, your won't notice if they get themselves into a position where their mouth and/or nose are obstructed.

Regardless of the weather, hoods (or any other part of your sling) should not stop your baby from being able to move their head. Ideally slings should not come up past the nape of your baby's neck.

Never put both sides of the hood up at a the same time. If you do use a hood, always make sure that only the side side behind their head is up. This means if your baby turns their head, while the hood is up, you will need to adjust the hood accordingly.

If you are worried your child's head will get burned, stay indoors, seek out the shade, use a parasol/umbrella, put a lightweight hat on them, or hold a muslin behind their head, in such a way that you can still see their face.

Here's what's coming up over the next few weeks:

Tomorrow, at the Hub, we will have breastfeeding support available from 10am until 11:30am. Please try to arrive by 11am, if you want feeding support.

We will also have maternity and nursing bra fitting, with Optimum Nursing Bras going on from 11am until 1pm.

As always, the scales will be out for anyone to use, to weigh their baby.

The Hub is run as a drop-in and is totally free to attend, including the bra fitting. Although you do have to pay for any bras you wish to take home!

So sorry to have to do this with such little notice, but with two of our volunteers on holiday, and now a third unexpectedly unable to guarantee she can attend, we have taken the decision not to run tomorrow (29th June).

Enjoying a cooling breeze, from the fan, here at the Hub.