Oldham early attachment service works to understand and support the relationship between you and your baby.
We can work with you during your pregnancy and until your baby’s second birthday.
Whether you are a mum or a dad, parenthood brings with it complex new relationships and challenging experiences that can be hard to manage.
You may be worried about your relationship with your baby or the changes to your life and family.
We recognise that there are things that can make getting to know and connect with your baby more difficult.
For example, feeling depressed or anxious during pregnancy or after your baby arrives. Past experiences, complex family relationships and birth trauma can all have an effect on the way you relate to your baby and how you feel about being a parent.
Our team is made up of clinical psychologists, specialist parent infant health visitors, child psychotherapists, therapeutic social workers and a speech and language therapist, who have expertise in supporting parent-infant relationships.
We work in the community and we see families in children’s centres, family hubs and in their homes across Oldham.
We work with you and your baby, to think about your experience and to understand and explore your relationship.
We will agree a way forward together. This may be working with you for a small number of sessions, or we may offer you longer term therapeutic support. There may be times when it is more useful for us to work with the professional network involved in your care.
Our service offers:
· Enhanced specialist assessments
· A range of therapeutic interventions with parents and babies
· We can work directly with other professionals (such as midwives, Health Visitors and GPs) to support the network around you. This is offered through consultation, supervision and training.
If you think we could help you, the first step is to speak to your midwife, health visitor, GP or social worker - as they can make a referral.
Once they have contacted us, we will arrange to speak with them to check we are the best service to support you.
We are open Monday—Friday, 9am—5pm.
If you would like support for a family or would like to discuss a referral to our service, you can contact us by emailing: pcn-tr.oldhameas@nhs.net or calling 0161 716 2085
We also offer a range of training, consultation and supervision, to ensure that the parent-infant relationship is kept in mind.
Your Baby and You has been written by families and professionals together, with information, videos and things to help you to get to know and understand your baby.
Take your time to read through the content during pregnancy, and remember to revisit it following birth.