Sheffield City Council’s family hub is celebrating why Sheffield is a great place to have a baby.
The event that took place at Sheffield’s Winter Gardens showcased a range of help from community breastfeeding support to charities for new dads.
The UK has some of the lowest breastfeeding rates with only one per cent being breastfed exclusively at six months.
Infant feeding lead for Sheffield City Council, Noel Elamrani said: “ I think it is really important first of all to celebrate what we are doing but also to be out there you know for parents to find out what other services are available today. We’ve got a range of people who are sharing the services provided, so we’ve got Jessup Wing, which is maternity services, we’ve got colleagues from holistic services, we’ve got family hubs of course where lots of activities are provided for parents and children and mothers, so I think it’s really important to have a presence.
“We have got breastfeeding-friendly spaces as well, breastfeeding is natural but it can be quite challenging and sometimes women find it difficult to do it in public places.”
The event had live music for children from the Concerteenies and had activities for parents and children to bond while learning about what was going on.
New Parents, Anna and Simon said: “It gets you more connected to the other mothers and fathers here and it is such a bonus to have something like this and get connected to more people. It’s awesome here.”
Steel City Dads Peer Support Facilitator, Niall Bacon said: “I run dad’s stay and play sessions on a Saturday, so dads that go to work, can then come along and have that time to bond with their child and do a bit of parenting and also talk to each other, meet other dads often, moms will be on maternity leave and meet other mums and having all these amazing interactions and talking about parenting and dad’s miss out on that, so hopefully by coming to things like this, they can benefit from that.”
The event also allowed for conversation from parents to the family hub with suggestions on how to improve, and for mothers and fathers to become involved in the Sheffield City Council family hub.
