Yoga and massage project to help mums in mother and baby unit
Mums on a mother and baby unit are benefiting from the chance to join a regular yoga class and take part in baby massage.
Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trusts Kingfisher Mother and Baby Unit (MBU) at Hellesdon Hospital has teamed up with Jackie Heffer-Cooke, who describes herself as yoga and well-being educator and an academic in social development, to offer the free weekly sessions at SunFyr Barns just outside Norwich. The first session was held on Monday 8 September.
Somayya Kajee, Consultant Perinatal Psychiatrist on the MBU, who had been a yoga student of Jackie's and also knew her via the Maternity Voice Partnership at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital, contacted her to find out if there was a way she could support the MBU with her experience of hypnobirthing, pregnancy yoga, baby yoga, postnatal yoga and baby massage.
She said: Jackie has recently received funding from The National Lottery Community Fund to work with mums, babies and children in the community and those during pregnancy. She came to the ward to find out how best we could make the partnership work for the benefit of the mums on our wards.
Jackie said: The MBU project is the result of my not-for-profit community interest company, Freedom Wellbeing Project, getting funding for this SunFyr Community Project.
Her inspiration to take her skills out to the community came about during lockdown. I had been running classes and retreats but the people who came along were only those who could afford it, she said. In lockdown I started to think how fortunate I was and how tough it is for others and that it should be about sharing what I do for the wellbeing of the community.
The yoga sessions will be held weekly from September to December to give mums the chance to get out in the community and also the opportunity to enjoy a coffee or tea and a chat in the café after the sessions.
The sessions will be tailored to which mums come along and the age of their babies said Somayya. She said feedback from service users has been positive. The mums are really excited about it and recognise that an holistic approach to recovery including exercise is great for their care.
They have also said they are looking forward to getting off the wards to socialise and enjoy the normalcy of just having a coffee in the community.
Part of the funding Jackie has secured will be used to train staff to run yoga and baby massage sessions at the MBU in Hellesdon.
Somayya said: We have interest from staff all across the perinatal service to learn these new skills which is really encouraging.
MBU Clinical Lead Mandy Kirby said: We are grateful to have been able to start these conversations around the importance of physical health and social interactions for the mums. We are also delighted that staff have been given this opportunity.
NSFT Chief Nurse Anthony Deery praised the MBU staff for their new initiative and how it would help mums and their babies. This is a great way of expanding what we can offer within the MBU with the aim of aiding recovery for our service users.