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Support when the baby is born

There’s no rule book for raising a family and sometimes it can be overwhelming. You may be worried about how you will cope once you’ve had your baby. There are a number of different support services that may be able to help, these include:

Your midwife or health visitor – they can offer support and advice as well as put you in touch with local groups where you can meet new mums and get help. There’s a midwife specifically for teenage parents to make sure they get all the support and help needed.

Social Services – they can assess if you need extra support, this could be nursery, day care or one to one support in your home. They can also give advice on benefits and housing. 

Home-Start – this is a charity that offers confidential one-to-one support, friendship and practical help to young families. It’s run by local, trained volunteers who are carefully matched with families who need support.  You can contact Home-Start yourself to ask for support or you can ask your midwife, health visitor, GP, teacher or support worker to refer you.  In Wakefield, Home-Start is based at:

Belle Vue Business Centre, Elm Tree Street, Belle Vue, WF1 5EP.

Their contact number is 01924 887071 and their email is homestartwakefield@live.co.uk.

Children’s Centres – offer lots of different support to do with early years education, childcare and family support. Children’s Centres offer advice on parenting, childcare options and child and family health services plus much more. There are 17 Children Centres across the Wakefield district. To find your nearest one visit:

Wakefield FIS or ring 0800 587 8042

Connexions – offers information and advice for young people aged 13 – 19, including info about being a young parent. You can speak to a personal advisor at your local Connexions Centre.  There are three in the district –

Barnado’s Young Families Plus (Wakefield) – provides practical help, support and advice to local pregnant teenagers and young families under 20. Based at:

Snapethorpe Family Centre in Lupset you can contact them on 01924 304152.

If you have a partner, family and friends talk to them to see if they might be able to help once the baby is born. This could be anything from help doing the shopping to looking after the baby.

If you are going to be bringing up the baby on your own the Child Support Agency will want to know the name of the child’s father to make sure that he contributes to the cost of the child’s care.

If you are still in education you may want to continue this as many further education colleges offer mums a crèche.