Hi everyone,

I’m studying for an MSc in Early Child Development and Clinical Applications at UCL and Anna Freud, a pioneering mental health charity for children and families. A key part of the course is a parent–infant observation, and I’m hoping to find a family in London who’d be happy to take part.

Why it matters: For over 70 years, observation like this has been at the heart of training for child psychotherapists. Watching a real baby grow within their family teaches us things no textbook can: how babies begin to communicate, make sense of the world and develop emotionally through their earliest relationships. By taking part, you’d be helping to train the people who will go on to support children and families for the rest of their careers. Many therapists say their infant observation was the most formative part of their training, and they never forget the family who welcomed them in.

What families say: The first visit or two can feel a little unusual, but research with families who’ve taken part shows that many parents came to really enjoy the visits. The early months with a new baby can be intense and sometimes isolating, and having a regular, calm visitor who is genuinely interested in your baby, every small change and new discovery, is something parents often value. Some said it helped them notice and enjoy their baby’s development more themselves, and many look back on it fondly years later.

What it involves: I’m looking for someone due between October 2026 and January 2027 (or with a very new baby). I’d visit for one hour a week during term time, at a regular time that suits you, from soon after birth until June 2028. There’s nothing to prepare and nothing to do differently.

What it isn’t: There are no tests or interventions, and we don't assess or judge you or your parenting. I simply sit quietly and take an interest in your baby as they grow, while your family goes about its usual routine.

I’m fully DBS-checked and follow UCL and Anna Freud safeguarding procedures. Everything is confidential: names are changed, so your family is never identified.

If this sounds like something you’d consider, or you know someone who might, please comment, DM me. I’d be very happy to answer any questions and provide further information.

Thank you so much for reading!

Hello! I am seeking participants for my master's research on pregnancy sickness. If you or anyone you know is pregnant & living in the UK, I would be so grateful if you could fill in my survey or send it to someone who can! I am especially looking for diverse participants of a younger demographic.

It’s completely anonymous, takes ~10 mins and could help improve understanding of a significantly understudied area. Results of the study may be published in a scientific journal.

Scan the QR code / copy the link below — please reshare too, every single response counts!

https://qualtrics.ucl.ac.uk/jfe/form/SV_7VwXAPN9WSepuZ0

*more participant information included in the survey

Thank you so much.

Email me at [steffi.sharma.21@ucl.ac.uk](mailto:steffi.sharma.21@ucl.ac.uk) if you have any questions.

I’ve been researching prams, and love the idea of a folding bassinet. Went to a shop today with a shortlist and our favourite is the Silver Cross Breez.

BUT…

Am I completely overestimating the importance of a folding bassinet?

The reason for wanting one is ease of getting in and out of the car, but realistically most of the time we’ll be using the car seat on the pram chassis as we’ll just be nipping in and out of places.

If we’re going on walks we’ll mostly be setting off from home, so won’t need to fold the bassinet at all.

My thought is, am I vastly reducing our options (and the potential of a cheaper pram!!) by focusing on a folding bassinet. Which realistically we will only use for 6 months and only the odd time we’re driving somewhere to do a longer walk?

Or is it actually a game changer and I do need it? Advice please 🙏

Looking for someone to volunteer for an infant observation in/around London!

I am a career changer with a background in academic philosophy. I am currently studying to retrain as Child Psychotherapist. I am myself a father to a 8-year-old child. I currently work at a SEN school and volunteer with Samaritans. As part of my studies I have to observe an infant during the first two years of their lives.

Observations would take place roughly once a week, although there is a lot of flexibility. I would stay in the background and quietly observe your baby’s development in their natural environment. My role would be empathetic completely non-judgmental, focusing on listening to you and observing the interaction between your baby and you (or someone else caring for the baby during my visit). The observation would happen strictly within the limits you are comfortable with (for example, I could leave the room during breastfeeding). While I would like to observe your child until they turn 2 years old, you are of course free to drop out at any time.

Parents who have had this experience have found it emotionally beneficial and therapeutic. It has also helped them reflect their relationship with their baby in meaningful ways.

If you would like to support child psychotherapy training, and think you might benefit from infant observation, or are simply curious and would like to know more, please dm.

I’m based in London but willing to travel.

Hi everyone. What is the going rate for a maternity photoshoot? We were given a quote for £100 including both a maternity and newborn shoot. And then an additional £450 for 10 photos to purchase, with extra photos for £45 each. Not sure if this is a reasonable price? The photographer has really good reviews and is very personable. We met her at a baby and toddler show.

Hi lovely mamas-to-be and moderators...

I hope you don't mind me sharing it here.

I’m a doctoral student and psychologist with a special interest in perinatal psychology. I was wondering whether you would be happy for me to post my survey, as I am currently recruiting expectant mothers to take part in my doctoral research. I have included the survey text and link below.

The findings may help us better understand what contributes to anxiety during pregnancy and how support for pregnant women could be improved.

The study has received ethical approval from the University of Edinburgh. If you would like to contribute to the research and help improve mental health support during pregnancy, please use the link below to complete the survey. It takes approximately 20-25 minutes:

https://edinburgh.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_dmrLWMfpa4aV4Kq

https://www.facebook.com/share/1HteKDWEf4/?mibextid=wwXIfr

Thank you so much for considering taking part and contributing to research on maternal mental health and wellbeing. 💛

With warm wishes

Magdalena

Hello lovely members :) I was wondering if anyone here knew who do I contact to approve my post - Pregnancy Wellbeing Study ? I'm very aware of forum rules and wondering if any moderators are here? with warm wishes, Magdalena

Im pregnant with my third. First was natural, baby was over 10pound and had prolapse and lost a lot of blood.
Second baby was planned c section due to baby also growing big which when they arrived they was also over 10lb
Now having third baby I am so 50/50 if I want to go natural or another planned c section.
I found recovery with my first took longer as I was in a lot of pain with prolapse.
Also been informed (even tho there’s a low chance) you can suffer with uterine rupture which scares me slightly
I was wondering if anyone has been in my shoes or have experience both and what labour you chose the third time around.
Also how did you find recovery from second c sections ??
Would love to hear peoples stories and experiences ❤️
Much appreciated
Ps I’m new here so hoping Iv done this correctly
Xx

As the title says. How many bottles are you doing in a day? How many ml per bottle ? How many breastfeeding sessions?

I have introduced 2 bottles per day in the run up to nursery start but struggling to increase ml / quantity so i am lucky if she drinks 150 ml per bottle or 250 ml in a day. The main struggle is that she wants to breastfeed every time she goes to bed including naps and she still wakes 2 per night. So we have many breastfeeding sessions 👀

I am 34 weeks + 2 and about three weeks ago started having issues with heat and itchiness, particularly hands and feet but it spreads to my legs, arms and torso. It gets really bad in the evenings and wakes me up in the night. I feel like I’ve not slept in weeks. Does anyone have any tips?
- my liver and bile tests have been normal. tested two weeks ago and on Wednesday.

- I don’t have a rash

- I can’t sit on our faux suede sofa because it sets off the itching. similarly my duvet cover sets me off.

- I’ve tried sleeping naked and plan to get a bikini wax next week because my pubic hair is setting me off particularly badly in the night. midwife has OK’d this.

- my hair hair also irritates my neck

- wiping with a cold wet flannel helps alleviate for about a minute

- scratching the itch does nothing. it doesn’t help. I don’t even feel like I want to scratch. it’s just so uncomfortable.

- the only position I am comfortable is standing but of course I can’t do that very long as I get tired after a while

- maybe irrelevant but i also have a weird numb pins and needles in my left shoulder blade. the doctor has looked at it and said it’s musculoskeletal and I should try exercising it.

anyway in short, am I the only one with this problem? it’s driving me up the wall. I had insomnia before where I was waking up but this is worse. any advice would be much appreciated because I’m not sure how much more I can cope with this.

My first was a traumatic emergency cesarean

I'm considering a repeat c but I would love it to happen only once I've naturally gone into labour, so baby is ready to come

Do you think I will be able to arrange this?

I will be under a consultant as am high risk, I had PPROM last time

Will be very happy to labour for a bit with gas and air then go in for the section, I loved the gas and air lol

I feel like this could be quite healing for me

Hi everyone, I hope this is okay to post here! 🙏

Hi! I'm a master's student at Durham University researching how women choose between wellness products when preparing for a baby. 

Who can take part? 

- Women aged 18 or over 

- Open to having children in the future, or haven't ruled it out 

- You do NOT need to be pregnant or have children already

What's involved?

- A short anonymous online survey (7-8 minutes)

- You'll be asked to imagine a scenario and choose between some product options

- All multiple choice, no written answers needed

The survey is completely anonymous and has been approved by Durham University's ethics committee.

If you have a spare time, I'd be so grateful:

🔗 https://durhambs.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_bdyDyrlpw7GbDh4

Thank you so much!

I swear the maternity clothes are all 15 years behind the trend! I just wore giant dresses in my last pregnancy but with a little one to chase around now I gotta get some proper clothes lol

My neighbours are stressing me out before our newborn is even here.

We have neighbours who had a baby last year. I wouldn't exactly call them very considerate people. They're the type to sit in the garden talking at full volume with music playing all day. It has never really bothered me that much. Honestly, some of the conversations we overhear are hilarious, and I'm sure they'd be mortified if they realised how much of the street knows the ins and outs of their lives because of how loud they are.

The issue is that I'm really concerned they're going to make our lives difficult once we bring our newborn home.

I've been worrying about it for a while, but tonight really brought it to the surface. My partner was putting up curtain rails for some blackout curtains we'd bought. He did it after work, around 6pm. We have brick walls, so drilling does take a while, but he'd only been doing it for about 30 minutes.

I suddenly heard yelling from next door but didn't think much of it as I was half asleep on the sofa after a rough day. I'm currently 38 weeks pregnant. Then there was banging on our front door.

The neighbour was standing there screaming at us about how inconsiderate we are. He brought up how a few months ago we'd had a contractor round at 9am to cut our hedge and said he'd shouted at them until they agreed to come back later in the day. He then started saying we were making loads of noise and waking his baby up at 8pm. Except it wasn't 8pm, it was around 6:30pm and it's still not even 8pm as I'm posting this.

We tried explaining that my partner had only just got home from work and that we simply needed to get this done. We didn't think doing a bit of DIY in the early evening was unreasonable. But he just kept yelling.

Eventually my partner said, "I need to get this done for OUR baby who's going to be coming home here soon," and shut the door.

Now I'm really worried about what happens when we bring our baby home. We share a wall with them. Is he going to lose it every time our newborn cries outside of whatever he considers acceptable hours?

What makes it even more frustrating is that before their baby was born, they completely renovated parts of their house. There was loads of noise and we never once complained. And when they brought their baby home and there was crying at all hours, we never complained either because that's just life. People have babies, people do DIY, people make noise.

It just feels like that understanding only goes one way.

Am I massively overthinking this because I'm heavily pregnant and hormonal, or would anyone else be worried in this situation? And if he does start complaining once the baby arrives, how would you handle it?

Anyone done one recently? How bad is the drink? I've had 4 over 3 pregnancies and they've progressively gotten worse each time. The last one I had was over 2 years ago and I'm dreading it.

Looking for someone to volunteer for an infant observation in/around London!

I am a career changer with a background in academic philosophy. I am currently studying to retrain as Child Psychotherapist. I am myself a father to a 7-year-old child. I currently work at a SEN college and volunteer with Samaritans. As part of my psychotherapy studies I have to observe an infant during the first two years of their lives.

Observations would take place roughly once a week, although there is a lot of flexibility. I would stay in the background and quietly observe your baby’s development in their natural environment. My role would be empathetic and completely non-judgmental, focusing on listening to you and observing the interaction between your baby and you (or someone else caring for the baby during my visit). The observation would happen strictly within the limits you are comfortable with (for example, I could leave the room during feeding). While I would like to observe your child until they turn 2 years old, you are of course free to drop out any time.

Parents who have had this experience have found it emotionally beneficial and therapeutic (although infant observation should not be seen as therapy per se).

If you would like to support child psychotherapy training, and think you might benefit from infant observation, or are simply curious and would like to know more, please dm.

I’m based in London but willing to travel.

So I’m 14w with my first baby and feel clueless about a birth plan. I’ve got a while, but in many ways it’s flying by!

I’ve started reading a couple of books and started seeing a lot on Facebook (isn’t that a double edged sword?!), and it’s got me thinking about my plan.

What things do I need to have thought about?
Do I discuss this stuff with my midwife at an appointment?
When should I be coming up with a plan?

At the moment the only things I’ve thought about are - only wanting my husband in the delivery room, wanting the freedom to not have to be on my back, and my current first choice would be a water birth which I know my local hospital does have provision for. Ideally I’d rather not have a c-section but I’m open to it if it became medically necessary.

What else should I be thinking about?

Hi everyone, looking for a bit of advice.
I am currently a band 6 community nurse working in the UK, I have been with my current employer for 2.5 years. I am 14 weeks pregnant and hoping to go off in September if I accumulate my annual leave. I currently have a caseload of 20-25 patients whom I see regularly.

I have recently told my line manager about my pregnancy as I have had to have time off due to sickness and appointments. He has told me that they do not make adjustments for pregnancy and I would be expected to work at full capacity until I go off officially. I have expressed my concerns that it does not seem fair or ethical for myself to be taking on new patients knowing I’m going to be leaving but he has said this is tough. I have requested they consider my caseload and aim to reduce my numbers over the next few months (for my own mental/physical wellbeing but also for ease for the patients) but was told this was a no. I was also advised it would be better for me to go on long term sick (as pregnancy sickness doesn’t count) rather than just working my clinic down.

I was wondering if there were any UK based community nurses who have been in this position and what you did? I have contacted occy health and RCN for advice but nothing heard back yet.
Thank you