After your baby is born, you will receive support from a team of nurses and midwives, until your child reaches five years and starts school.
Start for Life
We have made it easy for everyone to access free health and community services to help their baby, infant and child get the best start for life at Hackney’s Children and Family Hubs.
- Start for Life website
- Sign up to Start for Life weekly emails
- Find your local Children and Family Hub or Children’s Centre
Your child’s journey from birth to five
You can get local help, information and activities tailored to every age and stage of your child’s development, from birth up to 5 years.
Health visiting
The Health Visiting Team is led by the Health Visitor and includes nursery nurses and public health nurses, all with specialist training in family and public health.
The team offers support and advice from pregnancy until your child is five years old, based on personalised assessment of the family’s needs. This may include connecting you to other specialists such as psychologists or speech and language therapists.
Infant feeding
We work in partnership with a range of services to deliver a blended offer of advice and support that will help parents understand the benefits of breastfeeding and meet their infant feeding goals.
Fathers, co-parents and carers can also receive support to ensure they are included and feel confident in supporting their partner.
Our health partners and Children and Family Hub team is trained to the UNICEF Baby Friendly Initiative Standards which aims to:
- Support pregnant women with information about feeding and caring for their baby and developing close and loving relationships from pregnancy onwards
- Enable prolonged breastfeeding
- Support mothers to make informed decisions about introducing non-breastmilk foods and fluids
- Support close and loving parent-baby relationships
You can also get free equipment hire and personalised assistance on infant feeding, hunger cues, starting solids and weaning from our Children and Family Hubs.
- Information about free infant feeding support at Children and Family Hubs
Further advice:
Mental health services
You can access support for common problems with your child’s emotional wellbeing, relationships and behaviour.