The first 1001 days of a child’s life are crucial for their development and wellbeing. Having access to caring relationships and support networks can help a child’s brain develop in a healthy way.

New parents who experience adversity, such as domestic abuse, may need additional help to build these support networks for their child. 

This is the first part in a two-part podcast discussion focusing on For Baby’s Sake, a service which provides therapeutic and trauma-informed support to expectant parents who have experienced domestic abuse.

You'll hear from Ged Docherty, a Team Manager at For Baby’s Sake Blackpool, and Colin Smy, Development Manager at Blackpool Better Start. The discussion explores how early intervention services can support families through adversity and give babies the best start in life.

Part two is available here.

You can read this episode’s transcript on the NSPCC Learning website.

💬 About the speakers

Colin Smy is Development Manager at Blackpool Better Start. Blackpool Better Start is a 10-year National Lottery funded programme to transform services in the town and change childhoods through lived experience, science, and evidence. The Centre for Early Child Development is the research and development hub of Blackpool Better Start, and provides a whole systems approach to delivering universal services, early help, and specialist support.

Ged Docherty is Team Manager at For Baby’s Sake. For Baby’s Sake is a programme for expectant parents that takes a whole-family approach, starting in pregnancy and dealing with the entire cycle and history of domestic abuse, identifying and directly addressing the trauma or traumas that lie at the heart of the problem.

📚 Related resources

> Find out more about For Baby’s Sake

> Find out more about Blackpool Better Start

> Learn more about how childhood trauma affects child brain development

> Take the NSPCC’s elearning course on trauma and child brain development

> Take the NSPCC’s safeguarding elearning course for anyone working with under 1s and families in the antenatal or postnatal period

Intro/outro music is Lights by Sappheiros