We meet with you and your baby or child to see how we can help.
We can come to your home, or meet you somewhere nearby, like a children’s centre or health centre.

When working with pregnancy and infants under the age of two, we can meet and think about what might be helpful and how long we might be working together for. We’ll decide this together. Our support is aimed at helping you understand your baby’s feelings and how you feel about being their parent.

We can help you build a strong and loving bond with your baby, supporting their feelings as they grow.

We might:

• Watch how your baby shows their feelings, their likes and dislikes
• Talk about how you respond to baby and why
• Use things such as video or play to show the strengths in your relationship

We’ll always make a plan with you to help you be the parent you want to be.

When working with toddlers and preschoolers, we meet for three sessions. Our support is aimed at helping you understand your toddlers’ feelings and how you feel about being their parent.

We can help you build a strong and loving bond with your toddler, supporting their feelings as they grow.

We might:

• Watch how your toddler shows their feelings, their likes and dislikes
• Talk about how you respond to baby and why
• Use things such as video or play to show the strengths in your relationship

We’ll always make a plan with you to help you be the parent you want to be.

We help people like health visitors, midwives, mental health workers and social workers by giving them training and advice to support the families they work with.

Have a look at our IMHS film to find out more and to hear from some of the families we have worked with.

Read our leaflets for more information:

You might have already spoken to a health professional (such as your midwife or health visitor) about your relationship or bond with your baby or toddler. They may suggest our service if:

• You don’t feel close or connected
• Being a parent makes you feel confused or upset
• You have worrying or upsetting thoughts about your baby or toddler

We are here to help you and your baby or toddler feel safe, calm, and connected.

We care a lot about helping parents, carers, and people who work with families so that every baby, toddler, and young child in Leeds has the best start in life. We want babies and children to feel happy and safe. To help with this, we support their grown-ups to build strong and loving relationships with them. Having a baby or toddler can be fun and special, but it can also be tricky.

Sometimes, it’s hard to feel close to your baby or toddler. This can happen before they’re born or in their early years. There are lots of reasons why this might happen:

• Difficulties in pregnancy
• A traumatic birth
• Difficult experiences of being parented when we were children
• Loss and bereavement
• Difficulties with our mental health (such as low mood or anxiety)
• You might be having worrying, upsetting or confusing thoughts about your unborn baby, baby or toddler

“I’ll never be able to thank you enough for getting me through this pregnancy safely and helping me give Austin* all the love I have for him without anything clouding it anymore”.

“I was in a deep hole with no escape. I felt tormented by my own child and my mind. It’s hard to communicate this to your family because you feel judged, so I bottled my problems up”.

“The first few sessions I wasn’t sure but then the proper sessions began to help. It helped when (infant mental health practitioner) sat on the floor because I wasn’t looked down on and it helped me to do that too.  We looked at what my baby’s cues and what he was telling me, and I understand him much better now. I know his cues better than other people do. My mood and his mood have improved; it’s had a knock-on effect on my mental health and other areas of my life.  I said before I started this that my baby was more angry than happy but now, he is more happy”.

“It’s nice to have someone to speak to, it’s not like counselling but you open up to someone about how you feel, and they are talking with you and your child.”

“It has really helped to have visual aids that I can hold in mind in everyday life when I face challenging situations with my toddler.”

Below are some further resources and links that can support you in getting to know your baby, toddler or preschooler whilst on your parenting journey:

• Understanding your baby
• Infant mental health service resources to support families throughout the COVID-19 pandemic

Useful links

• NHS Start for Life
• CBeebies: Parenting
• BBC: Tiny happy people
• Anna Freud: Common difficulties in the early years
• ICON Cope
• MindWell
• Leeds Mental Wellbeing service

Books

• What every parent needs to know: Love, nurture and play with your child by Margot Sunderland (2016)
• The emotional life of the toddlerBook by Alicia F. Lieberman“Alicia Lieberman is a toddler-whisperer, illuminating the art and science of this important period of life in informative ways that will enable parents to gain important insights into the mind and behaviour of their child. With clear and concise summaries of research findings highlighting developmental milestones of this age woven with practical examples families face in everyday life, this second edition of her classic work is a gift to parents and children alike.”

  – Daniel J. Siegel, M.D., Clinical Professor, UCLA School of Medicine

Podcasts

Talking sense with Dr Martha

Talking Sense with Dr Martha is a parenting podcast hosted by Dr. Martha Deiros Collado, a clinical psychologist and mother. The podcast offers a thought-provoking perspective on child behaviour, aiming to help parents make sense of their children’s actions, quirks, and communication patterns. Dr. Martha provides practical advice and strategies for navigating the challenges of parenthood, with a focus on understanding children’s development and fostering positive relationships.

The podcast covers a wide range of parenting topics, including:

• child development
• communication
• behavioural challenges
• parenting skills