Jennifer Winnington sets up Baby Basics Newark to help new mums
A passionate foster carer is launching a lifeline service for new mums — and felt she had to act after hearing of one woman having to rely on a pram she found in a skip.
Jennifer Winnington is setting up a Newark-area branch of the national charity Baby Basics, which offers struggling new parents a Moses basket filled with the essentials needed for a mum and newborn.
Known as Baby Basics Newark, the branch will be working throughout the district served by the maternity team King’s Mill Hospital in Mansfield, with mums being referred through their midwives who will contact Jennifer and the team directly so that the family does not feel a “sense of charity”.
Jennifer, a foster carer for many years, said that she was inspired to launch the group — assisted by her husband John — after hearing how a new mum was struggling for essentials such as a pram and clothes. That woman was using a pram plucked from a skip and had felt shame at the sight of the brand new baby buggies at a mum and baby group.
“That happens in many places, and we want to give these new mums dignity and the opportunity to welcome and cherish her baby,” she said.
“We want mums to be able to walk into hospital with everything she and her baby needs, including having somewhere safe for the baby to sleep.”
Among those who can access help from Baby Basics include families or mums living in poverty or struggling financially, those in refuge fleeing domestic abuse, the homeless and pregnant mums serving time in prison.
The baskets provided by Baby Basics Newark include nappies, outfits, cardigans, and baby grows — as well as a range of essentials for the mum as well including toiletries, a hair brush, breast pads, maternity towels, a book and toy for the baby and more.
The group is now appealing for anyone who can provide new, or clean preloved items for their baskets to come forward, with items needed the most including newborn baby clothes and knitted blankets, hats, or cardigans — these must not be made from patterns with holes in.
Baby Basics was originally founded in Sheffield in 2009 with the aim of providing some of the basics needed for vulnerable families with a newborn, with a branch recently launched in Dersingham, Norfolk.
Baby Basics Newark will be officially launching on Thursday October 24 at 6pm at a base in Southwell Methodist Church.
After the launch, donations of items can be dropped off at the Methodist Church on Barnbygate in Newark on Tuesdays from 11am to 2pm.
