Maternity support group launches in Wolverhampton
A maternity support group for parents who don't speak English or have difficulty accessing services online has launched in Wolverhampton.
The Sahara Maternity Support Group will run at the Bob Jones Community Hub and will offer antenatal and postnatal education to mothers.
Sessions for pregnant women will start on October 3 at the Bromley Street facility, which was officially launched earlier this week.
The move comes after a partnership was agreed between the Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust and Positive Participation Mental Health Services.
Sunita Banga, equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) lead midwife at New Cross Hospital, said: "This service will address those who might be new to the country, those who don’t speak English and those who have difficulty accessing digital services.
“I speak Punjabi, which is the top non-English language spoken here, so I will be able to conduct the classes for Punjabi-speaking women. But as we get to know more women and they are referred to us, we can employ interpreters in the top five other languages spoken – Urdu, Romanian, Polish and Kurdish. Other midwives speak those languages too.”
The "Sahara" in the group's name means "support" in Punjabi, Hindi, Bangladeshi and Pakistani. Sessions will be drop-in initially but women can be referred to it by community midwives and through a self-referral.
Gurbax Kaur, practitioner manager from Positive Participation Mental Health Services, was on hand at the launch on Monday alongside Sunita.
Sessions for pregnant women start on Monday, from 10am to 12pm.
