'Every parent wants to be a good parent' - Your Letters: May 3

Next week is Maternal Mental Health Awareness Week – an annual campaign led by the Perinatal Mental Health Partnership, dedicated to supporting the mental health of parents-to-be.

Perinatal mental health problems affect more than one in five mums and one in 10 dads during a pregnancy and after birth, and can cause feelings of guilt and shame if parents feel they can’t feel an instant bond with their new baby.

The NSPCC team in the Midlands is urging any expectant or new parents in the region who are struggling with anxiety or mental wellbeing, to find out how the charity can help them.

Pregnancy in Mind is a free eight-week virtual service run by the NSPCC for expecting parents living in the Midlands. The service helps parents learn mindfulness, relaxation and coping techniques while building and strengthening their growing relationships with their unborn baby. The virtual sessions provide a supportive environment for parents-to-be, where they can hear from others in their position and gain support from our practitioners and each other.

Every parent wants to be a good parent, and if we want to take good care of our little ones, we need to take good care of ourselves too. Pregnancy in Mind can help with that. To find out more about Pregnancy in Mind, call 0115 960 5481 or email [email protected]

Liz Pickett, NSPCC Peripatetic Team Manager for the Midlands

DOES SIR KEIR PLAY BRIDGE?

I wonder if the Labour leader plays bridge in which the ploy to succeed in a contract of no trumps is to get rid of your losers first to ensure you have a better chance of making the contract.

In the words of John Lydgate “You can please some of the people all of the time, you can please some of the people some of the time, but you can’t please all of the people all of the time".

So in upsetting so many people so early in office he will then hope to triumph in the long run when hopefully people will forget all this early bad stuff and be rewarded in the latter part of this present government. We can but hope.

Peter Harman, West Midlands

MISERY OF WORK ON INTERCHANGE

I live in an area where green belt is being destroyed at a vast speed. I live just one mile away from the West Midlands Interchange that has just started development. It has blighted the landscape and destroyed a huge area of habitat. Now just this morning I have received notice for planning permission for over 100 houses, again on farming fields with walking access, 1/4 of a mile from my home. Please help to protect our green belt and wildlife. It's the least you can do seeing as you've targeted the most vulnerable in society.

Clare Edwards, Coven

Send us your letters for publication to [email protected]

Letters to the editor must include the writer’s name and address and will only be published anonymously in exceptional circumstances. The editor reserves the right to condense or amend letters.