Bump Booster – giving every child the best start in life even before they are born! - a toolkit
Working with parents to be
Parents-to-be may not be aware that babies in the womb can hear their parents and others around them. Singing songs and reading rhymes to the baby during pregnancy can give the baby a great start in life. If you work with parents, the following key messages are important:
- Talk to your bump
- Your baby can hear you from 18 weeks
- Talking to your bump helps your baby to get ahead with speaking and listening
- Read to your bump
- Your baby remembers noises from the womb
- Hearing your familiar voice helps to comfort your baby after birth
- Bond with your bump
- Reading and singing to your bump helps you to bond with your baby
- Help your baby get to know you
Key Documents
To help your work with parents, here are some key documents and helpful links:
Here is a list of partners to help develop your work with parents-to-be.
Each profession has their own language and this document will help you through the maze
Here is more information about brain development and the impact of reading to babies.
- Impact of reading to babies
- Brain development review – executive summary
- Brain development research and Bookstart bump
- Early brain development, behaviour and reading
Other organisations
Other organisations have been working in this area. Find out more about this work below:
- Best beginnings have developed practical, simple, and interactive tools for parents-to-be and new parents to support them through pregnancy and the first stages of their baby's life.
Here is a presentation about their work and the app they have developed:
This presentation highlights work by Hertfordshire Libraries:
Other useful presentations and examples of work can be found in the following documents:
- Early start Baby Buddies app K Hodges.pptx
- Early Start, Baby Shower case study A Gittins.pptx
- Dudley report on the pre-natal library offer project
- Hertfordshire interim report on pre-birth case study
- Leicestershire Bumps to Bookworms
Organising sessions with parents-to-be/parents
The Getting Started downloadable document provides some useful information to think about before you plan your first session.
Organising your first session using song and rhyme can be daunting; some tips are included in this downloadable document:
To help promote your session, here is a draft flier:
Click Me Working with Parents to be Click Me Ideas for Parents to be Click Me Rhymes for Parents to be
