Baby Week UK 2023 – The Grand Opening in Leeds
Play
Conversations
Together
The Baby Week Grand Opening at The Tetley
This year, The Tetley partnered with Baby Week for a takeover event. Events aimed at expectant parents or parents of 0-5 year olds were held throughout the week and across the whole iconic building.
The event was a sensory experience and a great opportunity for babies to explore whilst new parents could get the answers to any questions they may have from a whole host of early years experts.
Play
Beatrice Lee Knowles’s messy play art installation
In the Tetley’s atrium space, Beatrice Lee Knowles @becreativewithbea created a messy-play-meets-art-exhibition wonder with colourful mash and cushioned splats for loads of sensory fun.
The Play Tent
On the first floor, two of the rooms were converted into a Play Tent space. With so many different sensory experiences, this was a popular go-to for the attendees.
My Soft Play
Who doesn’t love a soft play area? It was fantastic to see so many youngsters (and their adults!) enjoying the soft play area.
Tiny Tetley
Stephanie Jefferies, the artist who designed The Tiny Tetley, gave a talk about the importance of play.
The Tiny Tetley was a permanent artistic play space in The Tetley and there are plans to relocate it so that families can continue to enjoy it for free.
Little Movers
Danni from Little Movers Leeds West hosted classes on the third floor of The Tetley throughout the day. Danni became a Child Friendly Leeds ambassador as a result of planning for Baby Week.
Pop Up Pop In
‘Pop Up Pop In’ are a fantastic face painting service, and Child Friendly Leeds ambassador, who provided fantastic face paint and glitter tattoos for the little ones who attended the grand opening.
Conversations
Healthcare stalls
It was a pleasure to host 26 different stalls across two floors of The Tetley. This included 8 healthcare-related stalls:
- 0-19 Nursing
- BaBi
- Baby Bubble
- Children’s Speech and Language Therapists
- Health Equity Midwives
- Infant Feeding Team
- Infant Mental Health
- Speak with a Midwife
Support for you
Also promoting their services were a number of stalls who provided support for new or expectant families:
- Care and Repair
- Department for Work and Pensions
- Leeds Dads
- Maternity Voices Partnership
- St Vincent’s Centre
- Women’s Therapy
- Positive Birth Leeds
- Pregnancy in Mind (NSPCC) Look, Say, Sing, Play
Opportunities for 0-5s
There were also plenty of stalls with offers for the whole family, including youngsters:
- Book Trust
- Children’s Centre Early Start
- Debutots
- John Lewis
- Leeds Libraries
- Little Movers
- Moo Music / Calf Shed
- Water Babies
Together
The Global Parents Q&A
As part of the theme of the week, ‘identity and culture’, we hosted a Q&A panel with four parents from different backgrounds (including heritage from Afghanistan, Chile, Hong Kong, France and mixed African heritage) who had different experiences of raising children in Leeds. We worked with the Leeds City Council Resettlement team and thanks to Leeds Dads to put on such an informative session.
The panel highlighted the positives of the provision here in Leeds with the parents describing their experiences accessing support networks, developing relationships with healthcare professionals and . They also discussed some of the things they felt are missing in Leeds.
Below, some of the sentiments from the panel are shared below:
I liked how I had the same midwife all the way through. It is very different from Afghanistan where it’s very procedural and formal.
Leeds Mum
We live in North Leeds and we are really lucky to have some many green spaces around us.
Leeds Dad
I had a free first aid course and it has helped me feel really confident
Leeds Dad
It would be great for Dads to have more options around paternity leave. Women can attach paid holiday leave on the back of maternity leave, which can be vital in those first months, but men don’t have that choice.
Leeds Dad
We need more groups that explore people’s cultural heritage – with no judgement on different approaches or cultural norms.
Leeds Mum
The people who need support the most are those who aren’t reached enough, like young parents and parents whose English is a second and third language.
Leeds Mum
There could be more activities for dads and families to go to on Saturday mornings – like before shops opened when kids wake up early and you can get out to do things early before 9am.
Leeds Dad
Baby Bubble
Baby Bubble is a Facebook group designed to support expectant and new mum’s from 16 weeks pregnant until the new-born is 6 months old. The group is run in collaboration by maternity services and nurses, and the groups are moderated by 2 midwives and 2 nurses, who provide advice and support to the members.
You can find out more here:
The Feeding Chair
“This collaborative artwork invites parents and carers to feed their babies in galleries and public venues and features artwork by Jade Montserrat and features audio works by Krissi Musiol, Magda Stawarska and Nicola Singh.
Alongside videos about infant feeding, gender and public space, the chair is a space for sharing experiences and challenging social attitudes towards how we feed our babies.”
“The chair is part of Feed, an arts-based project developed by In Certain Places at the University of Central Lancashire, in collaboration with Corridor8 and Textbook Studio.”
Book Trust
Book Trust hosted a reading corner space in one of the upstairs rooms at The Tetley. They gave away their reading packs and said…
It was so great to connect and chat to so many other amazing organisations working in Leeds, and we were all stunned by how fast all our resources got snapped up! We will have to make sure we bring more to the next event
Book Trust
With thanks…
The Tetley
Leeds Gymnastics Academy
