The Salford Parent and Infant Relationship Service works with you and your baby to support you to build a positive and satisfying relationship. We can work with you during pregnancy and/or with you and your baby up until their second birthday.

Who the service is for

Being pregnant and having a baby is a time of hope and joy but it can also feel hard. There are many reasons why becoming a parent and connecting with your baby may feel difficult. Sometimes thoughts, emotions and experiences can affect how you feel about yourself or about your baby. Mental health difficulties, a traumatic birth and early childhood trauma are just some of the things that may impact on your experience of becoming a parent and your relationship with your baby.

If you are concerned about how your relationship with your baby is developing, we can work with you, or the professionals in your life, to explore and make sense of difficult thoughts and feelings and help build your relationship with your baby.

What we do

We aim to support you and your baby to feel safe and secure, to manage the emotional demands of new parenthood, and to build positive relationships that you can both enjoy.

Sometimes we will work with you directly, and sometimes we will support other services and professionals that you already have relationships with. If it’s decided that we are the best service to help you, we will meet with you to talk though your concerns and experiences. Together, we can plan what support you and your baby may want and need.

We offer both individual and group support and we will think together about what might be best for you and your baby.

We will review our work together regularly and, with your consent, we will provide update letters to you and other key people involved, such as your GP or health visitor.

For the services and professionals working with you, we offer training and consultation to ensure that the parent-infant relationship is always held in mind.

Who we are and where we work

Our team consists of a psychologist and a clinical specialist. We have many years of experience working with parents, babies and children and we have undertaken extra training so that we can offer a wide range of skills and approaches.

We work closely with health visitors, midwives, GPs, and specialist services in Salford. We work in the community, in children’s centres and within family homes.

Who can refer

If you have any concerns and feel you need support with your relationship with your baby, you can contact your health visitor, community midwife or GP. They will often be able to provide the support you need but if you, or the professional you are working with, feel that you need more specialist support, they can make a request for service to our team.

We will meet with them first to find out a bit more about the concerns you have and how we might be able to support.

Professionals can contact us directly by phone 07890425756 or email salford.pairs@mft.nhs.uk.