Shortage of midwives means some women get more postnatal visits than others

Almost two-thirds of new mothers feel let down by the NHS after giving birth, according to a report. In some places women get three postnatal visits at home, while in neighbouring areas new mothers will see a midwife just once. The report from the National Federation of Women’s Institutes and NCT said the vast majority of maternity units are having to cope with shortages of midwives.
Belinda Phipps, chief executive of the NCT, said ‘We are extremely concerned about the shockingly high number of women who have been let down by their maternity care.
‘It is equally worrying to see that the level of care given to parents varies so significantly by postcode.’
Cathy Warwick, chief executive of the Royal College of Midwives, said ‘We are 5000 midwives short in England. Without enough midwives to cope with the increasing demands on maternity services I fear that we will not see the situation depicted in this report improving.
‘Postnatal care has been an area of concern for some time. This is a vitally important period for women who need support, guidance and advice when they return home after giving birth. Too often resources are taken away from this key area leading to fewer visits by midwives and less contact with them for women."
2 May 2013 The Daily Mail

Where do you get your play and activity ideas?

Something which has been on my mind over the past few weeks has been play.

Am I playing with my child enough? Does he have enough good things to play with? Should our play be more structured? Or less structured? How do I encourage creative play? What activities would be good for the stage he is at right now?

I started my research.

I found a couple of good books, which I bought, but the best resources that I found were online, and free!

There are some great Mummy Blogs on play.

One that I have known of for a while is NurtureStore. This is a well organised blog which allows you to search for activities in different categories using the search bar at the top including a section for Babies and Younger Toddlers, which is the area I found hardest to get ideas for. They also have a Weekly Kids Play Planner which you can subscribe to.

Rainy Day Mum is a new favourite of mine, and here you can search either by age or idea. This site also offers a weekly Prompts to Play Newsletter.

The Imagination Tree is another blog with hundreds of great ideas. In addition to it's own content, this blog also has the linky feature which allows other bloggers to link up their post on a similar topic, so that there are even more brilliant ideas in one place. Check out this recent Science Experiment Post to see what I mean if you are not familiar with this.

Another great new discovery for me is Pinterest. Now this is something I have seen before, but just didn't get the point of. Take a glimpse at Rainy Day Mum's Pinterest Page to see what I mean here. This one from Jamie at Hands on as We Grow is also brilliant.

So, where do you get your play and activity ideas? Do you have any great books? Are there websites that you visit? Blogs you read? Are you on Pinterest? 

Please share your ideas by commenting here... or if your ideas are too big for a comment, guest posters are always welcome!