“Both of my children started getting adjustments when they were just a few days old. I know that this keeps them healthy and happy. I am determined to give them the greatest start to life that I can, and chiropractic for our family is a huge part of this. ” – Azure W.

“I was sluggish and tired most of the time. I also had difficulty sleeping through the night. It became harder to perform my normal daily activities including lifting and caring for the babies.
Today I feel so much better, sleep great, and do just about whatever I want. Many thanks to Dr. Christy and to my daughter for introducing me to her care!” – Kathy P.

Being pregnant will probably be a lengthy, exhausting period, with plenty of challenging work once the baby is being delivered. It can be sensible as a result for the possible mother to be within excellent health prior to the lady gets expectant. Listed below are some of the optimistic measures she can choose to use make sure that the lady as well as the newborn are generally as healthful as possible through those crucial seven months.

1. For common good health the girl wants a practical diet regime, a lot of outdoors and use as well as sufficient sleep.
2. Weight is essential. Unwanted weight at the outset of getting pregnant will certainly put stress on the heart, feet and legs because having a baby builds up, and are challenging to get rid of after the start.
3. Being quite definitely underweight can cause troubles to mom and also child.
4. It is significantly better to increase or decrease the extra weight ahead of getting pregnant commences.
5. Any modest problems for example anaemia, severe headaches, indigestion, and so on., ought to be handled. An expectant woman mustn’t be taking medicines that could hurt the child.
6. Women with more severe health concerns, such as all forms of diabetes, coronary heart complaints, epilepsy, and many others., must consult his or her doctor ahead of they will contemplate getting pregnant.
7. Many parents realize that as soon as the beginning of their newborn, their very own the teeth have got suffered from a new calcium supplements insufficiency. Before commencing getting pregnant women ought to for that reason have a detailed tooth check and then any required treatment. They need to work with a fluoride mouthwash to formulate the actual tooth enamel. Extra take advantage of as well as cheese provides more calcium mineral within the diet plan to boost your teeth.
8. During pregnancy lots of women possess soreness along with difficulty with their own ft and shins, which may have acquiring bodyweight to bear. It’s smart for ladies to possess answer to calluses, hard epidermis, and other base problems before these people conceive.

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Pregnancy & Pediatrics

At HealthWorks, we are a family focused wellness practice. There is nothing more important than caring for our next generation. Dr. Porterfield and
Dr. Taylor have undergone specialized training for pregnancy and pediatric care and they even designed our office to be especially kid friendly.

The health of a pregnant woman is vitally important because both mom and baby are affected. Mother’s proper nervous system and spinal function is crucial to the development of your baby and essential to the well being and comfort of mom. The
effects of chiropractic care during pregnancy are far reaching and extend way beyond treating pain.

By ensuring that the pelvis and spine are in proper alignment and motion, chiropractic care helps to give the developing baby plenty of room to grow within the womb.

By maintaining this proper alignment and motion
throughout pregnancy, chiropractic care can also improve the ability of the expecting mother to have a safe and natural birth process even an “easier” birth which is something that is extremely vital in avoiding interventions affecting the health of both mom and baby.

The modern birth process is often one of the most traumatic events that a person will endure in their
life. Unfortunately today, many healthcare providers choose to look at pregnancy as a “medical condition” rather than the incredibly safe and natural process that it is. A woman’s body is designed perfectly for the birth process, and difficulties typically only arise if mom is functioning at less than 100%.

Due to the unfortunate problems caused by increased C-section rates, poor infant health and higher mortality rates, our doctors feel that it is extremely important to have your child checked for subluxation as soon as possible after birth. Subluxation is a misalignment or lack of motion within the spine that results in stress and ill health in the body. The birth process is a very common cause of subluxation, especially a birth process that resulted in any interventions. Chiropractors are the only healthcare providers trained to detect and remove these subluxations, and doing so will help to ensure a healthy start for your newborn.

As children continue to grow their spines undergo many forms of trauma as they learn to walk and crawl, play, and become involved in sports. It has been said that a child undergoes enough falls in one day to put an adult in the hospital – literally thousands of falls in the first few years.

The most important milestones for baby to be checked at are:

1. After the birth process.

2. When the baby starts to hold his/
her head up.

3. When the baby sits up.

4. When the baby starts to crawl.

5. When the baby starts to stand.

6. When the baby starts to walk.

Another essential part of our pregnancy/pediatric care is providing parents with all the information they need concerning health and wellness. Our doctors are committed to providing you with complete wellness education that gives you the answers you need!

The most important thing to realize is that subluxation often goes undetected for years in our children, slowly eroding their health. If your child has never been checked, please contact us to find out how we can help. Remember, prevention is the best medicine and it is better to start young so your child can grow and function at 100% and truly be well.

Why Baby too…

Today’s guest blog is from Latham Thomas, the founder of Mama Glow who shares her top ten tips to looking and feeling great during pregnancy to help mums get a glow. We have 10 copies of the book ‘Mama Glow’ to giveaway. To enter simply leave a comment at the end of the blog.

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Latham’s Top 10 Tips for The Healthy Mama GLOW!

1  Take 400 micrograms of Folic Acid before pregnancy and during the first 3 months to promote healthy development of the brain and spine of the foetus.

2  Practice Flexibility Exercises Joining an antenatal yoga class is a great way to stretch and tone the muscles that will be used in labour. Gentle stretches provide you with more flexibility in the muscles and joints, which will promote an easier labour.

3  Eat Your Greens for calcium and phytonutrients. Greens help stabilize the blood sugar levels and give you the bulk fibre needed to promote glowing skin and intestinal health. Try mesclun, kale, collards, chard, & arugula. Buy organic whenever possible.

4  Massage your growing belly daily from the beginning of your pregnancy with a quality massage oil like Mama Mio’s Omega Oil or Tummy Rub butter, or Sanctuary Spa’s stretch mark oil to prevent or reduce the appearance of stretch marks.

5  Pack a Mobile Pantry. Eating small meals throughout the day will keep you energized and feeling good. Pack snacks to take with you on the go, some healthy options: fresh seasonal fruit, nuts, seeds, yogurt, veggies & hummus, granola bar.

6  Engage in physical activity during pregnancy to improve sleep patterns, decreases water retention and the associated varicose veins and leg cramps. Exercise helps keep prenatal weight gain within a healthy range, and decreases likelihood of developing gestational diabetes. Try swimming, brisk walking, yoga, pilates, or dance.

7  Stay Hydrated. Dehydration can induce abdominal contractions, inducing preterm labor. During pregnancy the body requires more water to conduct metabolic functions. Grab your water bottle and drink away, be sure to drink eight tall glasses of water daily.

8  Just Say No. Set healthy boundaries around your personal space and only do what feels good. When you strain or force yourself to do something you don’t want to do- you end up feeling depleted. Start delegating tasks. You must preserve your energy and allow your body the adequate rest it needs to support you and your growing baby.

9  Get Support. Build a team of people to support you during pregnancy and labour. You want to feel comfortable with who is around you so do your research. Also make sure you designate a good friend or two for your sister circle- who can help with cooking, laundry, errands in those first weeks postpartum.

10 It’s GLOW Time! Make a regular practice of shutting off your phone, computer, and other distractions and carving out some time to bask in your glow. Relax and take care of yourself, try a nice soak in the bath with herbs and essential oils, light some candles, cuddle up with a good book, go see a film, take a hike, bake a dessert, whatever feels good. Just be present and enjoy the moment- doing what you love.

About Latham Thomas

I’m the founder of  Mama Glow - I use a holistic approach to pregnancy which I have used to educate, empower, and inspire my clients to look and feel their most radiant. I have touched the lives of hundreds of women and celebrities who want to experience a healthy, balanced, and fabulous pregnancy.

Mama Glow is a comprehensive wellness plan containing dietary and lifestyle advice that helps optimize your glow. Using plant-based nutrition (or “Glow Foods”), education, yoga, and other tools, Mama Glow offers a unique system to help you develop an authentic relationship with your changing body, boost energy levels and lift moods, combat common ailments like morning sickness, prepare for an easier delivery, and achieve radiant skin, nails, hair, and a vibrant overall aura. On your marks, Get Set, GLOW!

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Win….win…win

We have ten copies of Latham’s book ‘Mama Glow’ to giveaway. Simply leave a comment on this blog post to share your pregnancy top tip and we will pick ten lucky winners from all comments received by midnight on January 31st. Usual Netmums terms and conditions apply.

Find out more about your pregnancy on Netmums.

You can receive weekly emails, join in our online Pregnancy Course, join your Due Date Club and find tons of information on everything from pregnancy worries, staying healthy in pregnancy, choosing baby names, labour and childbirth and much much more.

You can even meet other mums in your area who are expecting in our new Meet a Bump section.

100% Kale Chips

I made these amazing kale chips from a recipe my friend gave to me.

Ingredients 

• 1 bag of chopped kale (preferably organic)
• Pinch of sea salt
• 1 tbls olive oil

Method

• Toss kale in a bowl with olive oil and sea salt.
• Place on a baking tray in a preheated oven 220.
• Bake for 10 mins then toss and bake for another 10 mins and Viola!

Results

Crunchy, tasty and full of vitamins and nutrients. Especially calcium. You will be so absolutely surprised at how good they taste and I do believe you will never have regular crisp AGAIN!  make loads and only when you are home alone hahaha because it will be gone in a flash!

Excellent for the kids . Remember to go easy on the salt.
Happy Baking! Happy Eating

Butterfly kisses & Blessings xoxo

My health visitor informed me last week that watercress was a little calcium wonder! She said that in her research she found that watercress had even more calcium than milk! I’d heard all about spinach, kale and brocolli but I’d neve heard of watercress. So I went researching as I do apparently 1 cup of raw watercress has 12% of the RDA calcium.

So I’ve immediately decide to add watercress to juices, make some purees to add to my son’s foods, and do some soups for the whole family.

Click here for some really interesting watercress recipes .

Butterfly kisses and blessings to all

Department of health

The Department of Health recommends:

• All pregnant and breastfeeding women should take a daily supplement containing 10 micrograms of vitamin D, to ensure the mother’s requirements for vitamin D are met and to build adequate fetal stores for early infancy.
• All babies and young children aged 6 months to 5 years should take a daily supplement containing vitamin D in the form of vitamin drops, to help them to meet the requirment set for this age group of 7.0-8.5 micrograms of vitamin D a day.
• However, babies who are fed infant formula will not need vitamin drops until they are receiving less than 500ml (about a pint) of infant formula a day, as these products are fortified with vitamin D.
• Breastfed infants may need to receive drops containing vitamin D from one month of age if their mother has not taken vitamin D supplements throughout pregnancy.
• People aged 65 years and over and people who are not exposed to much sun should also take a daily supplement containing 10 micrograms of vitamin D.

Vitamin D supplements or vitamin drops for use by children under five years,  can be obtained from most pharmacies. Speak to your pharmacist and supermarkets about which supplement is suitable for vegetarians if you are a vegan/vegetarian.  Healthy Start free vitamin supplements are also available too women and children who qualify.

Vitamin D can be found in

Food

• oily fish, such as salmon and sardines
• fortified powdered milk
• eggs
• fortified fat spreads
• fortified cereals

According to the Vitamin D council, “There are only two ways to receive vitamin D in the amounts necessary for proper health: Ultraviolet B (UVB) exposure and vitamin D supplementation. Diet SHOULD NOT be considered a satisfactory source of vitamin D. The few foods which do contain vitamin D, contain too little to be of any noticeable benefit.” e.g for a child age 1year to receive his RDA of vitamin D through eggs he would have to eat 8 whole eggs on that particular day.

Butterfly kisses, Good health and Blessings xoxo

If like me you are vitamin D deficient or interested in ensuring that you are getting all the free vitamin D you can get you will be very interested in the perfect time of day to be outdoors and in the sunshine. For years I’ve heard that post 11am exposure to the sun increases your chances of malignant melanoma (skin cancer). So when  I found out that I was vitamin D deficient I knew that my son and I needed to get the morning sun. However recently I came across some information which caused me to take a step back. According to the Department of Radiation Biology, Institute for Cancer Research, Montebello, Oslo, Norway  the recommendation is that the perefct time for sun exposure and ultimate time to gain the benefits of the sun as it relates vitamin D is 12 noon! ??? really???!!!

The sun is out today. That’s rare in the UK. Its especially rare because its spring time, early spring at that. It makes me think about this time last year when my son was only 3 mnths old. I wish there were sunny days like this then. Days when my son could have ‘basked’ in the sunshine. I wish I’d ‘basked’ in the sunshine for the last 5 years myself. It would have saved us alot of trouble.

I had low vitamin D while I was pregnant, but I had no idea. It’s strange because you would think that with all those wretched needles they stick into you drawing blood during pregnancy, they would pick up everything and you would be alerted! According to the consultants my precious little man only got so much vitamin D from his mummy during pregnancy. Not enough at all. Additionally he was exclusively breastfed for 6 months. While normally he would have recieved a bit more from breastmilk, he didn’t receive enough because I didn’t have it to give. (N.B I  religiously ingested the Pregnacare range from pre-conception and throughout breastfeeding. However, this wasn’t enough for how low my vit D was at the time.) My son was born in December, and if any of you remember, we had an awful winter 2010-2011. We also had a very misserable spring which meant for the first half of my son’s 1st year he got very little sun.

Fastforward 7 months – I wake up to the sound of my son gasping for air. He had for a few months displayed signs of what seemed like sleep apnea so he usually woke gasping. Once I calmed him he would catch his breath and be fine but this time he was not ok. He wasn’t breathing and his body was rigid but shaking.  In the next few hours we went through what was the most horrifying experience of our lives. My husband performed mouth to mouth resuscitation on our son and after a few minutes he started to breathe again.The emergency services arrived and we were off to the hospital.

It turned out that my LO had tonsilitis which caused such a high a fever resulting in what they thought at first was a febral seizure. His tonsils were so inflamed and large that they were touching each other. At the same time he was congested from having a cold. This blocked off his air passage and with a seizure happening at the same time caused him to stop breathing all together.

The consultants believed that the very high fever brought on the seizure. But they eventually realized that it wasn’t a febral seizure. It was only a matter of time before he had a seizure. His vitamin D levels were so very low that he wasn’t absorbing his calcium as he should. click on here to see why vitamin D is important for the absorbtion of calcium.

My LO at 9mths would cry as if he was in pain anytime he was put on his legs to stand. He would cry so much I knew something was wrong. I took him in to our health providers (Health visitor and GP) who basicly gave me the ‘another new paranoid parent’ attitude. They pretty much disregarded my concerns. I took him in for his 8 month developmental check and was basicaly told that I was expecting too much from him. When we took him in to the hospital we went through about 7 different pediatricians they each wanted to send him home without running any test. I wouldnt accept their explanation of why my son was sick. A febral seizure shouldn’t last for 10mins or more as they so rightly said. So why were they still saying it was only a ‘febral seizure’? one pediatricians even said to me that it was a ‘gasping episode’ another said it might be as a result of the shape of his nostrils! HUH?! At that point it took so much for me not to scream at her. Of course in their minds we had exaggerated the whole thing. Finally a consultant with some amount of sense, empathy, and respect, noticed my sons wrist and thought it looked strange (his wrist were very round/fat). she decided to do a calcium and vitamin D check. We were discharged, however, within an hour we were called and asked to return to the hospital immediately!  Both is calcium and vitamin D were extremely low. He was given a first course of calcium (I.V) and oral Vit D. As soon as the I.V ended my son had a 15min seizure (documented by the consultant). Everyone was running around. They finally believed what we had been saying to them all along. “No! the seizure wasn’t 3mins long it was 10-15mins long, we were not just being paranoid.” From that time on he was placed in the High Dependency unit and he was attended to with an impressive amount of care and attention. Not with the utter disregard that he received when he first arrived at the hospital.

After about a week he was discharged from hospital with a cocktail of drugs. 5 altogether to be administered 3 and 4 times per day. He hated it so much! and it took us a very long time to get over what happened to him. I struggled with feeling guilty and ashamed for a long time. and not even being able to talk about it without bursting into tears. I still struggle but I’ve decided to educate other parents and parents to be about the importance of vitatmin D.

I am so thankful though, so very grateful. He is all better now. His bloods are almost perfect and he is the busiest, cutest little boy around! I smile every time he climbs the stairs, or when he tries to mount the TV stand, when he gets into my cupboards, and when he pulls my valuables down from wherever they are. Although my initial reaction often is to scream! I pause and smile because 5 months ago he couldn’t even push himself up on his hands. I would rather have all my valuables destroyed than have him go through what he did.

Click here for more inforation on vitamin D and sunshine

N.B Please continue to follow my post for  further information on the importance of vitamin D, and my son’s progress.

Butterfly kisses and blessings to all xoxo

Vitamin D is not really a vitamin, its more of a prohormone. One of the oldest. It can be found in some foods but in very small amounts; oily  fish such as herring, mackerel, sardines and tuna. Many manufactured foods e.g juices, cereals and some dairy products are fortified with vitamin D to make it more readily available to the public. Vitamin D is also manufactured in laboratories to make vitamin supplements D2 and D3. However the greatest source of vitamin D 80%-90% is sunlight.   Vitamin D can also be made in the laboratory as medicine.

N.B For more information please refer to The Vitamin D council’s website 

Butterfly kisses and blessings xoxo

First stop is always Folic Acid – recommended for at least the first trimester of pregnancy, to help reduce the risk of babies developing Neural Tube Defects (NTDs), such as spina bifida.

Eating well can make a huge difference to how you feel, especially foods high in iron, vitamins and minerals like wholegrains and green leafy vegetables. However, many women feel so nauseous in those early days all they can face is a toilet bowl! To help provide your body and growing baby with what they need, a multi-vitamin tailored for pregnancy like Pregnacare can really help.

For essential brain and eye development, Mumomega is a hi-DHA marine fish oil and organic Evening Primrose Oil formulation which meets the fatty acide requirements of pregnant and lactating mothers.

And in the run up to birth, taking Raspberry Leaf supplements or tea is meant to tone the muscles of your uterus to help with an easier and efficient labour. These Lifeplan capsules contain only dried powered Raspberry Leaf in a hard capsule shell to maintain the potency of the plant.

Quinoa Salad

Native to South America, quinoa (KEEN-wah) is a definite superfood! It’s been getting some positive media attention in the last little while, and rightly so! Quinoa looks a lot like rice, that has burst into little curly-ques. It has a wondeful texture, with a little pop and crunch when you eat it.

When I was pregnant with Foodie Baby, I decided to radically alter our diet, in hopes of having a)a natural birth after a dramatic C-Section with Picky Princess and b)the healthiest pregnant body I could possibly have. I read a fabulous book called The Gentle Birth Method by Dr. Gowri Motha. She presented a nutritional plan for having a healthy body and one of the most interesting things I learned is that according to the Standard American Diet(SAD), over 90% of the grain consumed is: wheat. Rice made up almost the entire other 10%. There are SO many amazing, healthy, and delicious grains for us to consume, but many of us just…don’t. Yet we have skyrocketing problems with wheat sensitivity, and she argues, that some of this is simply because we are over exposed to one grain, when we are designed to consume a variety. So I completely eliminated all grain products from my diet, for the duration of the pregnancy, and honestly, it was SHOCKING to me, at how wheat-centered my diet was. Wheat is in everything! Or at least everything convenient! And now I have reintroduced wheat, but try hard not to let it exceed about 25% of the grains in my diet. Quinoa became a new favorite of ours!

Nutritionally, quinoa is second to none! It has a full set of essential amino acids, which makes it a rare vegetarian complete protein. High in fibre, magnesium and iron, quinoa is also gluten-free, making it a great wheat alternative to gluten-sensitive diets.

Quinoa can be used in place of any other grain: pasta, rice, barley. It is great hot or cold, savory or sweet. Picky Princess loves to eat it with almond milk, maple syrup and cinnamon, and Foodie Baby loves it with goat cheese, lemon, garlic, roasted tomatoes and basil.

Tip: Quinoa is coated with something called Saponin. This makes it taste bitter and needs to be rinsed off. So rinse your quinoa well before consuming. The best way to do this is to put it in a large bowl, fill the bowl half way with water and then rub the quinoa between your hands to rub the saponin away. Rinse and repeat until the water becomes mostly clear, which can take several washes.

Here is a super easy and versatile recipe. You can substitute any of the vegetables for others, you can swap cheese and add anything else you like, but it’s a good base. Give it a try!

Quinoa Salad

Prepare quinoa. Bring 4 cups of water to boil and add 2 cups of well rinsed dry quinoa. Simmer until the quinoa curls, approx 15 minutes. Drain any excess water.

In a pan, saute one minced garlic clove with 3 tbs of extra virgin olive oil and sea salt to taste. Saute for a couple of minutes and then pour sauce over the quinoa. Toss to coat. Add the juice of half a lemon.

Stir in two cups of chopped vegetables. This time I used fresh peas, roasted tomatoes and zucchini. Crumble over salad half a cup or so of goat cheese. Serve hot, room temperature, or chilled! This is an easy picnic salad!

“Pregnant women are advised to take folic acid because it is proven to reduce neural tube defects such as spina bifida occurring in an unborn baby if taken within the first 12 weeks of pregnancy. There is also some evidence to suggest it may prevent some congenital heart defects forming. A problem for women who have an unplanned pregnancy is that they may not take folic acid supplements during that time.  This Canadian study shows that when folic acid was added to flour and pasta the number of babies born with certain severe heart conditions was reduced. While the decrease in babies born with heart conditions during this time is statistically significant, many children were still born with congenital heart disease. This must be taken into account when considering the benefits of routinely introducing folic acid to flour and pasta in the UK. Especially because routine introduction could pose a risk to some elderly people as potentially dangerous vitamin B12 deficiency can be masked by high intake of folic acid.”

Issued in response to ‘Prevalence of severe congenital heart disease after folic acid fortification of grain products: time trend analysis in Quebec, Canada’ by Raluca Ionescu-Ittu et al. Published online by the BMJ. BMJ 2009;338:b1673 doi:10.1136/bmj.b1673

Building on the strategy set out at the 2008 Pre-Budget Report, the Budget announces targeted discretionary support for the economy, while continuing sustained fiscal consolidation from 2010-11 when the economy is expected to be recovering and able to support a reduction in borrowing.

The 2008 Pre-Budget Report set out the following increases in financial support, which families are now receiving:

• the bringing forward of increases to Child Benefit, worth over £22 on average to families, between January 2009 and April 2009, to support all families across the UK;
• the bringing forward of the Government’s commitment to increase the child element of the Child Tax Credit by £25 above indexation from April 2010 to April 2009, so that the child element increased by £150 a year in April 2009; and
• the introduction in April 2009 of the Health in Pregnancy Grant, worth £190 for all women after the 25th week of pregnancy, which is expected to benefit 780,000 families a year.

The 2009 budget announced the following:

Tax Credits

To help low-to-middle-income families, the child element of the Child Tax Credit will increase by an additional £20 a year above indexation from April 2010 providing valuable support to families with children.

• the Government announces that grandparents and other adult family members who care for their grandchildren or other members of their family aged 12 or younger for 20 hours or more a week will be able to gain National Insurance credits toward the basic State Pension from April 2011.

• an increase to the child element of the Child Tax Credit of an additional £20 a year above indexation from April 2010, providing valuable support to families with children;

As a result of personal tax and benefit measures introduced since 1997 by April 2011:

• households will be £1,550 per year better off, on average; and
• households with children will be £2,350 per year better off, on average, and those in the poorest fifth of the population £4,750 per year better off, on average.

Child poverty

Budget 2009 reiterates the Government’s commitment to the sustainable eradication of child poverty and announces further targeted support for vulnerable households including:

·         increasing the child element of the Child Tax Credit by an additional £20 a year above indexation from April 2010, providing valuable support to families with children;

·         amending the law to make clear that the current 4-week run-on in the Working Tax Credit extends to the childcare element, including for couples when only one partner falls out of work, helping to minimise disruption to children during these difficult changes; worth on average £68 per week.

·         taking further steps to help low-income households gain access to the support they are entitled to, such as the extra tax credits available to people suffering a fall in income (already helping 355,000 people by an average of £35 per week)

The Child Poverty Bill will be introduced later this year and will:

• create a clear definition of success in primary legislation. Legislation will set child poverty targets using relative low income; persistent poverty; and material deprivation combined with low income indicators. In addition, reflecting the views of many respondents, legislation will reflect the need to make progress on absolute low income;
• create a clear and transparent accountability framework. Legislation will require the Government to publish a child poverty strategy, to be refreshed every three years, evaluating progress towards the 2020 vision and setting milestones for future action across a wide range of policy areas. In recognition of stakeholders’ views, legislation will also require the Government to have regard to advice published by an expert commission ahead of each three-year strategy; and
• improve partnership working and collaboration to tackle child poverty at a local level. Legislation will require local authorities and delivery partners to work together to tackle child poverty and to set out the contribution that they will make in their local areas.

Help for Charities

Budget 2009 announces the launch of new £20 million Hardship Fund to provide grant support to third sector organisations, delivering front-line services to the most vulnerable and disadvantaged in society, that have been affected by the recession, with demonstrable resource constraints due to cash-flow difficulties of increased demand.

In other areas the Chancellor announced:

• support for employment, including for Jobcentre Plus and the Flexible New Deal, and the offer a guaranteed job, training or work placement for all 18-24 year olds who reach 12 months unemployed;
• extending the enhanced loss relief for an additional year and expanding HMRC’s Business Payment Support Service, increasing capital allowances for new investment to 40 per cent for one year, and establishing a £750 million Strategic Investment Fund to support advanced industrial projects of strategic importance;
• an increase in the annual investment limit for Individual Savings Accounts (ISAs) to £10,200, up to £5,100 of which can be saved in cash; an additional payment alongside the Winter Fuel Payment worth £100 for households with someone aged over 80 and £50 for households with someone aged over 60;
• a £600 million funding package of measures to build more homes through unlocking sites currently sitting as dormant, and an extension of the stamp duty holiday for all houses costing up to £175,000 until the end of the year;
• the world’s first carbon budgets and measures to encourage energy efficiency and low-carbon growth.

The Budget also announces:

·         from April 2010, an additional rate of income tax of 50 per cent will apply to income over £150,000, and the income tax personal allowance will be restricted for those with income over £100,000;

·         from April 2011, tax relief on pensions contributions will be restricted for those with incomes of £150,000 and over, and tapered down until it is 20 per cent;

·         fuel duty will increase by 2 pence per litre on 1 September 2009, and by 1 penny per litre in real terms each year from 2010 to 2013;

·         £5 billion recoverable value for money savings in 2011-11 raising the 2007 Comprehensive Spending Review target from £30 billion to £35 billion, and in the next Spending Review period, additional efficiencies to help support the economy and front-line services, rising to £9 billion by 2013-14.

The money can be claimed from the 25th week of pregnancy, after receiving health advice from a midwife or other health professional. Expectant mums will be given a claim form to sign and send off, which they must do within 31 days. When the claim is approved, the money is paid directly into a bank or building society account.

Pregnant women can get more information at http://www.direct.gov.uk/money4mum2be or by downloading a free podcast at http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/podcasts

Janet Fyle, Professional Policy Advisor at the Royal College of Midwives, said:

“This is a commendable initiative from the Government, and one that demonstrates that we value and want to support mothers-to-be. Midwives have a crucial role to play in assisting and enabling all women to access the grant. They are often a woman’s first, and in some cases, only contact with the health service.

“Midwives will be there to give objective advice and information to women about the grant, because they know an investment in women is an investment towards a healthier woman and a healthier baby.”