Your partner in child rearing and parenting, even now

You are pregnant! It is a very exciting time that brings many emotions. The hormones alone mean that you swing between happiness and uncertainty. And you have hundreds of questions, big and small. From ‘how do I stay healthy during the pregnancy?’ and ‘what should I think about when buying baby things?’ to ‘am I doing everything properly?’ and ‘are we ready for this baby?’. It is completely normal if you are unsure or need help. Come to the Centre for Youth and Families (CJG) Rijnmond with all your questions about health and child rearing. We are looking forward to helping you prepare for your baby’s arrival so that you can enjoy being a parent confidently.

A good beginning

The first 1,000 days of a child’s life have a great impact on the rest of their life. The better this period, the higher the chance that they will do well at school, make good friends and be comfortable with themselves. The first 1,000 days starts as soon as you conceive. By living healthily and relaxing enough during your pregnancy, you are already creating good conditions for your child. 

Naturally we understand that relaxing is not always easy. You may wonder how you will cope with everything. This may be your first child, you may not have a large social network, or things may be hard financially. Or maybe you did not have a pleasant childhood yourself and are worried if you are able to raise your child better. Just know that you are not alone.

What can we do for you?

Raising a child is perhaps the most important task in a person’s life. There are a lot of good courses and programmes to help you and, if relevant, your partner prepare. Read about what CJG Rijnmond can offer in this brochure. We work with other professionals like obstetricians, hospitals and postnatal care facilities to give your child the best start in life.

Our services for expecting parents

The pregnancy conversation

Are you concerned about your baby’s arrival? Stress is not good, neither for you nor for your unborn child. It often helps to talk to someone about your situation. Our paediatric nurses listen carefully and ask the right questions during the pregnancy conversation. This often helps understand things more clearly, such as who can babysit once the baby is there or where to go if something goes wrong. The paediatric nurse can also suggest useful services and courses. These could be prenatal yoga in your neighbourhood, a course OuderTeam or Shantala babymassage to help create a strong bond with your child. They can also help you find extra support. The pregnancy conversation is free and can be held at your home, the CJG, or by phone or video call

Protect your baby from whooping cough and flu

You of course want your child to enter the world as healthy as possible. One of the things that you can do is to have yourself vaccinated while pregnant. This will protect you and your baby from whooping cough and flu. See information about the vaccinations and infectious diseases on eenprikzogepiept.nl/zwangeren. The vaccinations are free. Make an appointment on mijn.cjgrijnmond.nl.

Did you know that you can also come to us for information about the Dutch National Immunisation Programme for any children you may have in the
future? We look forward to answering all your questions. We can do this during an appointment or any other way that you feel comfortable with. See cjgrijnmond.nl/contact.

Extra support

During the pregnancy conversation do you and the paediatric nurse see that you need extra support? There are so many options to help you and your current and future family. One way is through home visits. You and the paediatric nurse can then find out what is going well, how you can continue to build on these, what you need to do so, and how you can achieve it. This will help you work on concrete goals so that you can be an even better parent. The support can be short or long term, depending on what you need. 

Extra support can also be provided by specially trained volunteers. You then meet an experienced mother specially found for you once a week. You can see how she deals with things, draw on her knowledge, or simply get things off your chest. If you wish, the extra support can continue after your pregnancy.

Check what is available in your municipality

The extra support that we offer is not the same in every municipality. What services which organisation offers can differ between municipalities. Examples of extra support are pregnancy support, strong prenatal parenting and prevention. The professionals at your CJG location can tell you what is available in your neighbourhood and how you can use these services. You can also find this information on our website: cjgrijnmond.nl.

Also see our Pregnant theme page on our website cjgrijnmond.nl/opvoeden/zwanger. It contains reliable information and useful tips.

Examples of extra support

Pregnancy support

We offer pregnancy support to future parents who need a little bit more than only the pregnancy conversation. We can plan an additional two meetings with the paediatric nurse to discuss your questions and uncertainties in greater depth. This too can be held in various locations and in various ways: at your home, at the CJG, or by phone or video call. The paediatric nurse can sometimes help you look at things differently. And sometimes you can jointly come up with solutions to practical problems. After the pregnancy conversation and the pregnancy support, you can further prepare for the birth of your child with confidence.

How can you register?

You can register for our services any time during the pregnancy on cjgrijnmond.nl/aanmeldpunt. The professionals we work with, such as the midwife, gynaecologist or general practitioner, can also register you if you prefer.Do you live in Rotterdam? In that case registering goes through the Moeders van Rotterdam Registration Desk. You are forwarded to them automatically through our registration point.

Strong Prenatal Parenting

Some problems feel heavier than others. You may have frequent arguments with your partner, have financial problems, or someone in the family has mental or physical health issues. Are you experiencing anything like this? If so, some municipalities offer strong prenatal parenting. This involves a specially trained paediatric nurse who makes a home visit four times during the pregnancy. You jointly decide the topics for discussion. These could be current problems or stories from your own childhood. The purpose of the conversations is to boost your internal strength and give you confidence in the future. If you wish, the strong prenatal parenting can continue after the birth.

Prevention

Problems can sometimes pile up. You may not have a job or have a low income, your partner is not with you anymore, and you do not have any family or friends to fall back on. Or maybe you and your partner are still together, but you are suffering from health issues. The prevention programme is there for parents in these kinds of situations. A paediatric nurse in our special Prevention Team will visit about twice a month to provide support. This can be from the 16th week of pregnancy until your child is two years old. The initial priority is to make sure that the pregnancy and birth go well. After that the paediatric nurse can help in various ways to make sure that you are able to give your child a good start in life. This could be in terms of child rearing, but also in terms of work or training if this is necessary.

After the birth

The municipality will inform us when your child is born. We will then contact you for the birth consultation and a hearing test. In some municipalities we also do a heel prick test for new born babies. Of course it is up to you if you want to use our service or not. Would you like to talk to us earlier? You can contact us immediately after your maternity period any way that you feel comfortable with. And you can always contact us after that – we are there for you until your child is 18 years old!

What does CJG Rijnmond do?

The CJG is there for you as a parent or future parent, and for your child. We monitor the development and health of children from 0 to 18 years old. Every year about 275,000 children come to one of our CJG locations or we meet them at home, school or online. From Brielle to Barendrecht and from Rhoon to Rotterdam.

There is no such thing as a crazy question

We can help you in every phase of your child’s life, from baby to teenager. We can also help during the pregnancy. Whether you have questions about child-rearing, growing up or health. Our professionals, including paediatricians, paediatric nurses, doctor’s assistants, youth workers, are ready to help with answers and advice. In this way we can support you with the biggest task in a human life.

Contact

We are available online and offline, by telephone or WhatsApp. Look for how to contact us on cjgrijnmond.nl/contact. Our website also has a list of webinars, online and offline courses, meetings and themed meetings.

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