Meet Eastbourne based charity Muma Nurture

Founded in 2017, the community interest organisation supports people affected by infertility, perinatal mental health and baby loss. This is what Trustees want you to know.

Muma Nurture is a small volunteer and community led Eastbourne based charity providing support for people in Sussex affected by infertility, perinatal mental health and baby loss through specialist counselling, holistic therapies, support groups and community events.

Providing a place to belong for those experiencing these unfortunately common and often overlooked struggles before, during and up to a year after pregnancy.

We offer a free initial consultation and invite clients to donate whatever they can afford (or not) for further therapy to ensure we don’t exclude anyone financially.

Often people are unaware of these issues until personally affected. Of an estimated 19,462 Sussex pregnancies in 2016; 2385 ended in abortion, 2785 in miscarriage and 67 in perinatal death. These, plus the 86,315 struggling with fertility issues are our community. Our very conservative statistics suggest approximately 55% of people are affected by infertility, perinatal mental health and baby loss, although often these issues are surrounded by shame and secrecy and those around them may not be aware.

In addition to the emotional struggle, there are other adversities to overcome: Those who never get pregnant or have fertility treatment are totally ignored by legislation. For stillbirth after 24 weeks there is full entitlement to maternity leave and pay, before that none. These are real disadvantages at an already very vulnerable time.

The most common feeling our clients report to us is isolation. At Muma Nurture, we provide the opportunity to be part of a new community where everyone involved can accept and understand your experience and thoughts and feelings associated with that. Connections made within the centre extend far beyond the therapies and support offered by the charity, building strong relationships and improving wellbeing within the community:

“It helped me to understand I was not alone and I was not the only person this had happened to. The therapists are brilliant and the sessions I had really helped, but more than that I made friends.”

To date, we have supported over 200 clients. Each and every one of them reported an increase in emotional wellbeing through accessing our services. Those who came for workshops all reported an increase in knowledge and learning of new information. A significant amount of anecdotal feedback underpins the reported improvements as mentioned above but also a general feeling of belonging and gratitude for a space to feel normal, accepted and understood.

https://mumanurture.org/