The Walkin’ Talkin’ Mums project helps new parents and mums from the Salford community come together to safely exercise in the post-natal period.
Claire Gregory is one of the founders of Baby Bump Fitness CIC and Walkin’ Talkin’ Mums.
She explains the project “The National Lottery Community Funded project aims to provide safe exercise, mental health support, encourage friendships and support networks to help prevent post-natal depression and social isolation. It is a weekly free session led by a Pre & Post Natal fitness specialist / Mental Health First Aider.
“It runs out of local parks so that new parents can access free, accessible provision and be given up to date advice/guidance on post-natal issues relating to physical activity e.g., pelvic health, abdominal separation and support and referral into local services for post-natal mental health”.
The sessions take place every Thursday at 10am in Ordsall Park.
Claire explains what benefits Walkin’ Talkin’ Mums brings to new parents, “According to the Child Health Profiles Overall, comparing local indicators with England averages, the health and wellbeing of children in Salford is worse than England. Also, in Salford’s Healthy Weight Plan they quote that for every 1km walked extra per day there is a 4.8% reduction in likelihood of obesity. Following the pandemic/lockdowns many women had to birth alone, attend appointments alone and many services/classes for new parents stopped running.
Walkin’ Talkin’ Mums supports the mothers of Salford by providing a FREE weekly class to not only walk more, be educated on post-natal physical activity but to also meet new people and get outdoors/active with their babies
She explains why projects like Walkin’ Talkin’ Mums are a vital part of the Salford community: “I think it is important to provide local, affordable opportunities for new parents to be able to meet new people, get outside and enjoy the local park and to have the opportunity to learn safe, effective exercise for the post-natal period. So often as new parents we can be told of all the things we should avoid doing, or we can’t attend gyms/classes because babies aren’t able to come along etc and so Walkin’ Talkin’ Mums provides the perfect opportunity to combine both getting active, getting social and includes baby.
“Following the pandemic and significant price increase in fuel, utilities etc, many new parents would not be able to afford what is sometimes deemed a luxury e.g., Fitness Classes/Gym Memberships and so we wanted to be able to remove the financial barrier for mums having access to sessions such as these”.
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“We are lucky to be supported by the charity Active Pregnancy Foundation and Canterbury Christ Church University and have students who are researching this project to help us produce some meaningful evidence on the impact of the project so that hopefully we can offer more sessions in more locations”.
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