🌿 The Forest Birth & Baby Hub
Come along and say hi at the Forest Food Showcase! Our beautiful bell tent will be open as a welcoming Mum, Baby & Birth Space – a chance to pause, connect, and explore what real support for families can look like.
What you’ll find inside
💬 Meet the doulas – discover what a doula (birth companion) can offer you and your family.
🌱 Birth information & your rights – learn about your choices in pregnancy and birth, including how to advocate for the care you deserve.
꩜ Try a birth pool – step into a La Bassine Inflatable Pool and get a feel for what a waterbirth might be like!
🤱 Breastfeeding support – gentle, practical peer-to-peer guidance.
🧣 Sling library – try out different carriers and explore the many benefits of babywearing.
🍵 Herbal tea & healthy snacks – nourishing refreshments, available for donation.
💆 Mini treatments – relax and sample the kind of care that makes all the difference.
🧘 Pregnancy yoga taster – “Get to Know Your Pelvis” with simple, body-balancing movements.
🗣️ Have your say – share your views on maternity services in the Forest of Dean.
Why it matters
Would you like to have one midwife who stays with you throughout pregnancy, labour, birth and postpartum?
This style of care – known as caseloading – is proven to be much safer for mothers and babies.
Research shows it can reduce unnecessary caesareans, preterm births, and postpartum haemorrhage.
Right now, around 700 women every year in the Forest of Dean are left with no local options for birth – forced to travel out of area to Gloucester’s failing and unsafe maternity unit.
Home Birth IS an option, but around half the women I’ve spoke to say their homebirth was cancelled while they were IN LABOUR due to shortages.
Together, we can change this.
Come and be part of the conversation
This space is about nurture, choice, and community action.
Add your voice to the campaign for better services.
Chat with doulas about accessing personalised support.
Book into upcoming classes and groups.