Mother Companions provide regular visits, offering:

• Emotional support around pregnancy and birth.

• Space to unpack wishes, worries, and ensure Mamas have the information they need to make their own evidence-based choices.

• Support navigating the UK maternity system and understanding healthcare rights and entitlements.

• On-call birth support if a Mama would otherwise give birth alone.

• Continuity of care during the final trimester of pregnancy, birth, and up to 8 weeks postpartum.

• Use of interpreting services for one-to-one support sessions.

• Signposting or referrals for needs outside of Project MAMA’s remit.

Mother Companions do not provide:

• Financial support

• Advice around housing, immigration or benefits

• Transport to/from appointments

• Offer an alternative to medical care. Midwives and doctors provide medical care and advice. If you are pregnant and would like to refer yourself for NHS maternity care, you can do so here.

• Provide translation services outside of Project MAMA support sessions

• Facilitate stand-alone access to Baby Bank Network items (this can be requested from midwives and health visitors)

• Provide childcare for existing children or a new baby

• Provide postnatal only support (the person you are referring must be pregnant).

Anyone - you don’t have to be healthcare professional or support worker to refer someone to our service! If you know someone who would like our support, please use our referral form to let us know.

If you’re a Mama who would like support, you can also refer yourself.

Yes, you can refer a mama who is more than 28 weeks pregnant. However, if a mama is referred to us this late in her pregnancy, there is less chance we will be able to form a Mother Companion team in time to support her.

We will try our best, but please be aware we may not have the capacity provide support or we may only be able to offer a stripped back version of our support package (if this is something the mama would like).

Once you complete our form, your referral automatically arrives in our inbox. We will then:

• Acknowledge receipt of the referral and ask for more details if needed, usually via email.

• Contact the person you referred over the phone (interpreters available), to talk through what our Mother Companions offer and confirm if support is wanted.

• If support is wanted our Referral Coordinator will aim to have an initial meeting with the mama when she is 30-34 weeks pregnant, in her home. In this meeting, we will go through our support in greater detail and gather more information about the mama.

• A small amount of information about the mama is sent to our team of volunteer Mother Companions to ascertain whether anyone has capacity to support them.

• If Mother Companions are available, they will make direct contact with the mama to initiate support and arrange antenatal sessions.

Note: our support does not start until around 30-34 weeks of pregnancy and we respond to referrals based on estimated due dates. As such, there will likely be some time between referral and response from our team if you request support for a mama who is earlier in pregnancy.

If our Mother Companions are nearing capacity we prioritise those with the highest level of need for our support. This is contextual and is often based on prioritising factors including whether they are a first time mama, do not speak english, and have no partner/support network.

MAMAhub is a weekly drop-in group for Mamas from migrant backgrounds and their babes, under 2 years old.

If you’re interested, there’s no need to make a referral, just come along! Full details are listed here.