Supporting Babies and Birth Families
If you’re thinking about fostering babies, you might be surprised to learn that, when safe to do so, helping the infant see their family will be a big part of your role.
In fact, contact between babies and birth families can happen as often as 5 times per week when they first move into foster care, and there are good reasons for this.
From supporting reunification and maintaining connections to reducing the trauma of separation and making transitions smoother, we’re taking a closer look at why family time for babies is crucial and the part you’ll play in facilitating it.
Why contact with birth families is crucial in baby fostering
There are a few reasons why newborns are placed in care, such as abuse, neglect, family dysfunction, the child’s disability, or parental illness. While the local authority conducts its investigations and makes long-term plans for the child’s care, reunification could still be a possibility, unless it’s completely out of the question, for instance, if the parents are a serious risk to the child, they’ve passed away, or are serving a long prison sentence.
If a baby has no contact with their parents while they’re in care, the transition back home would likely be more difficult for them to cope with, as they would effectively be strangers to them.
Babies need to see their parents regularly to maintain their connection and continue early bonding, especially when you’re fostering newborns. This helps them develop a secure attachment with their parents and supports the birth parents by keeping them familiar with their child’s routine, making the transition back home less disruptive and more likely to be successful.
It can also reduce separation trauma for both the baby and the parents, and allows social workers to observe and assess their parenting capacity.
Supervised contact: what it is and what to expect
Supervised contact is when parents see their child with a relevant professional, such as a social worker or contact supervisor, present. The main reasons for supervised contact are to ensure the child is safe when seeing their family and to assess their parents’ ability to provide a safe, stable home and meet their needs.
Supervised contact rules
The courts usually decide how often birth family contact will happen, which in some cases could be every day during the early stages. Supervised contact typically lasts around an hour to an hour and a half, and your role will be to drop the baby off and wait nearby until it’s time to take them back home.
If the baby’s mum is breastfeeding, you’ll also be expected to collect the milk from family time to feed to the baby. You’ll also provide a contact book, which lets the parents know what you’ve done, such as when you last fed the baby, and when they last napped. This keeps the dialogue open, prevents important information about the child’s care from being lost, and helps the parents continue to meet their baby’s needs during contact supervision.
How to support a baby through frequent birth family visits
Although you won’t be with the baby during their family time arrangements, you’ll play a part in supporting them before and after.
You’ll record the baby’s daily routine and prepare them for family visits by providing consistent care and helping them feel safe and loved. You’ll also provide important information in the contact book that will help both the child and their parents, such as their likes and dislikes, nappy changes, and feeds. After family time visits, you’ll record the baby’s response to family time.
Do they seem calm and content, or are they dysregulated? Part of your role will be to advocate for the child’s best interests by detailing their behaviour after contact. Babies can show their distress in a few ways; for example, they might struggle to settle, seem more upset than usual, feed more or less, or respond in other uncharacteristic ways.
Your observations can help the courts decide whether family time arrangements need tweaking and ensure that the child is always at the centre of decisions.
How to build positive birth parent relationships
Our social workers tell us that one of the best ways to build positive relationships with birth parents is by keeping accurate records in the contact book. This helps mums and dads continue to feel part of their baby’s life, even though they aren’t with them all the time.
It’s not just about recording what you’ve done, it’s about adding little notes and providing as much information as possible so the parents feel like they’re still part of it. For example, you might include a comment about something that made the baby laugh or helped them fall asleep. Not only will this help the parents build a bond with their child during family time, but it will also better prepare them if their baby does return home.
Another thing you can do to reassure the parents that they haven’t been forgotten and are still part of their child’s life is to buy two comforting items, such as two of the same teddies or blankets, give one to the baby to sleep with and one to the parents. Then, at family time, they can switch the items so the baby can still smell their parents and vice versa.
Although the child is always the priority, these small things can go a long way in supporting birth families, leading to more positive outcomes if their baby returns home.
Here to support you
At FCA, whether you foster a newborn, toddler, older child, or teenager, our foster care support and extensive training will help you and your family thrive on your foster journey.
From access to our 24/7 helpline and fostering experts to our year-round activities and regular support groups, we’ll be by your side every step of the way. You’ll also receive a generous fostering allowance and additional perks so you can fully focus on transforming the lives of children in your care.
Thinking about fostering?
Ready to learn more about fostering a child? Call us today on 0800 023 4561 or submit your details via our online form. One of our experienced team members will be in touch to give you the information you need and answer any questions you may have.
