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It takes a village
The brainchild of local mum, yoga practitioner and counsellor Bryony Vickers, The Baby Village offers a ‘ready-made community of mindful mothers with a scaffold of face-to-face and online events and chat forums’. Though Bryony has been teaching classes through pregnancy and during the early stages of motherhood for a time, Covid-19 accelerated the need for virtual communication, leading to the WhatsApp groups which made The Baby Village the multifaceted platform it is today. “After life went back to normal, I wanted to continue those support structures beyond my classes. I had been a yoga teacher for many years but was also finishing my training as a counsellor through Covid-19, so mental health was a big focus for me. With a background in community engagement, creating a network of support seemed a natural progression,” shares Bryony. Helping to make motherhood easier and more enjoyable, there are weekly coffee mornings for mums and babies, as well as monthly community walks. Aside from WhatsApp groups, blogs and podcasts, there are also the Mums’ Restorative Nights Out and Community Challenges throughout the year. “The beauty of The Baby Village is there’s space to be yourself. The commonality we have in the village is we have young children and believe in kind, connected community spirit. Other than that, we’re all individuals. You can come along to events exactly as you are, whether you’re having a good day or a rough day.” Bryony also teaches pregnancy and baby yoga classes, runs a private practice as a counsellor, offers Mother’s Mentoring and Birth Trauma Resolution counselling. She runs therapeutic groups like Tender Postnatal – a group for mothers in the first year and Mothers Rising – a consciousness-raising group. For more information, visit bryonyvickers.co.uk
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