Meet the Inspirational Mum Caring For Neonatal Families in Teesside and Beyond

In 2015 Lottie was pregnant with twin boys, but suffered significant complications at 21 weeks. ‘When I got to 24 weeks, I went into premature labour and delivered my little boy Leo. Sadly, despite the best efforts of the neonatal team, he passed away after four hours,’ she says. ‘His twin brother Oska didn’t arrive for another four days, so I had something really rare called a delayed-interval delivery. Oska went on to spend 109 days in neonatal care. When he was born he weighed 890g, which is less than a bag of sugar. We had a long time in hospital, and brought him home when he was four months old. But that wasn’t the end of our journey.

‘For the following couple of years, Oska was in and out of hospital needing life-saving treatment and was placed on a ventilator to save his life. As a result, my mental health became incredibly poor. Friends that I’d met along the way were struggling too. We were reporting to each other the same things – low moods, flashbacks and struggling to get through the day. I wanted to do something positive with my son’s legacy and for me, my friends and my family, and what we were going through at that time, so we set Leo’s up when Oska was better, with the sole purpose of providing mental health and wellbeing support for families who have been on a neonatal unit.’

'To keep making a positive impact on people’s lives would be a wonderful thing'

Lottie began by offering counselling, peer support, welcome boxes and heartbeat bears and in its first year Leo’s launched the world’s first Neonatal Mental Health Awareness Week. During the pandemic, they had to adapt and find new ways of working digitally and remotely. The charity’s vital work was recognised by the then Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, when it received the Points of Light Award.

‘We have our neonatal side which provides mental health and wellbeing support for families who have been on a neonatal unit. That includes community support groups, counselling and peer support. That service is really crucial,’ Lottie adds. ‘We have a baby loss service as well. Where we live in the North East, if you lose your baby during pregnancy or your baby passes away soon after birth, because you don’t have a living baby you don’t qualify for perinatal mental health support, so Leo’s Perinatal was brought in.’

Thanks to funding from the Department of Education and the Department of Health and Social Care Family Hubs Transformation Project, Leo’s was commissioned by both Redcar and Cleveland Council and Middlesbrough Council to provide this support. ‘We specifically look after families who have had miscarriages, still-births, neonatal deaths or a termination for medical reasons, and we provide that really crucial support in the first two years,’ Lottie adds. ‘We have lived experience support that comes into play and a trauma service as well, where we offer counselling, EMDR and birth trauma work.’

Leo’s is also the only provider of Bath Babies (a sensory experience for babies) in the region, and the only provider of it for neonatal families in the UK. The charity also runs a dedicated neonatal sensory swimming programme. neonatal baby and infant yoga classes and community play sessions.

‘My hope is that we can grow the services that we do offer,’ says Lottie. ‘Of course baby loss affects people everywhere so it would be great to offer this work in neighbouring postcodes. To keep making a positive impact on people’s lives would be a wonderful thing.’

Like any charity, fundraising is the best way to support Leo’s. Visit leosneonatal.org and leosperinatal.org to seek support, find out more, and to support the charity.