GET-A-HEAD campaign heads to major maternity conference

Hundreds of Midwives from across the North West will hear first-hand about our campaign to improve baby health care later at the Northern Maternity and Midwifery Festival in Manchester.

Together with Harry's Hydrocephalus Awareness Trust (Harry's HAT), we'll be speaking at the conference to raise awareness of the Get-A-Head campaign which is calling for an overhaul of the care offered to babies in their first year. We’ll be discussing the crucial role that midwives play in recording a baby's initial measurements, and communicating with parents.

The Get-A-Head campaign is focusing specifically on the importance of head circumference measurements in the first 12 months of a baby's life, which can help to identify potentially life-threatening brain conditions, such as hydrocephalus.

Our Regional Correspondent Victoria Glover has personal links to the condition, which is also known as 'water on the brain', after her son was diagnosed at 10 months old. She said: "There's very little out there to tell parents why they should care about their baby's head measurement. I certainly didn’t understand its relevance or importance until after we'd received my son's diagnosis and I'd watched him endure multiple brain surgeries.

"If a head is growing much quicker than expected, or indeed much slower than expected - it's a sign that further investigations should be carried out by a specialist. Head circumference should be monitored on the growth chart in the Red Book, in the same way that weight is monitored - but we know that doesn't always happen and it's very much a post code lottery.

"The head holds one of the most important organs in the body, and so it makes sense that measuring its circumference can be a very basic indicator of brain health. I think if that fact was communicated to parents before they left hospital with their new babies, it could be a game changer. Parents would then know to expect another measurement at their baby's routine 6-8 week check, and it could ultimately lead to an earlier diagnosis for children who go on to be affected by hydrocephalus."

Harry's Hydrocephalus Awareness Trust has an ambition to revolutionise the health care currently offered to babies, and aims to prevent infants with serious conditions from slipping under the radar of health professionals.

Caroline Coates is the CEO of Harry's HAT and will be speaking at the Maternity and Midwifery Forum event today, she said: "We are hoping to reach midwives who play a crucial part in a baby's head circumference journey. It is midwives that will take that vital first measurement and plot it in the Red Book. Midwives also develop a unique and trusting relationship with families in their care and are therefore best placed to explain and communicate to families why baby head circumference measurement is so vital. In essence, we need midwives to make Get-A-Head a success."