This week, we launch the newest product to join the Inspire Cornwall (DadPad) portfolio of products – the Co-ParentPad.  It’s been in development over the last couple of years, but we’re delighted to be able to have this new guidebook available to offer to all our existing DadPad areas to complement our other resources.  We spoke to Inspire Cornwall’s Julian (CEO) and Georgie (Project Officer, who has taken the lead on developing the Co-ParentPad for us) to find out more…

First up, what is the Co-ParentPad?

GW: The Co-ParentPad is a quick reference baby guide to support non-birthing parents who identify as LGBTQI+, aimed at providing an LGBTQI+-affirming alternative resource to DadPad.

JB: The Co-ParentPad’s main focus is to provide targeted information for LGBTQI+ non-gestational parents about the important things that they need to know during the perinatal period (that is, the period that runs from Day 1 of pregnancy, through birth and up to baby’s first birthday). Further, as with all our other resources, it’s also intended to be used by health professionals caring for new families to help build positive relationships and engage with both new parents at such a crucial time in their lives.

GW: It’s an important addition to Inspire Cornwall’s portfolio of resources which aim to support parents-to-be and new parents, as well as the healthcare professionals that support them. After all, we know that not every new non-birthing parent identifies as male and/or is in a heterosexual relationship.

And, just like the existing DadPad products, the Co-ParentPad has been designed and written to meet the specific needs of its intended demographic; we’ve worked in co-production with and listened to LGBTQI+ parents, birth educators, doulas/birth workers and health professionals to achieve this.

Why is it needed?

JB: After hearing from LGBTQI+ parents who had been given a DadPad by a health professional – as it was the only guide available for partners – we realised that there was a gap here which wasn’t being filled by organisations more suited to speaking directly to the needs of that demographic.

GW: Whilst we couldn’t take responsibility for how DadPad was being distributed to parents, we knew that offering a dad-focused resource in this way was not sensitive to the differing needs of an LGBTQI+ partner. We could, though, take responsibility for the resources that we provide to the organisations and Trusts that we work with.

JB: So, having noted this gap, we set out on a mission over lockdown to create an alternative resource specifically for LGBTQI+ non-gestational parents-to-be, working with expert partners.

So why has Inspire Cornwall (DadPad) – a dad-focused organisation – decided to produce this resource?

GW: Because, as we’ve learned, not every non-birthing parent calls themselves ‘dad’, and not every ‘dad’ is the non-birthing parent (for example, Freddy McConnell) – and our unwavering belief has always been that ALL parents-to-be and new parents (birthing and non-birthing) need access to the best evidence-based information and support.

JB: Add to this the fact that we have spent the last five years working solidly to build relationships with and gain commissions from perinatal and related services across the UK to help build this support for new dads, we now have the resources, contacts, motivation and market access to be able to help create this tailor-made resource, with the aim that ALL new non-birthing parents will now be able to access the bespoke information that they need.

 In addition, from our work over the past 10 years building the DadPad brand, we knew how hard it can be to get resources into the NHS in a scaled-up way, so we believe ourselves to be in a position to offer our platform and help facilitate getting this support to parents – and the healthcare professionals around them – across the UK almost immediately upon the Co-ParentPad becoming available.

Is it just the same as DadPad, then, only with different pronouns?

GW: Definitely not! As we’ve always said, it’s not appropriate to simply neutralise the pregnancy, birth and early parenthood information aimed at women and present it to men. Similarly, then, it wouldn’t have been appropriate to neutralise the DadPad content and present it to LGBTQI+ parents (we explored why ‘one size doesn’t fit all’ in terms of parenting resources and support in our Why dads? blog post from 2020).

Because of this, and just like DadPad, the Co-ParentPad contains targeted information for the needs of a specific audience – the information, language and imagery contained and used within the Co-ParentPad has been selected specifically for LGBTQI+ non-gestational parents.

Developing the Co-ParentPad has been a real learning journey for the team at Inspire Cornwall/DadPad and, whilst it does contain information that is only relevant to LGBTQI+ parents, we have also identified and created new content along the way that we want to eventually include within the DadPad resources, too.

The LGBTQI+-specific content includes information on:

• why individualised pregnancy care is important;
• creating a personalised care plan;
• infant feeding choices;
• mental health; and
• contraception.

There’s also adapted/targeted information on:

• being a supportive birth partner;
• bonding with your baby;
• coping with crying;
• safe sleep;
• sex and relationships; and
• looking after each other in the early days of parenthood.

This is all in addition to our popular ‘how-to’ content covering key baby-care topics such as: holding; changing; washing and bathing; and feeding.

All of Co-ParentPad’s content has been written in LGBTQI+-affirming language, using appropriate terminology, and is accompanied by bespoke illustrations that we hope represent the spectrum of parent identities and relationships in the UK today.

The development process in getting Co-ParentPad printed and ready for distribution has been a long one.  Can you give us a quick overview of what’s taken place during that time?

GW: Back in 2020, when we started to the Co-ParentPad development process, we were having to research various subjects and write content at a time when there wasn’t a lot of evidence or guidance to be found on LGBTQI+ perinatal care.  Despite this, we knew our most valuable and reliable source of information was always going to be LGBTQI+ people themselves and those that support them. We have therefore prioritised working with LGBTQI+ parents, representative organisations, birth educators, doulas, and other health and social care professionals and commissioners.

Via co-production workshops we’ve been able to hear and learn from a range of lived-experiences different to our own, explore what information LGBTQI+ parents-to-be needed to know, and come up with ideas and solutions to the barriers often faced by LGBTQI+ individuals when accessing perinatal care.  Co-producing with LGBTQI+ professionals has also led to new networking opportunities, signposting to additional sources of information, and training opportunities we hadn’t otherwise been aware of.

As a business, we’ve invested in a variety of LGBTQI+ written and led/facilitated workshops, training, online events and resources relating to perinatal care. These additional sources of knowledge have helped us further deepen our understanding of specific subject matter from an LGBTQI+ perspective, such as in relation to trauma-informed language, fertility, conception, pregnancy, birth, lactation, and parental rights.

We also engaged an illustrator who wanted to work with us to help bring the Co-ParentPad to life. Each illustration was carefully curated by our team, to ensure it not only provided an accurate model of best-practice baby care, but also ensured that the resource as a whole showed a spectrum of people and relationships.

We’ll explain the step-by-step production process for the Co-ParentPad – and the challenges we faced – in more detail in a subsequent blog post.  For now, though, we’re really proud to have developed the concept from an idea into our first (the first?!) LGBTQI+-non-gestational-parent-targeted perinatal resource ready to launch to the public.

How is it being distributed?  Can individuals buy a copy?

JB: The Co-ParentPad is going to be distributed FREE of charge to DadPad app areas – existing and future – making it free at the point of contact in those app areas.  We’ll be contacting all our existing DadPad app areas during February to discuss arrangements for this.

We’ll also have the option to purchase additional/individual copies from our website, coming soon.

And, finally, for now – what’s next for the Co-ParentPad?

GW: Whilst we’re incredibly proud to be trailblazing an essential guide for non-gestational parents-to-be, that’s not where we’d like our offer to LGBTQI+ parents-to-be to end, though, and, as our organisation continues to evolve, we are committed to ensuring that our resources do, too.

 JB: The next stage is to put the information into an app platform in order to offer further ways for individuals and professionals to access the resource, and we will continue to work with the growing number of LGBTQI+-focused organisations to enable this work to have the best chance of success.