Hundreds take up 'bring along baby' gym classes

More than 350 new parents have been supported by free exercise classes where they can bring their babies with them.

The classes, run in Braintree and Colchester, in Essex, and Ipswich, in Suffolk, are open to mothers and fathers and are funded through council and National Lottery grants.

Speaking about why the sessions were started, Emma Shaw, director at StartStrong Fitness CIC, which runs them, said: "Being a parent is amazing but it can also be lonely and hard...I found there was not anywhere people could go to exercise with their babies."

NHS guidelines said new mums should complete a six-week postnatal check before starting strenuous exercise.

StartStrong Fitness has been operating in Suffolk since June last year.

In January, it secured £3,000 funding from Ipswich Borough Council's South West Area committee to add another class to the one already running at St Francis church hall in Chantry.

Martyna Green and her baby Alina have been coming to the Chantry class since July.

She said: "The atmosphere is very welcoming and nobody minds if the baby starts crying and it allows me to get my exercise in and release those endorphins which I think makes me a better mother.

"I am on maternity leave, statutory maternity pay is not a huge amount and being able to come to this class without having to pay anything for it, makes a huge difference to us".

The sessions are led by instructors with pre and postnatal qualifications.

Bhakti Megharaj has been going since November with her second child.

She told the BBC: "I am mentally in a better place, my first child was Covid born and I am so happy that I learnt about this group - I feel stronger, I feel happier and fresh."

Sian Connell and her son Bobby have been attending the sessions for three months.

"What has been created is a community not just an exercise class," she said.

"It's quite lonely being a parent and getting back into exercise can be quite daunting - I know I was quite anxious to get back into fitness after having been through pregnancy and birth."

Mrs Shaw came up with the idea for the free classes.

"I used to run the classes as pay as you go, but I found that people had to chose, especially with the cost of living, to pay their bills or whether they did something for their physical and mental health," she said.

Dads are welcome too and some attend classes in Colchester.

Mrs Shaw said "there's a huge taboo around stay-at-home fathers and postnatal depression in fathers".

"A lot of the time the midwife will ask how the mums are doing but they don't actually ask how the dads are doing," she said.

"What we wanted to do was get dads along to build that bond and be able to put their physical and mental health first."

There is a "huge" waiting list for classes and more applications for grants to fund extra ones are in the pipeline.

"We want to make these classes available across Suffolk and Essex, so everyone can access it," Mrs Shaw added.

Follow Suffolk news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.