Save the Park Cinema, Hither Green

I'm glad to see our campaign to save the former Kids Korner (once Park Cinema) in Hither Green is getting some publicity. The Londonist picks up the story from This is Local London.

Our website can be found at hithergreenhall.org. To quote some of the background:

The bad news is that a planning application to demolish the former cinema and build a block of flats with a shop on the front has been submitted by a land developer.

Allowing this to be the end of the Kids Korner site would effectively be surrendering to someone else’s laxity, an easy option that furthers the decline of the area.

Its position on a busy junction on the high street is perfect for a community type of use but very poorly suited for quality housing. Not all desirable objectives can be fulfilled in one closely packed area and robust public amenities are more important for long term community cohesion than a few more flats.

The area has a dramatic lack of community facilities and youth provision and as such we support the use of the Kids Korner as a multi-use arts and community centre to include a performance space (which was the original purpose of the building) as well as other spaces for different uses so to allow as wide as possible use for the whole of our community.

The provision of a community centre is also the vision of the Hither Green Urban Design and Development Framework, and a recent audit of Youth Provision made by the Council found a complete lack of indoor spaces for activities for the youths in this part of the borough.

A community centre on the Kids Korner site will support trade as well as improve safety in the area because of the increased passage and its location at the gate of the Meridian South development will also act as a bridge across the community thus furthering community cohesion in the neighbourhood.

South East London is the best

Well we knew that anyway, but Time Out has confirmed that London's best bloggers come from the South East! Well done to the Deptford Dame, Brockley Central, the Greenwich Phantom, 853, Transpontine, and the Blackheath Bugle. I'm a regular reader of all these (except Greenwich Phantom, somehow I'd missed out there!) and can confirm they are all excellent, well worth subscribing to. And there are loads more that Time Out missed and are also fab. Some of these are listed on my blogroll.

I will just have to try and live up to your standard chaps! Although I realise that blogging about my children, breastfeeding and Lewisham hospital is never going to quite reach the same dizzy heights of interestingness.

Why 17?

17
Originally uploaded by Sleepy-sue.

Today 17 babies will die, the tragic victims of stillbirth or neonatal death. This is a statistic that is seeing no signs of decreasing, and behind each number is a family rocked to the foundations by the death of their baby.

This shocking figure, the loss of 6,500 babies every year, is something the public is not generally aware of. Most people think stillbirths don’t happen in the 21st century. Yet stillbirth in the UK is 10 times more common than cot death.

At Sands, the stillbirth and neonatal death charity, we feel this number of deaths is totally unacceptable. We have launched the Why17? campaign to raise awareness of this devastating loss and to ask the question:

“Why are 17 babies a day dying and what can be done to halt this national tragedy?”

“I just want to raise awareness of stillbirth. I had no idea that this could happen to me"

1) Follow this link, fill in your details to email your MP to make them aware of the parliamentary launch of Why17? on March 4th 2009: www.why17.org/Get-Involved/Contact-your-MP.html

2) Add your name to the list of supporters (petition) : www.why17.org/Pledge-Your-Support.html

3) Make a contribution: donate online; buy a window sticker / wristband / balloon; or plan a sponsored event. More ideas here: www.why17.org/Get-Involved.html

The photo is from flickr user sleepy-sue. Lots of people posted really amazing photos on the theme of Why 17? yesterday, this one hit home for me because James is so into Thomas the Tank Engine.

Breastfed baby risk investigated (from BBC News)

I'm not sure what to think about this research. Obviously it's good that risks to babies are investigated, but making people unnecessarily worried about something that's actually extremely rare is problematic. I do think hospitals already push formula on to nervous mums too much as it is, and the message from this article is hardly going to help. What is needed is proper breastfeeding support for mums who want to do it, so that they can go home confident in their feeding and not panicking and not enjoying the time with their babies.

The number of times I've heard people say they gave up BFing because they didn't have enough milk is huge, and sadly most of the time it just isn't the case. But health professionals don't have the necessary training to help mums who think they are in this situation, and to distinguish between mums who genuinely don't have enough milk and those who do but are worrying unnecessarily.

It's sad that only 1% of mums are still bfeeding their babies at six months, but I can understand why. The lack of support is a real problem, and not just in the early days. The four-month growth spurt can be a real nightmare, and yet it's hardly talked about. A lot of mums remain unaware of it, assuming that as baby is suddenly wanting to feed more that they must be ready for solids, or that they haven't got enough milk. Yet the reality is that in most cases it can be got through with lots of feeding and perhaps some sleepless nights. I'm the first to moan about Claudia's lack of sleep, but it's only for a short time in the great scheme of things, and I think, for me, wanting to give her the best possible start was important enough to put up with it.

I'm proud that I've managed to be one of the 1% this time around. But the support when I had James was shocking, and to be honest there was next to none when I had Claudia (don't give birth on a Friday peeps, none of the BF counsellors are in at the weekends...), and it was only my own determination to do it that stopped me giving formula to her. The paediatricians wanted me to and it's so hard to stand up to a doctor and say no... And now they'll be obsessing about this on top of their obsessions with measuring babies' milk intake.

Sorry, this has turned into a bit of a rant, and isn't the most focussed piece of writing I've ever done, but blame baby brain and sleep deprivation for that one!

(Incidentally, C slept from 11 til 7 last night, what a star!)

Typealyzer

Via BobFromBrockley. The typealyzer website analyses your personality based on the writing style of your blog. This was mine:

ISFP (Introversion, Sensing, Feeling, Perceiving) - The Artists

The gentle and compassionate type. They are especially attuned to their inner values and what other people need. They are not friends of many words and tend to take the worries of the world on their shoulders. They tend to follow the path of least resistance and have to look out not to be taken advantage of.

They often prefer working quietly, behind the scene as a part of a team. They tend to value their friends and family above what they do for a living.

The sensing (order, habit, details) and feeling (spirituality, rhythm, harmony) parts of my brain are most active when writing my blog.

This is interesting. When I've done this type of personality test through work before I have come out as INTJ (Introversion, Intuition, Thinking, Judging) (quite a while back) and ISTJ (Introversion, Sensing, Thinking, Judging) (more recently). I suppose this could be because at work I'm doing quite different things, or it could be a load of old cobblers. See this page for more on the different types.

In praise of Lewisham Council's free stuff!

When you become a mum, it seems that everyone is out to sell you something. There are so many activities you could be doing with your baby - sing and sign, massage, music group, gym class, salsa, yoga, you name it there's a class for it. And most of the time, you sign up for a term, shell out your £60+ fee and off you go. There is so much pressure to be doing something every day with your little one, and it can get seriously expensive!

So this post is really in praise of the people out there who give you the chance to do some activities with your baby that don't cost the earth, or are indeed free, because let's face it, we aren't all loaded yummy Bugaboo mummies who can afford all these fees.

Lewisham council run some fantastic free activities - every library has a storytime for under 5s and most have a baby bounce session for under 2s as well. These are completely free and offer you the chance to do some reading and singing with your baby/toddler. And let's face it, they don't care whether you spent £60+ for the sessions or not.

The other council-run activity that I have come across and make active use of is the Forster Park Playclub for under 5s. This is run from a portacabin in Forster Park and is free to use as well (with only a small fee for a cuppa or a snack). There are activities laid on at tables, you can eat a healthy snack with your little one, teaching them to sit at the table and eat with others. There is a fantastic wooden "kitchen/home" section and a chill-out area and a special fenced off area for under 2s to protect them from marauding toddlers (though at 21 months James does his fair share of marauding). The lady who runs it (at least on Tuesdays when I go) is lovely too and is always friendly and chatty.

There really is no need to spend a fortune on activities to do with your baby/toddler, but somehow when you become a mum there is so much pressure to do it. And everyone else seems to be doing all sorts when you struggle to get the kids washed and dressed every day, let alone yourself as well!

In these days of the "global financial crisis" we see so much about, I would highly recommend seeking out what free activities your local council has laid on for you. They are so underused, and that really is a crying shame.

I'm famous (sort of)

afc wimbledon flag
Originally uploaded by clogsilk.

This photo is number 4 on the google image search for "AFC Wimbledon" images. How mad is that? It's not even a particularly good photo, it's pretty blurred for a start.

And my posts on Lewisham hospital maternity services on this blog are number 2 on a google search for "Lewisham hospital maternity".