STORK for Schools: Choose Healthy, Choose You!

Background

Hello, in this website we showcase five key messages selected by young people in education at GCSE, College and A level grades in The Midlands, for sharing with other young people anywhere in the world.

The website focuses on sharing messages around key health concepts with young people, so that the families we have in the future, are as healthy as possible. This is important because we know that in our region, compared to the rest of the UK, there are more babies ill or dying in the first year of their lives.  

And we know that there are certain risks associated with this, which can be reduced, by us thinking about the five key messages below.

The five key messages

If you are planning to have a baby yourself, or supporting someone who is: 

a)  having a baby too early, especially as a teenager, can have a negative health impact on you/your partner and your baby;
b) alcohol and recreational drugs in pregnancy and around conception can harm a baby in many ways;

c) smoking in pregnancy*, and after can have devastating effects on a baby, in the womb and after birth. *This includes you or your baby breathing in passively, smoke from people around you;

d) breast feeding, or supporting your partner/friend/family member to breast feed your baby for as long as possible (at least for the first 6 months and ideally up to the first 2 years of baby's life) contributes to optimal health in a baby; and

c) ensuring healthy nutrition for you will support a healthier baby for you.

Who do we work with ?

. The five key messages we share, are developed by the STORK for Schools programme, run by the University of Wolverhampton and supported by University Hospitals Leicester NHS Trust, Neonatal Services. 

. STORK is short for Supportive Training Offering Reassurance and Knowledge. The Schools programme aims to provide information to guide students and young people on how to make best choices for families of the future.

' Below are five videos to highlight the messages we wish to share. These videos were created and narrated by our students from The Midlands, together  a team from the University of Wolverhampton Faculty of Science and Engineering, Faculty of Arts, Business and Social Sciences Department, and animator Fred Campbell.