Parent & Baby Wellbeing
"VIG is a wonderful tool that helps you find pleasure in your relationship with your baby"
VIG is all about helping you to understand your baby's inner world. It enables you to notice different ways you and your baby are interacting with each other. I have seen firsthand how inspiring VIG can be during my extensive experience as a public health nurse and VIG practitioner. It is truly wonderful to see a parent's confidence grow.
Babies are born to socialise from birth. They show their feelings and emotions in subtle ways, which aren't always easy to see at first. Sensitive, two-way interactions going on between you and your baby create feelings of comfort and security. This brings profound benefits to a baby's development - their brains make about a billion connections a minute in the first year of life. Emotional and social wellbeing strengthens the neural connections.
The VIG process starts by meeting together to get to know each other - we explore what you are particularly interested in. I then take a short video of your choice of an everyday interaction between you and your baby (some parents feel a bit self-conscious at first so I make sure you feel comfortable and we 'go with the flow'). I then store the video securely and analyse it to identify positive, meaningful moments going on between you and your baby.
We then meet together again for the shared review. This is when we look at the clips and stills I have created of the special "micro moments" of communication between you and your baby - we might notice things like eye contact, gestures, movements, sounds, responses and expressions. I often slow down the clips so that we can look at them in detail. We talk about them together. It is an opportunity to reflect on your baby's feelings and needs, and also your own wellbeing.
Put simply, VIG is a wonderful tool that helps you to explore your relationship with your baby. Many parents are amazed to see the two-way responses going on that they wouldn't otherwise have noticed. That's why I am so passionate about VIG.
A VIG cycle in a nutshell...
The initial meeting
We meet together to get to know each other (1-2 hours), to talk about the VIG process and what you would like to get out of it.
A second meeting
(When your baby is awake!) to take a video of your choice. This will be a short day-to-day interaction with you and your baby (about 5 to 10 minutes) that you would like to be filmed.
Editing the video
I will go away and do some detailed micro-analysis of the video by selecting valuable micro-moments of two-way communications between you and your baby (clips and still photos)
The shared review
(Approximately 2 hours). We will meet to look at the edits together and talk about what these mean to you and the positive development of your baby. The original video and all the edits are yours to keep.
A VIG cycle normally costs £250 including travel to local areas around Melton Mowbray, Rutland and Grantham.
