Babyopathy is joining The Oak Rooms Spa in Halstead, Essex in hosting an event on Hallowe’en to raise awareness for two very important, if not very different causes.

As a director of The Oak Rooms Spa, Angela Spencer, who is also Director of Babyopathy, wanted to raise awareness for two causes both close to her heart, being homeless and having to go through pregnancy & possibly birth alone.

Angela had taken part in a Big Sleep Out before and wanted to host one for her local homeless charity. Of course, the pandemic has put a stop to that, prompting Angela to get creative.

The Big Spooky Sleep Out (at home)

To raise awareness for the homeless, Angela is planning ‘The Big Spooky Sleep Out’ (at home).

Commenting, she said:

‘In such a materialistic world we forget the very basic privilege is to have a roof over our head, a place to call home and after selling my business in 2018 I was able to buy my own home after living in rented accommodation for almost 10 years. I forgot what a privilege it is to wake up every morning in my own bed and go to sleep at night safe and without worry. Many do not have that privilege. The Covid-19 lockdown saw most of those that were homeless placed in temporary accommodation such as hotels that were now unused, but that has ended. Hotel owners want their businesses back and so it is back to the streets for most.

‘One heart-warming story for me is that a young man who found himself homeless in Halstead at the beginning of lockdown and placed in a hotel wanted to give back to the town he now called home. We initially supported him with some food donations to the hotel (they had been placed there with no provisions) and then later supported his own fundraising efforts in exchange for helping us in our gardens and I am delighted to say he has now been able to find more permanent accommodation.’

Here are the steps for taking part

1. Sign-up to ‘Sleep-out’ (at home in your garden) for Hallowe’en. To be officially classed as taking part there is a £5 registration fee to download the Sleep Out Spooky Pack which will include some fun ideas for your spooky night and print-ables for you and your children to decorate and display in your windows to show your support and also details of how to fundraise.
2. If you are local to The Oak Rooms you can also take part in our Pumpkin Patch Trail! We want to create a trail of lit (and of course decorated) pumpkins around our gardens to ‘shine a light’ on the issue of homelessness and so are offering an ‘Evening Spa for 2’ to the ‘Best Decorated Pumpkin’ to light our path – just drop off your pumpkin whilst out on your ‘daily exercise’ to enter – don’t forget to attach a label with your name, telephone number and age on it as there will also be a prize for the best decorated children’s pumpkin! You can also pick up a parcel of wrapped sweets to be able to hide around your garden for a little at home ‘Trick or Treating’ too!
3. Donate a care package. If sleeping out or decorating for Hallowe’en isn’t your thing but you still want to take part, you can. We will be taking donations of Care Boxes too – to find out what to put in them please visit our website.

Now, what about the Big Sleep in?

The pandemic has had a significantly negative impact on pregnant women. Many faced isolation and for some, the prospect of facing labour and birth alone is terrifying.

Angela said: ‘No-one talks about stress because we have accepted it as an every-day part of life but doctors and the NHS will tell you it is a modern day menace and that’s without being pregnant. Pregnancy puts added stress on our body, our emotions and our lives as many worry about impending motherhood, working, financial implications, their relationship and so on, and all that on top of our every-day stress! Yet no-one talks to mums about this. Many studies have been carried out and proven the links of maternal stress when pregnant on increased risks to the pregnancy itself, increased risks of miscarriage and premature birth and also on the developing baby and in particular their mental health wellbeing and future development. Again, why is no-one telling mums this? It doesn’t have to be this way.’

Babyopathy, the programme developed over Angela’s decades of working in the childcare industry and with pregnant mums, is revolutionary in its approach to pregnancy, birth and baby & child development. It highlights the importance of both mum and baby’s sensory and energy journeys whilst pregnant and our in-built connection to nature that has also been forgotten.

Therefore this is challenging all Mums-to-Be to a sponsored ‘Sleep In’, to have a morning of lazing in bed with your feet up (an important daily feature of the Routine in the Womb campaign), take part in a Facebook Live meditation and take some time to make some all-important ‘conscious sensory connections’ with their baby in the womb:

To take part:

1. To officially take part in the Big Sleep In there is a £5 registration fee and all those that enter will be given the chance to win a complete set of Angela’s Babyopathy Pregnancy & Birth Essential Oils and a signed copy of her book.
2. Of course, as always if you want to raise more funds and help raise awareness that Mums-to-Be shouldn’t be made to go through pregnancy & birth alone then our ‘Pregnancy Pack’ will help you to do that too! The link to our Just Giving Page is https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/the-big-spooky-sleepout-and-sleepin?utm_term=ZRKzPVqdZ