At Aureon, our work is built around a simple observation: the postnatal period is one of the most significant health windows in a woman's life, and what happens in it — whether she receives good information, genuine human connection, and timely support — has consequences that echo for years.
In Grangemouth, where the industrial character of the town creates particular patterns of shift work, social fragmentation, and community life, mothers can find themselves profoundly isolated at exactly the moment they most need to feel held. Our response to that is concrete and consistent: we show up, every week, in accessible local venues, and we create the conditions in which mothers can show up for each other.
We are a small organisation and we intend to stay closely connected to the community we serve, but within that scale we work hard to be comprehensively present for every new mother in this town who needs us.
Each programme was shaped by Grangemouth's new mothers themselves — built from what the women in front of us told us they needed.
Our flagship programme: small, facilitated weekly gatherings for new mothers from birth to twelve months postpartum.
Circles run on Tuesday mornings and Thursday evenings at accessible venues in central Grangemouth, accommodating both daytime and shift-work households. Each session is co-facilitated by a trained peer volunteer and a qualified health professional, following a gentle structure that combines a short themed wellbeing topic with open discussion and plenty of unstructured time for mothers simply to be with each other. Places are always free, drop-in is welcome, and babies attend alongside their mothers throughout.
Monthly focused workshops covering the health topics Grangemouth's new mothers most need to understand clearly and confidently.
Topics are chosen quarterly based on direct feedback from circle members and include postnatal mental health, infant sleep, feeding choices, pelvic health and recovery, relationships after baby, and returning to work. Sessions are delivered in accessible, jargon-free language with dedicated time for questions. All content is reviewed for clinical accuracy against current NHS Scotland and SIGN guidance, and written resources are available to take home in both print and digital formats.
One-to-one support pairing isolated new mothers with a trained volunteer befriender for regular visits, genuine companionship, and a bridge into the wider circle.
Not every mother can make it to a group — particularly those recovering from difficult births, caring for multiples, or whose partners work the long shifts that Grangemouth's industrial employers demand. Our befriending programme matches these mothers with a local volunteer who has completed our twelve-hour training programme and commits to regular contact over an initial twelve-week period. Referrals come via health visitors, midwives, GPs, and self-referral, and the programme costs the mother nothing.
Quarterly informal evening sessions welcoming partners, grandparents, and close family alongside new mothers to build a whole-household understanding of the postnatal period.
In Grangemouth's shift-work households, a new mother's wellbeing is closely bound up with the understanding and involvement of those around her. These evenings create a relaxed, non-clinical space for the people who love her to understand what she may be experiencing, to ask their own questions, and to learn practical ways to support her day to day. Sessions are deliberately informal — often including supper — and consistently receive our highest satisfaction ratings of any programme we deliver.
Our active referral relationships with NHS Forth Valley's perinatal mental health team, the Falkirk Council health visiting service, and local family support organisations mean that referring a mother to Aureon is straightforward and dependable.
We are not trying to replace statutory care. We are trying to fill the spaces between appointments — those wide gaps where a mother needs someone and is not quite sure where to turn. In those spaces, Aureon is present.
Health visitors, midwives, and GPs can refer directly to our befriending programme or simply let a mother know that our circles are free, drop-in, and open to her this week.
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