The Big Spooky Sleep Out (at home) & The Big Sleep In!

Don’t worry kids, Hallowe’en isn’t cancelled! So this year it may be a little different but it certainly isn’t cancelled at The Oak Rooms!

Babyopathy is delighted to join 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. However, being that they are two very different topics was a challenge.

Having taken part in a ‘Big Sleep Out’ event before to raise money for homeless charities Angela wanted to host a Big Spooky Sleep Out on Hallowe’en for her local homeless charity. However, new Covid-19 rules have made that almost impossible – but that doesn’t stop Angela!

With 25 years experience of owning nurseries and organising charitable events Angela is used to overcoming challenges and has come up with a new plan that even Covid-19 can’t stop!

The Big Spooky Sleep Out (at home)

Angela is challenging everyone (not just families) to do their bit to raise awareness for the homeless by taking part in The Big Spooky Sleep Out (at home).

Angela says “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. My favourite quote is “We can be the change we wish to see in the world”, as said by Mahatma Ghandi!’

To support others in this situation, which can also include families with young children or even pregnant women, homelessness does not discriminate, we are organising this Big Spooky Sleep Out event and here is how you can take 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!

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.

4. Donate to our Just Giving page! Of course the aim is to raise awareness and also funds so you can donate to our Just Giving Page and all funds will be split between our local (and possibly others if we raise enough) homeless charity and Routine in the Womb – Angela’s charity for reducing the risks in pregnancy & birth associated with stress.

We will be doing a series of Facebook Lives on The Oak Rooms & Babyopathy pages featuring a reading of ‘The Worries’ book to help young children talk about things that are worrying them, ‘Stories from the Street’ from Bob, the former homeless man we have been helping (not for little ones though!) and more.

But, what about the Big Sleep In?

Well, this is where we focus on Babyopathy and in particular, mums-to-be (some of whom find themselves homeless or facing homelessness too!).

Covid-19 lockdown has seen pregnant women isolated and facing all of their appointments and even labour and birth alone! This is devastating to Angela as for the last 4 years she has been raising awareness through her Routine in the Womb campaign of the risks associated from maternal stress during pregnancy. Angela says “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 25plus years 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 and lost over recent decades. It uses sensory tools such as meditatios, aromatherapy, crystals and more to nurture both mum & baby in the womb and reduce the effects of stress.

So, whilst everyone else is ‘Sleeping Out’, we are 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 (we may look a little rough around the edges after our Big Sleep Out so do forgive us) and take some time to make some all-important ‘conscious sensory connections’ with their baby in the womb! All of the details on how to do that is in Angela’s online courses which will be FREE throughout the rest of 2020! How 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!