Support Our Mission with a Donation
Charity no. 1203902
What we do
A small charity which works with at risk parents and babies where bonding is problematic in the crucial first 1001 days of life.
We provide therapeutic help for families within the local community to build stronger infant-parent bonds and positive relationships, by offering the primary caregiver (usually, but not invariably, the mother) a range of therapeutic interventions and support to develop a secure attachment within the infant-parent relationship, such as:
- Infant-Parent Psychotherapy, to help parents have the best possible relationship with their baby.
- Video Interaction Guidance (VIG)
- Keys to Interactive Parenting Assessment & Scale (KIPS)
- Specialist parent-infant consultation/training
- Attachment therapy for fostered and adopted children
We offer supervision to support the professional workforce of professionals working with low income, high risk parents-to-be and parents of babies up to 24 months
Explore Our Fundraising Activities
Run or jog | 101 km | In 30 days
That’s approx 3.36 km per day – flexible across the 30 days.
You can run indoors or outdoors.
Break it down as suits you: 2–5km runs, or short daily jogs.
Walking counts only if intentional and tracked (e.g., power walking).
Use the Warrior DNA Fit app to log your distance and connect to your fitbit, garmin or apple watch to track your runs.
Exercise Goal | Squats (Bodyweight or Weighted)
1001 squats across 30 days
Can be broken into sets (e.g., 3×11 or 6×5+3).
Rest between sets is allowed, but finish approx 33 each day.
Choose your level: air squats, goblet squats, jump squats, etc.
EXERCISE GOAL | PUSHUPS (ANY STYLE)
1001 pushups across 30 days..
Modified (knees), incline, or full – as long as form is good.
Break into sets throughout the day if needed.
Exercise Goal | Pull-Ups (Assisted or Unassisted)
1001 pull-ups across 30 days..
Can be strict, assisted with bands, jumping, or on a pull-up machine.
Most people will need to do this in multiple small sets (e.g., 10×3 + 3).
You may alternate with other upper body movements if needed (e.g., chin-ups).
Here’s how you can save at risk babies from neglect:
Thank you for joining the 1001 Challenge to support Au Milieu — your effort is powerful, but your fundraising is what truly transforms lives.
To get started, make sure you’ve created your fundraising page so friends, family, and colleagues can support your mission!
You can use any of the following trusted UK platforms:
🔹 JustGiving – www.justgiving.com
🔹 Enthuse – www.enthuse.com
🔹 GoFundMe UK – www.gofundme.com/en-gb
🔹 Givey – www.givey.com
🔹 Virgin Money Giving (no longer active, for reference only)
🔹 Wonderful.org – www.wonderful.org (fee-free donations)
🔹 CAF Donate (Charities Aid Foundation) – www.cafonline.org
Run 101km (10% of 1001) or Do 1001 Squats, Pushups, or Pull-ups over 30 days
Start Date:
1st of September 2025
Duration:
30 Days
Join the 30 Day 1001 Challenge to raise vital funds for Au Milieu — a charity supporting at-risk babies and parents through infant-parent psychotherapy.
You choose your challenge:
Run a total of 101 km over 30 days (3.36 km / day)
OR
Do 1001 squats, pushups, or pull-ups over 30 days.
This is more than a fitness challenge — it’s about showing up for families when it matters most.
Your effort fuels real, life-changing support:
1 in 5 babies in the UK don’t receive the sensitive, responsive care they need to thrive.
Parent-infant therapy significantly improves bonding, reduces parental anxiety, and builds long-term resilience.
Specialist teams like Au Milieu can prevent issues before they escalate into costly, long-term mental health challenges.
There are fewer than 50 specialised infant mental health teams across the UK — but every area needs one.
Early intervention during the first 1001 days transforms lives not just for today, but for generations.
Join the 30 Day 1001 Challenge to raise vital funds for Au Milieu — a charity supporting at-risk babies and parents through infant-parent psychotherapy.
Our Mission
- Enhancing the relationship between baby and caregivers
- Partnering with communities to provide specialist infant-parent psychotherapy
- Integrating services to become more equipped for babies within the first 1001 days of life
We Provide
- Infant-Parent Psychotherapy, to help parents have the best possible relationship with their baby
- Training and Supervision to support professionals who are working with babies aged up to 24 months, to help them to identify which babies to refer to our service
- Video Interaction Guidance
- Attachment Therapy for fostered and adopted children
We provide therapeutic help for families within the local community to build stronger infant-parent bonds and positive relationships, by offering the primary caregiver (usually, but not invariably, the mother) a range of therapeutic interventions and support to develop a secure attachment within the infant-parent relationship, such as:
- Infant-Parent Psychotherapy, to help parents have the best possible relationship with their baby.
- Video Interaction Guidance (VIG)
- Keys to Interactive Parenting Assessment & Scale (KIPS)
- Specialist parent-infant consultation/training
- Attachment therapy for fostered and adopted children
We offer supervision to support the professional workforce of professionals working with low income, high risk parents-to-be and parents of babies up to 24 months
How We Work
- We collaborate closely with the wider multidisciplinary team of professionals within the boroughs who work with babies and their families, to provide a warm, safe context within which the work of Infant-Parent Psychotherapy can be delivered
- We work in the home, online and in a variety of community settings, such as Children Centres, hospitals and voluntary sector settings
- The service is needs-led / Parent-led
- Practitioners work to the same principles and approaches
- Validated tools and measures are used to capture the impact of the intervention
‘Milieu’ is the social environment, the defining atmosphere or physical location in which a person lives and develops. The name Au Milieu means ‘in the midst’. It suggests a hands-on, therapeutic way of working alongside clients, to help them learn healthier ways of thinking, relating, acting and behaving, within the context of the family and society.
The organisation has two overarching goals:
- to train and equip professionals with the specialist skills required to work with the delicate infant-parent relationship
- to provide specialist therapeutic interventions for parents who are struggling to bond with their babies during pregnancy and in the first two years of life (the first 1001 critical days).
Project pioneer, Dr Yvonne Osafo from Mitcham, is a psychoanalytic infant-parent psychotherapist (IPP), a profession which encourages good early relationships between parents and their children to offer them the best possible start in life. Dr Osafo has received grant funding from the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust, to pilot an infant-family clinic providing IPP to low-income and high-risk families. This will be for parents who have undergone multiple adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), who are struggling with multiple accumulative risk factors / stresses, single-parent families, care leavers, victims of domestic abuse, alcohol, drugs or sexual abuse, those with poor mental health (such as post-partum psychosis) or who are struggling to form a positive relationship with their babies. Dr Osafo works with a specialist team of infant-parent psychotherapists and consultants. The pilot is informed by Dr Osafo’s doctorate research in psychoanalytic parent-infant psychotherapy and a Winston Churchill travel Fellowship to Czechia, Norway, Sweden and the USA in 2016, to explore best practice in infant parent psychotherapy. The purpose of the Churchill sponsorship was to ‘travel to learn and return to inspire’ the UK workforce through entrepreneurial projects.
Dr Osafo was consultant to the setting up of the Croydon Parent-Infant Partnership, where she was Clinical Lead from 2015 to November 2020.
Who can be referred?
We provide therapeutic interventions for babies and their caregivers ‘in the midst’ of the family to ensure that parents develop the best possible relationship with their baby. Our services are free but not limited to for low income, high risk parents-to-be and parents of babies up to 24 months (the first 1001 critical days of life).
- mothers who were pregnant during lockdown or babies born during lockdown; see the Best Beginnings report
- care leavers
- victims of domestic violence (must no longer be in abusive relationship)
- have been dependent on alcohol and/or drugs (but receiving help)
- those with poor mental health such as mothers who have suffered from post-partum psychosis (we collaborate with adult mental health service)
- post-natal depression, anxiety disorders and OCD as well as PTSD, including birth trauma
- premature / VLBW babies
- babies must be under 24 months
Referred families must live in the boroughs of Merton, Sutton, Wandsworth, Kingston and Richmond.
Concerned about your baby?
Download our Referral Form here and book a Consultation via the Form below or email it to us at team@au-milieu.org and we will get back to you within 48 hours of receiving your enquiry.