I’ ve had two life coaching sessions so far and they gone really well. I thought it would be nice to share what I have learnt so far and whether it could help your life, family and business too.

1)It’s not about doing anything right or wrong – it’s about organising everything to make sure you can be more efficient and gain a good work life/balance

2) Sometimes the scales will tip from one side to the other. That’s ok but make sure you take control as soon as you or your family notice

3) Keep a diary for a week of all the things you do each day seperating each area of you life with colour. At the end of the week review how much you have achieved and whether you can be more focussed the following week

4) Prioritise per day. If you’ve only got 20 mins to spend on social networking make sure you maximise it. Use a mix of scheduled tweets and interacting. I remember that in 2010 @babysigningmummy gave herself a 20 minute allowance for twitter and facebook each day.

5) Life isn’t meant to be easy when you’re a working mummy so make sure you have time to have FUN. There is no better stress relief than rolling around like a child ;)

We’ve got a guest blog from one of our own clients today, Dean & Steph from Daddynatal and Bump, Birth & Beyond. They’ve had a brilliant week, going from teaching local classes, to national coverage via a TV appearance. I thought it would be really helpful for other people who have small businesses to hear that opportunities for national coverage are out there, if you’re prepared to work hard and make the most of the opportunities available….. 

While everyone else seems to be winding down for Easter things have never been busier at Bump Birth and Beyond Ltd. It has been a hectic week, but a very positive hectic week!

Our busy week kicked off on Saturday, listening to the first interview Dean had recorded for The Baby Show broadcast on Star Radio. The interview was focused on the role of the dad in pregnancy, and very exciting for us, as it was the first ‘official’ interview Dean had done, and it definitely was a great learning experience.

Then, Sunday saw us officially announce our partnership with Peterborough City Hospital at Peterborough Baby Show. Bump, Birth and Beyond are now running DaddyNatal and Active Birth Classes, on behalf of the hospital, free to parents. How fantastic to have a Head of Midwifery who is so forward thinking, she really is one of the first in the country to recognise that fathers/birth partners have huge antenatal education needs which have never (until now!) been met.

There was an excellent response to the news of the classes, with signups both on the day and since. Both courses are already 10% full, and we are still awaiting the formal press release and for the community midwifery team to start promotion yet!

Sunday also marked the completion of the first part of training for our new Daisy Birthing teacher, Alison. Courses have been so successful that Steph cannot keep up with demand on her own, so we are extremely excited about Alison’s arrival. She will commence teaching in June which will allow us to offer more courses in even more locations.

On Monday and Tuesday evenings, Steph was out teaching her regular Daisy Birthing classes in Peterborough and St Ives. Steph teaches classes to around 40 pregnant ladies a week, as well as managing all the bookings and day-to-day admin of the company. And she looks after our two toddlers full time as well!

Little did we realise what more the week still held in store… At 10pm Wednesday evening, Steph arrived home from yet another Daisy Birthing class to the news that Dean had been invited down the next day onto The Vanessa Show on Channel 5 to talk about fathers at birth. Turns out a producer had heard his interview on The Baby Show website and wanted him there for a discussion segment about birth! How could we refuse…?!

So scrapping all previous arrangements for Thursday, Dean travelled to London to record the show. To say he was nervous would be a major understatement! He was petrified to be doing his first TV appearance only a few days after his very first ever live media interview! But, of course, he was also really excited. The people were brilliant and he had the pleasure of meeting and talking to Pearl Lowe and Christina Hopkinson, as part of the segment on the discussion of fathers at birth. They were lovely and certainly put Dean at ease (although nerves kicked back in once the cameras started rolling!). You can see his appearance here and judge for yourselves how Dean got on at The Vanessa Show.

Feel free to comment as we would love to hear your feedback. It was a long day though – Dean left home at 11.30am, and didn’t get home again until 8.30pm (luckily Thursdays are Steph’s evening off!)

But there was still work to be done… Friday saw us at a meeting at Peterborough Hospital to discuss some of the logistics of our partnership, and then followed by an agreement that we would produce contact and reference packs for the community midwives, so that became our focus on Saturday!

However, the support and excitement of what we are doing, coming direct from the midwives is so refreshing. It really is a pleasure to be working with them all.

And finally, we finished the week on Sunday with one of our Couples Antenatal Workshops in Kettering. Our classes are jointly run between the both of us, to make sure that we cover all the essential points from both the mum and birth partner perspective. It was a really great class – we thoroughly enjoyed it, and then arrived home in time to spend the remainder of the afternoon in the garden with our two children.

So a busy week made busier by some unforeseen media appearances! A great experience though and we look forward to seeing what the next few weeks brings us.

So that was our hectic week how was yours?

Marketing Week talks family stuff

This article in Marketing Week made me think today, about how organisations that market to people in pregnancy, the new baby / newborn phase, toddlers and beyond, really need to think a bit more about how they talk to people.

Because the person buying the buggy / travel system / stroller / cot bed is not neccessarily the parents. And marketeers need to think about this a bit more when they talk to people. When we bought our double buggy my parents and my in laws both wanted to check it out. Which I found a bit weird, but as they were paying, I went along with it. And I saw at the Baby Show in London the other week, that they do grandparent tickets, which is a smart move, but I wonder if the could go further, I don’t know how – but I think there’s mileage there.

And if you’re going to be leaving your Precious First Born, Ignored Second Child or Feral Third Child etc with grandparents for any kind of childcare you want to be sure that you are leaving them with kit that they can use – that is functional, light, works in the long term and is going to fit in their car boot as well as yours, surely?

So whose buggy is baby friendly and grandparent friendly? Anyone know of one? Would be interested to hear in something that’s marketed as being easy for everyone to use, including grandparents who are going to influence the purchase of things in one way or another….

What? I know. I’m nuts, telling you how to get more for your money when I sell advertising myself. But there’s a method in my madness, I promise, so stick with me. Advertising calls. How annoying are they? Very!! I know they are because I’m on the phone so much, selling it. I’m in such a tricky position because I sell advertising in the New Baby Guides and the Young Families Bump, Baby and Toddler Show programmes and know that I’m one of maybe five calls you’ll get each day, selling you something.

But sitting on the other side of the fence, I advise clients as to how to make the most of any advertising opportunity they are thinking of participating in. So here are my top tips to ask when you are thinking of booking an advert in something:

1. Ask them to send you a sample of the publication. If it’s new to the market be wary. Be very wary. Of course, I can only say this now my publications are up and running, but I’d be uber cautious about something where’s there’s no proof of concept.
2. Check them out with other people locally. Is this their real business? Their proper job? Or something they’ve latched on to as an idea? Or that they are copying from someone else? Ask them how they came to be doing the publication. What are their credentials?
3. Ask for an explanation of how they know their circulation (even more so if it’s new) and if they can provide evidence of it. As an example, we have a letter from our Heads of Midwifery for each New Baby Guide we do and it has in it, that we are working in partnership with them and what the circulation will be.
4. Check out the small print – do they charge you for amends to your existing advert? How much? We charge for this, depending on the size of the advert and how much work is involved. When it’s a bigger advert, we do it for free, because it’s important to us to show our clients that we want them for the long term.
5. Ask for recommendations. We put them on our Facebook pages and on our website. It’s good to do that sort of thing, to show people you are legitimate and proud of what you do.
6. Negotiate. Ask for either a) a discount if you pay now in full and with print ready artwork or b) for a small change to be made to your advert for free or c) some editorial for free if you are booking a big advert.
7. Ask about exclusivity. We offer it, but our clients pay extra for it. Don’t expect to be the only doula in a New Baby Guide as that’s not reasonable, unless you are prepared to pay for the cost of the other adverts that would be there from them as well as your own.
8. Join up with other advertisers who you are not in direct competition with. As an example, if a half page costs £545 and a full page costs £895 why not find someone else to do it with you, so you both pay £447.50 – and tell the advertising sales person that you want a discount for being organized!
9. Ask what page number you will be on and what’s going to be advertising/featured next to it. You want to aim to not be next to your competitors as it’s info overload for the reader. (with thanks to @iamcharlieross for thinking of this one for us)

Anyway, that’s just my initial thoughts on what to do when you are thinking about advertising. If you’re ever looking at advertising in something and want me to take a look over it, I’m happy to help, at no cost.  Email me at liz@westoncommunications.org.uk or call me on 01223 501520.Why? Because there’s nothing worse than people spending money on advertising for a publication that won’t go ahead, or looks naff, or has a poor distribution as you too, by association, will suffer. And it reflects badly on the whole industry. Believe me, I’ve seen some pretty lame examples…

And here’s my sales pitch: If you have a business, service or product in the pregnancy, parenting, birth or family market, please get in touch with us and see how we can help you reach more than 104,000 families each year in NHS branded publications. The New Baby Guides are the only publication that goes out via our NHS Maternity Units other than Bounty. Anything else that says it does is not representing themselves accurately.

We can send you samples of our NHS Maternity Unit publications – the New Baby Guides, references, referrals, letters from Heads of Midwifery stating that we are working with them and have a wealth of contacts who could help you cross promote your business at no extra cost to yourself.

What are your top tips to consider when thinking about booking an advert? Would really appreciate your input on this one…..

Beautiful mum and her new baby

On the one hand, I think this story is quite funny, because I don’t know many people who would consciously try to get pregnant again within 6 months of a baby arriving… So there’s lots of “uh huh, not a problem here as we aren’t having sex” lines. But as people who wanted a small ish gap between children, it’s interesting reading to hear that the “risk of complications is higher among women who conceive another child soon after a birth”.

Dr Sarah Brewer has a book out, about pregnancy so I appreciate that she wants to make headlines and get media coverage. She reported that “women who conceive within six months of giving birth face a 60 per cent higher risk of delivering a low-birth-weight baby compared to women whose child was conceived between 18 and 34 months since last giving birth. Furthermore, the risk of premature birth in increased by as much as 40 per cent.”

The comments come after a recent study published in the journal Pediatrics found that children who are born after shorter intervals between pregnancies are at an increased risk of being autistic.

Dr Brewer advised: “In an ideal world, it’s best to recover from the rigours of pregnancy and childbirth. It takes at least nine months to build up nutritional status again, as pregnancy increases your requirements for vitamins A, B1, B2, C, D and folic acid.”

I’ve heard people talk about a window where ‘mother nature’ makes you not want to have sex, because it’s not good for you to be pregnant again quickly. I’ve also heard people talk about ‘mother nature’ kicking back in again when your baby is around 18 months old, as that’s when your body is ready to do it again. So this seemed quite interesting to me.

What do you think of it? What gap do you have between your children? Would you have the same gap again, or longer or shorter?

The original text can be found here:

THE lunch invite of the year

Want to come to a posh lunch with lots of smart women?

I recently joined the Wellbeing of Women Cambridge fundraising committee. Wellbeing of Women is a charity which is having a huge impact on women’s issues and I’m pleased to have been invited to get involved in their work.

In March 2010 we held a luncheon that was oversubscribed and had to return cheques to some who wanted to come.

On 7 March 2011 we are holding another luncheon and suggest you buy your ticket now to guarantee your place. Numbers are strictly limited and we are confident that this, our second annual lunch will be better than our first!

Date: Monday 7 March
Cost: £30. This will include a 2 course lunch, wine and coffee.
Venue: Robinson College, Cambridge
Times: 11.30am networking, 12.15pm lunch, followed by guest speaker. We will be done by 2.30pm in time for a school run….

Why you should come:

1. Because I’m inviting everyone who is relevant, important and interesting to come and meet each other, network and identify new opportunities.

2. Because it will be filled with the great, good, movers and shakers of Cambridgeshire and beyond…

3. Because it will be a great way to support Wellbeing of Women.

4. Because you will get to see me wearing a dress and heels. Which was last seen at my wedding..

If you are unfamiliar with our work Wellbeing of Women is a charity that raises money to improve women’s health through research, training and education. Wellbeing of Women is proud to support the efforts of Addenbrookes Abroad to improve the outcomes for mothers and babies in El Salvador through training and education, part of the proceeds of this event will go to support their work.

Wellbeing of Women is currently investigating:
A cure for ovarian cancer using virotherapy
What causes hot flushes
How to treat and prevent endometriosis
How to prevent miscarriages
How to prevent premature birth
A new cure for incontinence
And many other topics that will give women and their babies a healthier life.

I hope that you will agree that this is a very worthwhile cause and that you will support our lunch.   Please feel free to look up Wellbeing of Women at www.wellbeingofwomen.org.uk

Hope that you will be able to make it, it’s going to be a great day.
Many thanks

Funny mummy aka @cambridgemummy (on the left)

Someone told me recently that I need to write more like I would talk to people in real life, that I’m “actually very funny”.

I don’t know if that means that my blog posts are not funny at all. Or just could have a bit more ‘humour’ in them.

So now that I’ve sat down to write something funny, I can’t. Which is most annoying. So instead, to prove that I am funny, or rather, that I generate funny stuff, here are some of the responses I got last week when I posted on twitter:

“You know you’re tired when”…

“@PigletsBoutique: when you put your knickers on after your tights!” >> ouch!

u know ur tired when u have to stop the car to make sure u did put the baby in and haven’t left him in his car seat at home

A new baby is a wonderful thing. New baby twins are a double blessing and generate disproportionately more interest. #CambridgeMummyFact  Whether you’ve had the birth from hell or a “perfect birth”, (whatever that means to you), your hormones will still play havoc with you and your body in the days, weeks and months afterwards. So I thought it was brilliant to hear Celine Dion saying that she basically didn’t know what had hit her in the first few days and weeks after her twins arrived recently.The UK Press Association has even put something out there about it…

“Dion has revealed she is knackered by her newborn twins, but finds them “an intense joy… I am changing nappies and breastfeeding and that’s something where no one can take my place – it’s tiring but an intense joy.

“I didn’t have these children to not take care of them, [but] to give myself to them 200 – 300 per cent,” she added. Celine – who is also mum to nine-year-old son Rene-Charles – has not had much time for herself.

“In reality, I’ve had almost no time getting a shower and feeding myself. My preoccupation has been eating sensibly,” she admitted. “My only worry has been to be able to open and close [my tops] quickly for breastfeeding. It’s been out of the question to even wear a blouse!”

Since giving birth, the 42-year-old lost her appetite and suffered from mood changes. “Some of the first days after I came home, I was a little outside myself. I had no appetite and that bothered me. My mother remarked that she noticed I had moments of lifelessness, but reassured me that this was entirely normal,” she recalled.

“One moment, tremendous happiness; the next, fatigue sets in, and I cried for no reason, and then that took care of itself. It’s for things like that after having a baby that mothers really need emotional support.”

BRILLIANT. Someone who has lots of help admitting that it’s not all roses and lovely moments in the first days, weeks and months, whether you are becoming a mummy for the first or fifth time…  I wasn’t going to comment on her quotes, until I saw other agencies picking it up and extrapolating from this, that she has post natal depression. Misery and fear sells, for sure, but to me, it just sounds like she’s telling it like it is, as a new mum. PND, what a load of hooey. Not on the basis of these quotes alone….

I don’t for a moment think  this was a plug to selling anything for her. But if it was, she’s succeeded. Why? Because honesty is much more appealing to me. Particularly when I can relate to it… It’s similar to my other post on how I view my clients I suppose. But I tell you something, it’s making me think I want to check Celine Dion out more, so kudos to her for being honest about her new life experiences. In doing  so, she’s bringing a whole new demographic of previously disinterested women into her sphere. A Smart Bird In Every Respect eh?

I’m off to find some Celine on itunes ;) What are your memories of life with your new baby? Those first few days, weeks and months? The high points? The low points? Would love some comments on this.

*image courtesy of www.dailystab.com

We always hear of technology being used to make money, which people complain about, or to gain a competitive edge. So I thought you would like to see technology being used for something good!

Lt. Michael Palomo, serving in the Army, in Iraq, saw his baby daughter arrive via the miracle of Skype.

I think it’s brilliant that technology can be used for something that keeps families together, even when they can’t be together physically.

New baby arrives on skype*

The full story is here

*Image courtesy of The Sundusky Register.

Don’t you think it’s lovely to see technology being used for something so lovely? Have you seen anything similar recently? Please leave a comment below, would be nice to see more of it.

Help me with this one please. Who has time to video the arrival of their baby? Which bloke out there is not being subjected to having the pain ‘shared’ with him, at the most special (and painful) moment of the birthing process?

Someone is, because some doctors overseas have started objecting to births being videoed.

Why? To encourage maternal bonding with new babies? To involve men in the birthing process more? Nope. So that the footage can’t be used should anything go wrong with the birth. I know.

For the file, if you are a bloke and reading this, I do not think that your Mrs will want you to be holding anything other than her hand, mopping her brow or doing whatever she damm well tells you to at the point of birth.

I haven’t seen a baby marketing campaign yet where the photo is required to be the moment of birth, or videos of babies arriving. I suppose someone will go and do it now. Yuk.

Did you have photos of yourself giving birth? Literally giving birth? Who wants to see your lady bits at that point? Did you have someone video it? Who? Show me how it’s a good thing, I like being proved wrong….