Chelle’s back and is switching off! But she has come back with thinking about the language of business…. (more…)

Following National Breastfeeding Awareness week how can we support Breastfeeding mums to feel confident with breastfeeding in public? The story of one mum being asked by a council representative to stop feeding in Oldham Civic Centre shows how uninformed others still are about breastfeeding. Chelle McCann pops in to discuss…

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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?

I’ve started working with a life coach. I’ve started to notice since having my daughter that my concentration span is minimal and that I have become rather scatty.

Before having my daughter I was the organisational queen, Monica from friends wasn’t a patch on me, my OCD cleaning and my role as a Personal Assistant to a Head of Service within local government meant I was the ultra PA – I organised everything, even my knicker draw was laid out in a particular way and I’d organise husband’s draws too!

So when the offer came of working with a life coach in return for using me as a case study came along I jumped at the chance!

The first of my six fortnightly session was spent talking about where I thought I was going wrong. For me my organisational skills had disappeared. It took this person to show me what I already knew but also what I’d been missing.

My first task was to get diaries for different aspects of my life – family life/work life/business life  (I have my own business as well as having a 30 hour a week job). I was to give a set time to my own business in order to focus more clearly on each client, I was to put family appointments and diaries in order, I was to write a to do list everyday.

Now not all of this has worked but I’ve come to a happy inbetween to start with.

1) a family diary that has all birthdays/flat related items/important dates in

2) a rota for cleaning so that as a family we don’t waste a day tidying up at the weekend

3) A colour coded diary – so each area of my life has a colour and with my to do list I organise each day

Now – this has started to help, I feel I have more control and am starting to relax from the panicky state I got in if I didn’t do everything all at once. If something doesn’t get done it goes as a priority on the next day. I’m hoping to get to the stage where I’m not wading against a tide but am in fact focussed and more methodical. To be honest I’m starting to find it clearer now. Not so foggy and I can see the sunshine of my business blooming within this first two weeks.

The one I now need to plan out is my set times for business. This proves hard when I work with other people like me – mums who need to chat after the kids have gone to bed. Between 8 and 9pm is always the best time.

I’d love to hear suggestions on how you time manage and what tips you have!

This coming week it is International Women’s Day and it is the centenary year.

Sometimes themes are selected to celebrate, sometimes not but each country hosts events to celebrate this day.

In 2011 the theme is Equal access to education, training and science and technology: Pathway to decent work for women.I find it amazing that we even have to discuss that women may not have access to these things as I believe they are right of every woman, man and child.

It makes me very grateful for what I have had the opportunity to do. I went to School and University, a financial struggle for the latter but not a gender struggle. I have access to the technology I need to run a business, entertain me and interact.

Am I equal to a Man in the same area of work, maybe not but do I want to be? I am striving to be the best I can be myself whether my gender predetermines this or not surely that I am following my own path is what matters completely?

For other cultures, countries this may not be the same so I encourage you all to think about what equality means to you and how we can improve it for others.

What will you be doing on 8th March 2011?

I read this article with great interest. A Manchester hospital is introducing tagging but security guards are no longer being employed or services decreased.

Is this another cost saving initiative that will go wrong or a clever idea?

My 3 day stay after the birth of my daughter was in a labour ward where visitors had to buzz to get in and staff had a code to tap in. To me this felt quite secure. Visitors had to report to a desk and I am pretty sure that a security guard was pacing the halls at night.

The tagging system discussed in the article does make me wonder how ‘safe’ this is, how secure and how reliable. Although the hospital still have their security measures, such as the ones I encountered above, how soon will staff become reliant or relaxed because they have this in place? Is this system really needed? No where are statistics shared on the effect this has on child abduction or the electronic waves pulsing next to baby’s skin.

Relying on electronics where a person can do a job is not always the way forward. Failures in systems, false alarms happen and although I am sure that the tags are probably put through their paces we cannot rely on them fully.

In the long run will this only cost more money?

Today it was announced that This Morning had organised their maternity leave cover for Holly Willoughby. Two presenters from GMTV will be covering when the star goes on leave to have and spend time with her daughter in May this year. Three months in advance.

This got me thinking about my own maternity leave cover when I had my daughter and how easy I had it that it was left for me to arrange, well no one else wanted to do it. No one else had the time. I wanted to ensure a good cover so I had a smooth return.

It got pretty near to my leave date when I realised that no one was going to organise cover for my role and I did it myself. Office restructure talk and my former boss leaving had taken it’s toll on all around me leaving me in a state of uncertainty surrounding my cover.

In the end I approached an agency we had used before myself and nagged a manager in the team to interview with me. I was very conscious that my role should be well covered as I dealt with high level meetings, reports and complaints.

I coerced this manager to interview a candidate he had passed on but my gut instinct had told me she was the right person for my job and it felt good to have put someone in my place that could learn as well as manage. She was similar to me when I had first started office based work, a graduate with no on the job experience but plenty of enthusiam.

So what’s the crux of this blog?

No one knows but the person doing the job who is best to cover them? Maybe. But they should be able to leave a job safe in the knowledge that it is well looked after.

The person doing the job really should have chilled out more and enjoyed the end of pregnancy? Possibly.

Employers should be more aware of what they need Maternity Leave Cover (it’s not just keeping a seat warm for a year) and the implications cover can have on a mummy returning to work. Definately.

I’m asked regularly as to how I get my work done. So here’s three things that make Weston Communications PR and Marketing, the New Baby Guides and the Young Families Bump, Baby and Toddler Shows possible:

1. My husband. He is quite literally “the daddy”, in every aspect. He’s taken to play dough,  cooking,  train tracks, making pack ups (lunches in a sandwich box) to a toddler’s changing whim and sometimes,  ironing and cleaning. He thinks he does more of the latter than I do, but we’ll not split hairs over that. Not least because someone will have to tidy up after those hairs… Ahem. And as well as doing full time daddy daycare, he’s also an electrician who goes out at short notice to help people. Usually when they’ve tried to do something themselves to save £££ and messed it up. I’d hate to have to go and fix someone else’s mistakes whilst they watched me, quietly seething… But he does that as well. There’s no end to his talents. And did you see our fireplace? He made that as well.  And our fitted cupboards upstairs. he’s an all round top bloke.

And that’s without me going into how he supports me through thick and thin, emotionally and physically…. He’s my cheerleader and sounding board, the person I shout at when people annoy me, or don’t pay their bills on time. I count my blessings in having found him.

2. Hannah Elsom. She’s known as the “Glue” of Weston Communications for a very good reason. Because she brings everything together, and sticks it in the right places, so it all works nicely. Need something scheduling, there’s Hannah. Need admin, fiances, coaxing and cajoling doing, there’s Hannah. Need motivating and keeping off facebook, mumsnet and dare I say it, the Daily Mail online, there’s Hannah. She’s amazing. She’s made such a difference to my performance, and enabled me to move forward and develop Weston Communications into something that I never thought possible. Every time I think, “thank god for Hannah”, I tell her how grateful I am for her – she usually looks at me all “??? she’s off  again”. But it’s nice to know you are  needed and valued every so often, isn’t it?

3. My cheerleaders. My mum and dad, my brother, TJ, Debi, Eileen, Rachel, Carmen, Karen, AKT, Lorraine, Annie, Jacqueline and Kate. I’m sure there are more that I’ve not remembered, so I’m sorry if I’ve forgotten anyone. It’s so important to have different cheerleaders for different things. When I think I can’t be a working mum any more, I call Rachel Yoxen, who reassures me that it’s ok that my house  is untidy and that if I had a weekend to myself, it would be filled with sleeping. When I worry that I’ve stretched myself too much,  I have TJ, Eileen and Debi on hand, who reassure me about business matters and direct me towards Susan Jeffers and Feel the Fear and Do it Anyway… And when I want to know how to do something parenting related, I can call on Lorraine, whose knowledge of food and allergies is amazing, and Karen, Annie, Jacqueline and Kate are such good mums that I’m confident to ask for their advice and reassurance on anything parenting related. And Anne of course, if my moral compass. If I’m not sure if something is a good idea or not,  I call Anne. She’s so straight, it must be hard to get dressed in a morning. 

I love and am so grateful to them all for everything they so generously give me and my life and help me on my path to, well, I’ve not quite worked that one out yet….

What and who makes your work happen? Have you told them how much you value them recently? Tell me here, who you value and if I can think of something appropriate to send them as a small reward for what they do for you, I’ll put something in the post….

Am expecting lots of replies for this one, so get writing now…

Things are perking up here at WCHQ (that’s Weston Comms HQ, I’ve decided to give us a title…) Why? Because I’ve finally listened to what people are telling me. I know,  funny eh? Yesterday Karlee Aiken, of Aiken Bodiestold me that she’d been waiting for me  to call her as  she was so keen to rebook  her advertising in the Chelmsford New Baby Guide. She advertised in the New Baby Guide, and one other place in the last 12 months.

The Chelmsford New Baby Guide has worked so well for her business that it’s all she’s going to do for the next 12 months. That’s such a powerful testimonial isn’t it?

I was so pleased to hear Karlee tell me that. We’ve never actually met, but I’ve told so many people about her classes and what she does, as she’s a great example of really working positively with women to help them get out of the house and exercise whilst keeping their babies with them. I’d never told her this of course, as I didn’t want to sound too cheesy with a client…

So today I’m going to email three people with testimonials:
1. Debi Hogston of Waterbabies - for making my littlest excited at the prospect of “Debi swimming” rather than sobbing at the mention of the word swimming…
2. Tracey Jane Hughes of Bras4Mums - for uplifting my boobs (literally) and uplifiting my business (through her support and advice)
3. Natasha of Buxton Press - for being reliable, smart and cost effective printers

Actually, there’s a number 4. Weleda baby- Jacqueline told me that she’d finally tried the Weleda Baby range as I’d been “going on about it” – the calendula shampoo and body wash has sorted Samuel’s skin out nicely and the nappy cream is their no 1 choice now for bottom care. You can’t get much better than that can you? Wait, you can! You can get free stuff from them – check out their facebook page and see what you can win! I’ve had a lush Rose Soap. It is lovely…

Who could you write a testimonial for today? Who do you use, like or appreciate? Tell them about it!!

Colic. I don’t want to get into whether it exists or not, because I believe it does. And that some babies suffer with it more than others. Looking at images of babies crying to put into this post, I got choked up just thinking about the nights we had with both our boys where they were inconsolable…

Fox news has reported today on research in the Journal of Pediatrics which suggests that “that infants who took a daily drop of probiotic supplement cried one third less than babies who didn’t. Probiotics are healthy bacteria that help keep the intestines working properly. Dr. Joseph Levy says, ‘If there are less spasms and the muscles don’t contract so strong, the baby won’t feel pain. ‘Colic affects up to 28 percent of infants but doctors aren’t sure what causes it. When diagnosing the condition doctors refer to the rule of threes–crying for more than 3 hours .. At least three days a week .. For at least three weeks. Probiotic products for babies are already on the market but parents should check with their pediatrician before adding any to their child’s diet. Dr. Levy says, ‘not every probiotic is the same and not every baby that cries has colic.’

More studies need to be done before probiotics can be used to treat colic. And I’m not suggesting parents should put yakult into their babies by any means, but this sounds basically like common sense. And these days, with two toddlers under my belt, I’m all for the simplest approach to helping our babies, toddlers and children through whatever ailments they are suffering from.

At any rate, I’m pleased to hear that colic is being thought about by professionals, rather than suggesting it doesn’t exist. When Elliott was a baby I remember a midwife with 25 years experience telling me that infacol and other “remedies” have no scientific backing. I was disappointed to hear this as it came well recommended by others. She then went on to add that it is entirely possible that it’s having a positive effect because babies and parents feel like they are doing something to help themselves and each other through the misery of colic filled evenings. And that to me, is common sense again – the placebo effect yes, but if it’s making mummies, daddies and babies a little more able to cope together, I’m up for it.

What do you think of this research? Did your little people experience colic? How did you cope with it? What worked? What didn’t? Am sure there are people out there who would appreciate anything if they’re in the midst of dealing with it at the moment…..

Here’s a couple of links to other sites with suggestions for helping babies with colic:
Bupa suggestions for colic in babies
NHS Choices suggestions for colic in babies
Netdoctor suggestions for treating colic in babies