Sadly, it wasn’t meant to be, as Elliott was breech. That means he was bottom first, rather than head first. The shift manager at the Rosie Maternity Unit in Cambridge was nice enough, when she was brought in by the midwife, and said “Yes. I’ll bet next months salary on that being a bum”…

Four years later, I can thank several people and organisations for  helping my husband and I to keep calm, whilst  people started flapping around us.

1. Selina, my midwife  and Gillian Pett – another local  midwife.
Selina was a smart, savvy midwife whose practical approach made me realise that although I thought I was unique, lots of people actually have babies all the time, and it’s a normal process. 

Gillian Pett taught the NHS Antental Classes that we attended. She also took us on our tour of the Maternity Unit. She’s a no nonsense woman, but one who encouraged us to get the births we wanted. If the birthing pools were in use, don’t worry, go and run the bath, and use one of them. Just like you would at home. I loved her. And so did Richard. And when we were in the position of having people rushing  around us, we took  time to  remember what Gillian had said about caesarean sections, and how to make the most of the situation we found ourselves in… To not feel like we needed to make decisions to comply, but to take time to work out what we wanted. And to  make use of the facilities available – water and drugs….

2. Alison Marcus, my NCT Teacher.
I cannot put into words the impact that Alison had on my pregnancy and our early months as parents. If only we’d paid more attention when we covered c sections! Mind you none of us did, because we were all working towards a natural birth. Moving on… Alison taught us an acronym that I can’t remember now but it was all about asking what the options, alternatives, specifically what was happening, questions, time lines available and to ask with a smile. I can’t believe I can’t remember it, I’ll email her and ask. At the time, in labour due to the drip, with people rushing around us, we kept calm. Richard even asked everyone to go out and leave us alone to have  some thinking  time – another thing that Alison told us we could do.  They didn’t like it, but we took that time, and got ourselves together for the upcoming change in plan.

Postnatally, we  found that Alison’s experiences as a mum of four, meant that she’d taught us some important stuff. Like the fact that  it would be normal for Richard to come home and say “Really, you didn’t manage to go and buy milk today?” and that our baby would not be sleeping through the night by three months of age. And that you can do whatever you can to get through the nights and days without thinking that you are failing parents because you don’t do it the same as other people. I don’t know how she actually did that, but they are the things Richard and I remember.  Feeling more confident about becoming parents, that we weren’t on our own and that  the support was there for us. When Alison gave us her phone number at the end of the course, it went straight on our fridge as soon as we got home. Apparently it went on the fridge for the  rest of  our course  mates as well…..

So there we have it. I loved and still do love my NHS Midwives and my NCT antenatal teacher. We are eternally grateful  to them for the care and support they have given us. People are so quick to complain about NHS Midwives, but I can tell you that they do an amazing job with the resources they have. And that I’m privileged to have the opportunity to work with them on the New Baby Guides  and so  chuffed to  be  able to donate money to support staff training and  birthing aids for women in labour….  And as for people who join the NCT being tree hugging hippies, well I can tell you that I don’t know anyone who is a hippy, or hugs trees!! The people we’ve met have been smart, successful, non cliquey and we’re grateful to know them. 

If you want to know more about the NCT, find classes in your area or local groups, check out the NCT website. You don’t have to be a member to attend the antenatal classes, or postnatal groups,  so just check them out and have a go. And if you get the chance to go to NHS Antenatal Classes, go to them and make the most of the opportunity….

Things I’m grateful for… is a post from: Baby PR and baby marketing experts

testing testing. can you see a video of william signing here? is a post from: Baby PR and baby marketing experts

Did you recognise anyone in the January 2011 edition of Agenda?

Of course you did. It’s Lucy Baynes, Debi Hogston and Rachel Yoxen – three Cambridge based, self employed, hard working women who are also mums. For most of us out there, it’s hard to find the time to think about looking after yourself.

So, despite their natural trepidation, they kindly agreed to show us how it can be done. With the help of the John Lewis Cambridge personal shoppers and make up teams each of our women had had a clothes and make up make over, with brilliant results.

Debi, who runs Water Babies for Peterborough and Cambridge said: ‘The makeover made me feel special, which is exactly what I wanted. It’s set me up for a cracking start to a fantastic year.’

Rachel, who founded Riverdene Accounting in 2009, got a new look from Shelley at Bobbi Brown.‘My favourite bit from today is the makeup,’ she said.‘It’s given me the confidence to try new things. I’ll be going back for another treat for my birthday.

Lucy, who runs Small Print Fingerprint Jewellery for Cambridge, was thrilled with the results, saying, ‘My family never buy me clothes, as I’m so picky about what I wear. It was amazing how even though Dolly had never met me, she understood me. The boots are on my birthday list and my husband is under strict instruction to get them for me!’

I hope that these women being brave enough to over come their nerves for a magazine shoot will encourage you to try something new for yourself and your business in 2011. What you think of their make overs? How you are going to look after yourself a bit more in 2011?

* Photos in the article were courtesy of the brilliant Lorraine Penny of www.mylittleportrait.co.uk – a Cambridge based mum who takes beautiful shots of bumps, babies and their families as well as lots of other things! Check her out

Here come the girls…. is a post from: Baby PR and baby marketing experts

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….

Videoing the arrival of your baby… is a post from: Baby PR and baby marketing experts

How do we make sure people know about us? We tell them in lots of different ways and via lots of different mediums.

One good way is via free listing directories. If you click on this link  you can see a free index site that I liked the look of and signed up to today.

Why should you sign up to free listings like this?
1. It could bring you new business, which is nice.
2. If you use your bestest keywords it will help your google rankings, which is nice. 
3. Someone may come along and recommend your business, which is nice.
4. You’ll be seen as someone worth looking at when you come up lots in searches, which is nice.

That’s just some things I’ve thought of off the top of my head, but there’s lots more. So I suggest you have a look, and think about how you can improve your presence and ranking online, for free, in 2011. 

Look forward to seeing you on there soon. What directories do you use? What do you like? What do you not like? Please come and tell me in the comments…

You don’t need to yell… is a post from: Baby PR and baby marketing experts

Not so good things:

1. My dad’s cancer scare. Dad told “you have prostate cancer, we need to scan to see how far it has spread”. When he didn’t have cancer at all. That was a bad week with me all but selling our house there and then for us to move nearer my mum and dad.

2. My £125 swimming costume from La Perla that looked great but has started to disintegrate after very little wear, because it doesn’t like chlorine. Do you know of any pools that don’t have chlorine. Apparently the pools I swim in, have too much of it, so it’s my fault. #LaPerlaFail and get no more of my hard earnt money.

3. The rude man on holiday who said I was “fat”. Very loudly. At the swimming pool.

4. Working too many hours. Enough said.

5. Not keeping to date nights with husband. We couldn’t afford it, children we ill, I had to work, there was nothing at the cinema. Etc.

6. Two New Baby Guides being behind schedule. Not good.

7. Missing out on our September Sands holiday because I was too busy working. Shame on me.

8. Putting my foot in it with friends. Valuable lesson learnt about keeping my mouth well and truly shut.

… and that’s it. I can’t think of any more. So I’m quite pleased with that…

Good things in 2010:

1. Going on our first posh, 5*, all inclusive holiday together. And using childcare in a guilt free fashion!

2. Finding the balls to sit down quietly next to the rude man who said I was “fat” too loudly at the pool, and tell him how I’d gotten such a dispraportionately large belly via an emergency c section that went wrong and left me with a very bad infection that made me very poorly indeed, and how thankful I was that my husband was nothing like him.

3. Recruiting Hannah Elsom, the glue / WD40 and all things fab that keeps Weston Communications on track.

4. Winning our first ever award, as Young Entrepreneur of the Year, for the New Baby Guides.

5. Getting on the radio as a result of 4, and starting a fledgling radio career from it!!

6. Securing our first, formal contract, for delivery of a project.

7. Developing public relations services as a commercially viable activity from 6 and other good stuff that happened.

8. William and Elliott starting preschool in Stapleford, settling in nicely, and making all sorts of weird and wonderful stuff for us.

9. Richard being able to give up his work, so I could work full time with him becoming a full time stay at home dad. Brilliant.

10. William overcoming his hatred of the swimming pool, to the point where he will now bob about happily on his woggle. We love it as much as he does.

11. Starting to do date nights with my husband.

12. Getting a new ironing board from my parents for Christmas. It’s been a long time with the old one tied up precariously with a bit of string.

Oooooh, would ya look at that? 12 great things, and just 8 not so great things. I think I’m rather happy with my wash. So I’ll leave you with some of the photos that document my year, professionally and personally. Here’s to a fab 2011 everyone…

On the bandwagon: 2010, the highs and lows. is a post from: Baby PR and baby marketing experts

For those who are already parents, we learn all to quickly that our tiddlers don’t even use their toys for very long, so your best buys are usually found at NCT Nearly New Sales / Preschool sales / Car boots. It’s certainly not intended for people who are above Nearly New Sales, as they wouldn’t be seen dead with something that looks like this in their purse, would they?

Fancy this in your purse?*

What do you think of this? It is too much, to have a credit card to encourage you to spend on your baby when you don’t have the money for it? Is it just me, being anti credit cards? What do you think of this?

*Image of credit card courtesy of http://www.creditcardchaser.com/babies-r-us-credit-card/

Money, money, money is a post from: Baby PR and baby marketing experts

Baby birth payments?

This is another one of those articles where I can see both sides of the coin. Parents to be in places outside of the UK are experiencing the seas of change financially. Women in Spain are reported to be keen to deliver their babies before midnight on 31 Dec 2010, to receive the last of the government’s €2,500 (£2,128) “baby cheques”. Apparently, they are seeing increasing numbers of women coming in reporting spotting and other early labour indicators. The payments were brought in, in 2007, to provide an incentive for  people to have more babies to improve the nation’s birth rate. But now that they payments are about to stop, it’s causing some women to want to bring their birth days forwards…

“What we’re seeing in the public sector is that women who are due to give birth in the first fortnight of January are coming in and saying they are spotting blood or that their waters have broken,” a midwife in a Seville hospital told El País newspaper. ”They don’t dare say so openly but we know they want to bring the due date forward. We examine them and send them home.”

Sounds like sensible stuff to me. But the article then went on with the Guardian quoting José Ángel Espinosa, Associate Head of Gynaecology at the Quirón hospital in Madrid, as saying that he would induce women early. “If they’ve reached 38 weeks and they ask us to do it, we will,” he said. But the doctor warned that he would not induce anyone who was not ready. “It’s my watch on the 31st,” he said. “And I’m not going to let anyone put one over on me.”

Surely a woman’s body usually tells her when she’s ready to give birth? I thought we always had the debate about how pregnancy is actually usually more like a 42 week experience and that we should not be inducing women before then? To induce women at 38 weeks, purely so they get a cheque, feels like a big step to be taking. Having said that, I can see why women are so keen on it – a cheque for £2K would come in hand in those first few months as parents.

What do you think of this? Is it ok to induce someone early so they get a cheque for £2k?

Baby birth payments in Spain resulting in increased demands for inducement of labour. Read on… is a post from: Baby PR and baby marketing experts

Liz Weston with the New Baby Guides in an NHS setting

As a rule, I don’t use my blog as a platform for blatant sales pitches, but we’ve had so many emails in asking for more information on the New Baby Guides, that I’ve written this as information for people whilst they are waiting for their samples and info packs to arrive.

This is the short version of our pitch to potential advertisers:

The New Baby Guides are published by Cambridge marketing and pr company, Weston Communications. One of our specialisms is in baby marketing, for both profit and not for profit organisations. We have a range of experience in the baby products market and marketing to families. We know our stuff. More than 104,000 New Baby Guides are printed annually, and go to pregnant women or new mothers at varying antenatal or postnatal stages, depending on each local NHS Maternity Unit. Marketing baby products is very sensitive area. Few businesses do it. Along with Bounty, we have the strictest guidelines we know of. All businesses have a local presence and are WHO and UNICEF baby friendly compliant. There are no major national brands. If editorial is accepted, it is generic rather than product/service led and has to be educational and for the benefit of the reader. Unlike other baby advertising, we have a strict policy on ratios for content to advert and every single advert is approved by each NHS Maternity Unit we work with.

Here’s some more detailed information, taking the Chelmsford edition of the New Baby Guide as an example.

The Official Chelmsford New Baby Guide 2010/11

1. What is it?

The Chelmsford New Baby Guide will be a free, comprehensive and official guide for parents of new babies to provide them with help in their first year as parents. It is fully supported by the midwifery teams at the Chelmsford Hospital and in the community. When asked for her views on the new guide and the opportunities for advertisers, Bernie Rigden, Acting Head of Midwifery said:

“The Chelmsford New Baby Guide provides a unique opportunity for local suppliers to support the Chelmsford parenting community. They also benefit from the unrivalled promotion of their goods and services to a very specific audience. In taking an advertisement, suppliers will facilitate the provision of vital early days information for all new parents and aid our fundraising efforts as a percentage of every advertisement will be donated to the Maternity Unit.”

Telephone contacts within the Hospital are available to verify this support, if required.

2. Who will it go to?

The A5 Guide will be published in January 2011, with copies being given free to expectant parents of all new babies in Chelmsford during the following 12 months. The Mid Essex NHS Trust expects 4,500 new babies to be born in that period, including babies being born at home with the support of community midwives.

3. How will it be distributed?

Copies of the Guide will be given to pregnant women at 36 weeks of pregnancy. This will include all women who are intending to use the Maternity Units at Chelmsford, Maldon or Braintree, or, to have a homebirth.

4. Why should I advertise here rather than somewhere else?

It is a pure readership audience ie: entirely and 100% new parents, so there is no wastage on exposure to any superfluous readers. Instead your advertisement will be read solely by nearly 4,500 new parents all within easy reach of you, and every one of them is a potential new client.

5. What will be in the Chelmsford New Baby Guide?

The Guide will include editorial on topics including: Taking your baby home from hospital Post-natal care Health advice for mother and baby Contraception

Child development Registering the birth Naming ceremonies Baby care and bringing up your child

6. What will it cost to advertise?

A limited number of pages are reserved for appropriate advertising and features and will be sold on a first come first served basis. Adverts start from £185 and go up to £1,200 for the back outside covers.

Testimonials from advertisers in the New Baby Guides after we won the Future 100 Award for social entrepreneurship:
“Brilliant news Liz you deserve this for all your hard work. Thank you for letting us be part of this success. Best wishes Tamsin from Water Babies”

“We are so thrilled for you and the team Liz. Well deserved. bras4mums are proud to be part of the New Baby Guides as we too are socially responsible in what we do.” T-J, Bras4mums

“Liz, that’s brilliant and much deserved! A very professional job well done. It’s great that mums and dads-to-be can have access to all this helpful and genuine information, and what is available to help support them and their babies throughout pregnancy and postnatal period – and in such a great booklet they can keep for future reference. I am really happy to be part of the New Baby Guide in my area, and wish you continuing success” Pippa from Karma Birth, Active Birth / Yoga

“Liz, I was waiting for you to call to ask me about rebooking for the advertising in the Chelmsford New Baby Guide. It has worked so well for Aiken Bodies that I’m only going to be advertising with you, in the Chelmsford New Baby Guide this year.” Karlee Aiken, Aiken Bodies.

With their glossy covers and professional design, it’s no wonder that we’ve got a waiting list of NHS Units wanting to work with us. If you are within the NHS and would like information on how we can work together, email liz@westoncommunications.org.uk
If you would like to be considered as a potential advertiser in the New Baby Guides, contact liz@westoncommunications.org.uk for more information and we’ll pop a sample in the post.
Find out about the national award which we won for the New Baby Guides recently.

More info on the New Baby Guides is a post from: Baby PR and baby marketing experts

We thought you may like to see some of the new designs Tami Brown, our Cambridge designer has come up with. She does such a good job of making them visually appealing whilst still have  a professional look and feel to them, that retains something of the NHS about it, in a good way.

For those of you who don’t know what the New Baby Guides are, here’s the short version of what we usually tell people who are looking to advertise in them:

The New Baby Guides are published by Cambridge marketing and pr company, Weston Communications. One of our specialisms is in baby marketing, for both profit and not for profit organisations. We have a range of experience in the baby products market and marketing to families. We know our stuff. More than 104,000 New Baby Guides are printed annually, and go to pregnant women or new mothers at varying antenatal or postnatal stages, depending on each local NHS Maternity Unit. Marketing baby products is very sensitive area. Few businesses do it. Along with Bounty, we have the strictest guidelines we know of. All businesses have a local presence and are WHO and UNICEF baby friendly compliant. There are no major national brands. If editorial is accepted, it is generic rather than product/service led and has to be educational and for the benefit of the reader. Unlike other baby advertising, we have a strict policy on ratios for content to advert and every single advert is approved by each NHS Maternity Unit we work with.

Sample 1: This is one for Chelmsford, who like things to look classy and sleek

Sample 4: The Luton and Dunstable edition of the New Baby Guide is representative of the most popular cover image of 2010. Heads of Midwifery, staff, lay groups and the general public all love this image. The baby looks straight at you, and is on a neutral background which allow the text to work neatly with it, rather than in contrast to it.

We would be pleased to hear your thoughts on the covers. Do you like them? Would you open one of these Guides?

We appreciate your opinion on this as they are very much a work in progress.

The sales bit:

With their glossy covers and professional design, it’s no wonder that we’ve got a waiting list of NHS Units wanting to work with us. If you are within the NHS and would like information on how we can work together, email liz@westoncommunications.org.uk
If you would like to be considered as a potential advertiser in the New Baby Guides, contact liz@westoncommunications.org.uk for more information and we’ll pop a sample in the post.
Find out about the national award which we won for the New Baby Guides recently.

Sneak peek at some of our 2011 covers… is a post from: Baby PR and baby marketing experts