Did you know...

That there were 706,248 live births in England & Wales in 2009. That is a lot of nappies!!

Maternity Tops reviewed

We were lucky enough to have the very lovely Nicki Cawood of Curly & Candid review a Crave Maternity top in beautiful emerald green and a black maternity top by Funmum. As a special treat we also sent Nicki a gorgeous bottle of Soothing Bath Soak by Boo Boo Mummy.

Read Nicki’s blog here.

Nicki is a freelance writer and mum to 4 year old Kieren with another baby on the way. Her blog is fantastic.

All items are available to buy from Global Maternity today and we can't thank Nicki enough!!

Global Maternity in the News!

Thought we would get the ball rolling on the September blogs with an August 2010 extract about Global Maternity in The Journal, Business Section.

Click here to read the full article!

We would love your ideas on what topics we should cover in future blogs, but lets try and steer away from writing endlessly about celebrity pregnancies. We'll just blog about them a little bit!

Pregnancy and Maternity Clothes

This is an interesting one considering I now run an online maternity clothes store! And be warned...this blog has lots of questions!

I am really trying to rack my brains as to what maternity clothes I did buy when I fell pregnant nearly 13 years and 9 months ago to this day, and I've come to the conclusion that I didn't buy anything apart from a nursing bra! To be honest, I'm not really sure I looked in any particular shop for maternity clothes! I was a poor lowly student you know!

Baggy t shirts and a pair of oversized denim dungarees is all I remember wearing, apart from a rather dull looking nursing bra that I probably didn't wash with a brand leading soap powder! Is that sad? I'm desperately trying to find pictures of me when I was pregnant, to see just how I looked but somehow they seem to have disappeared. I'll track them down and get a couple scanned [it was before the digital age!] to upload on a future blog.

When I was researching other maternity clothes websites in the days before Global Maternity, one topic of conversation stood out. A vast majority of the online maternity clothes retailers were established because the owners couldn't find suitable maternity clothes when they were pregnant. I'm not sure if this is true in all cases, but judging by my distinct lack of interest in maternity clothes back then and the fact that my daughter is nearly 13 I couldn't really use that as a reason for opening Global Maternity.

Another question that gets asked frequently is 'what are the key pieces of maternity clothing I should be buying'? And 'how many maternity clothes should I buy'? I know that this will differ because thankfully we are all individuals with different tastes, budgets, social and working lives etc, but what do you all think?

For example, have you bought or did you buy maternity swimwear, maternity underwear, maternity lingerie, maternity pyjamas or nightshirts? Is any of this really necessary?

How many and what maternity clothes have you bought?

What types of maternity clothes do you think are a waste of money and even if you had large dollops of money you just wouldn't entertain?

Questions, questions, questions...I'm like a child who keeps on asking 'why'!!!

But seriously, I would love to hear what you have to say and it will help me in terms of what Global Maternity offers in the long term.

Pregnant and eating for 2!

The first thing that springs into my mind now is SPINACH and GUINNESS. I ate so much spinach when I was pregnant that it should have been coming out of every orifice...so why the bloody hell was I still anaemic! The doctor told me that I would have had to eat my body weight in spinach every day so it's no wonder that my one bag didn't cut it!

I know students are supposed to live off beans and whatever else is stuck to the back of the fridge but I ate like a queen for 9 months. I had the best of everything. Every week I scoured the supermarket shelves for whatever grabbed my fancy. My flatmates also took a shine to the food I was buying as they would go grazing at night and the 'oops I thought it was mine' would pop out of their mouths in the morning! Hmmm...!

My bedroom in the student flat turned into the best fruit and vegetable shop in Stirling. I was mad for it. I remember polishing my pieces of fruit and lining them up on the long shelf next to my bed. God, I must have been bored! But, I could lay back and sexily drop grapes into my mouth whenever I fancied. How decadent is that?! And no, it wasn't very sexy either!

I don't think I ate for two. That's another phrase which makes me giggle. Is it just an excuse to pig out? Do you really need to eat more when you're pregnant? Or, do you just have to eat the right types of food? My eating habits didn't change. Ok, I cut out the foods that you should avoid like blue cheese and pate, but on the whole ate the same things and the same quantities that I always had.

To me, exercise is absolutely vital when you are pregnant - if you are able. There is such a variety of classes for pregnant women out there now. I don't remember anywhere near the choice when I was carrying Bethany. So, I stuck to swimming and used to go every day and swim between 20 and 40 lenghts. Some days, Bethany objected and kicked me in the water until I got out. It's funny how as soon as I was dried and fully clothed again she would stop! The little tinker!

Oh, and GUINNESS...I drank it for the iron content you understand! I had a weekly ritual with my one bottle of Guinness Original. On a Friday night, about 8-9pm - whenever ER was starting on our pathetic excuse for a TV in the student flat, I would pour myself a glass of Guinness and enjoy every mouthful as it slid down. And I tell you, my flatmates knew that if they touched that they would have been in serious trouble!

I would love to hear what you likes and dislikes with regards to food have been whilst pregnant...

The North East Baby Road Show

I thoroughly enjoyed The North East Baby, Toddler and Maternity Road Show. Despite the relatively low attendance it was a great opportunity to show people what Global Maternity has to offer and feel part of the thriving north east business community. It's fair to say I was absolutely shattered when I finally arrived home at about 7pm [via the supermarket for my bottle of cheap plonk! I didn't make that much profit!] By 10pm my eyes had glazed over - perhaps one too many glasses!

It's a new show for the north east and it was great to see some familiar faces, and lots of new ones! There was a welcome abundance of Newcastle Business Mums, either exhibiting or visiting including Helen from Breastvest, Sarah from Kids Deserve the Best, Andrea from Munchie and Millie, Ruth from loveitloveitloveit, and Debbie from Pushy Mothers. I also enjoyed meeting @HelenW71 and she looked radiant whizzing around on the electric buggy!

And yes, Ruth's banner was stupendous. Being a lazy so and so I got mine printed for £40. No class you see!

Chatting to other exhibitors during the day, there were mixed messages about how well organised people thought it was. Feelings ranged from 'where are all the people?', 'where is my table' to 'I paid for an electric socket but didn't get one'. How well did you all think it was organised?

It's fair to say I thought there were a couple of minor hiccups. My stand number changed at the last minute so I had to use the paper and blue tac technique to cover up the typo's on things that I had got printed for the day! The tannoy system wasn't working downstairs, which made getting people upstairs for the fashion shows and demonstrations a bit of a struggle. My daughter Bethany and my friend Claire were fantastic as they ran downstairs shortly before the Global Maternity fashion show at 1pm and madly thrust leaflets into any pregnant ladies hands, asking them to make their way upstairs for the show! I don't know what I would have done without Bethany and Claire. They were brilliant.

Customers also told me that they didn't get a programme and therefore didn't know who was exhibiting, or that there were stands, demonstrations and fashion shows upstairs? Not sure what happened there but I have a feeling that the programmes were put into goody bags that were given to the children as they came in. So, they wouldn't have been found until the bags were unpacked at home!

Upstairs, people also started to pack up their stands at about 4.15pm [ish]. Claire and I were the 'last women standing' so to speak! Did any of you stick around for the excitement of the fire alarm going off? We had to go and stand outside for 20 minutes while they sorted it out!

I wonder what next year will have in store?

Telling others I was pregnant

I was a student; living in student digs...How could I not tell them! It would have been pretty hard to keep up the healthy eating and drinking fetish for a further 6 months without them looking at me in a 'you're a weirdo' kind of way. Have you noticed the bemused and shell shocked look from fellow students when you turn down the opportunity to go on a bender! Not that I've been a student for what seems like an eternity! I'm 41, I don't do 'benders' anymore...

Well, it was coming up to my 12 or 16 week scan. I can't remember now as I'm sure I had a scan at 12 weeks. Perhaps they do it differently in Scotland? The morning sickness had gone - woo hoo!! It was time to tell the world, shout it from the rooftops, write a press release, and put an advert on national television! Ok, calm down. It was not nearly so dramatic. I phoned Mum and Dad from the rather grubby university telephone! We didn't have mobiles then! Was that the night I got pulled off the grubby telephone by some Scottish Billy Goat Gruff who had obviously been tasked with setting time limits for everyone else's phone calls but his. Hmmm...I'm not sure, but if it was he hurt me and I am still angry about it! I was pregnant for heaven's sake and needed to be handled with care!

Mum and Dad had known that I was 'trying for a baby'. I don't know what it is about that phrase 'trying for a baby'. It all sounds so prescriptive and it makes me sort of giggle! But, I understand why people use it - what else would you say? Just before writing this blog I asked Mum how she felt about the whole baby thing back then because she and Dad never really voiced their opinions. She told me that she didn't really approve as she was not that keen on the father. She resigned herself to the fact and told me she had no other option but to accept it.

Is that what we do as parents? Take things in our stride in a bid to demonstrate that we are not surprised or indeed in disagreement with what our children do. I was an adult, what could they have done about it if that was what I wanted. My father would never have said anything. He was a fantastic man who supported me no matter what sticky patches I got into. And there were a few!

I quickly worked through the list of who we needed to tell and I have to say there were a couple of 'pregnant pauses'! One question that a few asked me was 'So when are you giving up University?'

Leaving university had never even crossed my mind. In my first blog 'Having a baby - planned or unplanned, I described myself as very matter of fact. Why would it have crossed my mind to leave? I was the sort of girl who 'once started, would finish'! Should it have crossed my mind? Should I have left?

I can answer that...NO, NO, and NO!

I would like to believe that perceptions have changed considerably and that it is generally accepted that women can still have a life if they have children. I have met and talked to many people who have regretfully given up very good careers because they have had children, believing in some way that they need to adopt a full time homemaker role and that partners where they existed would provide. Maybe that is one reason I feel very inspired by all the individuals I have met at Newcastle Business Mums and indeed on Twitter!

Have things changed? I wonder where I would be and what I would be doing now if I had followed someone else's path and not my own.

MORNING SICKNESS DURING PREGNANCY

Nausea Gravidarum, pregnancy sickness...or whatever we want to call it affects around 80% of pregnant women and I don't know about you, but I found it a complete pain in the butt!

Unless you really can't keep any fluids or food down and are losing weight or dehydrated, morning sickness during pregnancy poses no risk to you or your baby. Nevertheless it is wretched isn't it?

I was blessed with a rather fine vintage of morning sickness and whilst breathing through the nausea paid little attention to the available [from any good supermarket] treatments. Are they really just old wives tales? Does anything actually get rid of morning sickness or are we just lessening the symptoms rather than attacking the root cause. Who the heck knows and when you're wandering around the house feeling as if you want to throw up, who actually cares!

I remember vividly sitting through university lectures feeling greener than a Birds Eye pea! I worked part time as a volunteer in the Oxfam shop in Stirling and used to serve customers with one hand over my mouth, fearing that if I let go something awful would come out. It didn't thank goodness. I just always thought it would!

I was probably a textbook case. Morning sickness for me would start in the morning and ease off about 1pm. To my delight it also ended around the 12 week period so my Oxfam shifts and university lectures became far more enjoyable. My mum on the other hand had morning sickness that lasted morning, noon and night. I think I got off lightly!

In amongst all of the recommended treatments [bar the prescription drugs for very severe cases] I am officially putting any relief I got down to the ginger biscuits I used to line up on my bedside table. If I was feeling particularly frivolous I would throw a dry cracker onto the pile! My biscuits and crackers looked very much at home alongside the industrial size bottle of Gaviscon that I used to swig quite happily for the horrendous heartburn, which disappeared as soon as my daughter was born! Who said pregnancy wasn't sexy...

As if you didn't know...some other 'treatments' for morning sickness:

• Smelling a freshly cut lemon
• Avoiding an empty stomach
• Satisfy your food cravings and aversions [a little bit of what you fancy unless it's on the banned food list...]
• Eat little and often
• Eat fruit and veg with a high water content, such as tomatoes, watermelon, cantaloupe, grapefruit, strawberries, lettuce, spinach, cucumber, courgettes, grapes, etc...
• Eat cabbage [not sure why this is seperate!]
• Embark on the BRAT diet - bananas, rice, apple sauce, toast and tea. [On the same plate?!]
• Ginger, in its various guises - capsules, tea, preserved, biscuits
• Eat dry crackers in the morning
• Drink liquids 30-45 minutes after eating solid food [Did my one bottle of Guiness Original count?!]

I am sure there are many many more and I would love to hear your morning sickness stories, no matter how graphic!

PREGNANCY - FINDING OUT

I'll skip the part about getting pregnant...let's just say in our shabby little 'studio' flat in Newcastle - bedsit to others, it was fun and whiled away the hours...ok, minutes!! I loved that bedsit; it was one of the best places I have lived. So close to St. James Park football stadium you could hear the crowds roar when the 'toon' scored.

I returned to Scotland. Did I feel different? No, not really. Was I pregnant? Well, it turned out I was. I can't remember now if I used one of those pregnancy testing kits, but it was confirmed by the University Campus Medical Centre. And so, that was that. I was going to have a baby. I could tick it off my 'to do' list. Is that how I was going to look at childbirth, another task to get on with. How clinical!

Simon and I always arranged at the start of the week when we were going to call each other. I had to queue at one of the University telephones and could sometimes wait what seemed like an eternity. I rang the day I found out and he was pleased. I didn't get the impression during the long distance call that he was doing cartwheels around the bedsit. I don't actually think it would be possible. In what way do women want their partner to react?

We launched into a conversation about the future and how having a baby wasn't going to change anything. I was going to continue my studies but would transfer to the University of Northumbria and Simon, who was 'looking for work' would stay at home and look after our baby. Easy! Oh, how wrong I was! At 27 years old, I was naive.

It was too early to tell friends and family that I was pregnant but we were looking forward to sharing our secret. It didn't really cross my mind how they would react. Did it really bother me?

I went back to my room in the student flat I shared with 5 other 'mature' students. There was studying to be done.

I'm reading this back and one may think that I am quite an unemotional person. I wouldn't say that, I just hide emotions well and have always been the listener, not the talker.

I told you this would be theraputic!

HAVING A BABY - PLANNED OR UNPLANNED?

Wow, my first ever blog...

I'd like to tell you a story about my maternity journey from deciding to have a baby to the present day. Not all of the story will be shared today, so stay tuned and enjoy the first part of a very honest account of how it was for me and the people around me. It feels very theraputic writing this as it wasn't all plain sailing!

I'm convincing myself that our decision to have a baby was planned (in a fashion!). I was 27 and in my 1st year at Stirling University doing a BA(Hons) in Human Resources Management. The baby conversation (not the baby making!) started whilst sitting on a bus to St. Andrews with Simon (the father!). He turned to me and said, 'Why don't we have a baby'? That was it really!

So, was that planned, or did I just have the inability to say 'no'? Were we having a child to stay together? Were we having a child as a celebration of our love for each other?

Or, were we just plain mad? Simon lived in Newcastle upon Tyne, I had quite happily packed my meagre belongings and moved to mature student digs' in Stirling. But, we had been together for 8 years, so it seemed like a good idea. I don't think we thought the whole baby thing through really, do you?

I'm not going to beat myself up about it (despite what people said at the time). I have absolutely no regrets. I have a beautiful 12 year old daughter to prove that. But, I often think back to the conversation on the bus and the events that have passed. We didn't really think through the practicalities. We were in the 'nothing will change' mindest. I'm a practical person and perhaps it was another item on my 'to do' list...have a baby!