Last weekend we spent the weekend exhibiting at the Natural & Organic Show at Olympia.  We launched the newly rebranded and reformulated Muti Oils collection of mother and baby well being products.  It was so exciting the brilliant reception we got to all the products.  The Morning Sickness Relief stick created great interest and enthusiasm, many feeling it was a welcome change from ginger biscuits and sweets and was a great discreet way of coping with morning sickness when the mum to be didn’t want to announce the news yet!  Along with this everyone who has had a baby enthused about the Sitting Pretty Spray, memories of that “ouch” don’t fade, do they?

All Muti products are parabens free and are free of artificial fragrance, colourants, sodium laurel sulfate & DEA.  They contain organic, fair trade and sustainably grown ingredients.

My name’s Jenni and as I buy for MumsTheWord I thought I might give you a headsup on the new products that will soon be available. For followers of mumstheword who are looking for a new changing bag, you may have seen that we have had only one new Pink lining design, Butterflies with Pink, this season (it’s usually 3) but we will soon have 2 more new designs! Forest by Night, unlike its name, is a real pink girly one, and Red Bluebell, I know how can bluebells be red?, is a stripy pattern of red dots and red bluebells. The fantastically popular design Bottom of the Garden is also making a comeback in the Yummy Mummy bag in Minty Green and a new cream colour. the first cream ones are part of a limited edition with a unique lining designed by the winner of Pink Lining’s charity competition in aid of CLIC Sargent. These flew out last time and I’m sure won’t hang around this time. They arrive early april, let us know if you’d like to reserve one.

Current advice says where there are allergies on either the mother’s or father’s side, women may wish to avoid peanuts in pregnancy.
But the Food Standards Agency says recent studies show no evidence of increased allergy risk in this group.
The Department of Health said it would consider the FSA’s recommendations.

Look stunning, while secretly concealing your baby weight with the Yummie Tummie Nursing T, designed to slim and smooth that stubborn, new mummy middle.
Ulta soft and comfortable, the simple snap-down bust panel and adjustable straps allow for easy and convenient nursing while still supporting your feminine curves.
This nursing T-shirt has a secret minimising panel that shapes the waistline from bust to hips, so it slims and camouflages lumps and bumps and is extremely comfortable to wear.
It’s the first shaper garment that is top orientated, designed to be worn alone or as a layering piece and its extra long length (66cm)means that it won’t bunch or roll up.

It could become your new best friend while you’re breastfeeding your baby.

For more information on this product, click on this link
http://www.mumstheword.com/products-Yummie-Tummie-Nursing-T-Shirt_YUM001.htm

Created especially for a woman’s post pregnant body, the Belly Bandit takes the long-established belly binding concept and makes it easy to do.
Belly Bandit is a breathable and comfy exclusively tailored belly wrap to help your body regain its former beauty and proportion after child birth. The smooth lightweight construction is designed for you to wear comfortably under all of your clothes and the tagless design won’t irritate your skin.

Belly Bandit is NOT a girdle, it should fit snugly with constant pressure on the belly, but without any impact on breathing, circulation or discomfort in your ribs.
For more information on this product, click on this link:
http://www.mumstheword.com/products-Belly-Bandit-Original_BEL001.htm

Maternity experts have said they are concerned that several hospitals in the Souith East have failed to recruit enough midwives.
Only 5 out of 12 hospital trusts in Kent, Surrey and Sussex have met the NHS target of one midwife to 35 births.
But some of the trusts claimed not to have any midwife vacancies
So why the discrepancy?
As the RCM’s regional officer put it,
“If a trust has no vacancies but is still not meeting the 1:35 ratio, then their establishment figures are wrong to start with.
What happens is that the heads of midwifery go to the director of finance and say I need 30 more midwives, and he looks at her as if she is mad”

So is this another case of a great government headline-grabbing policy not being followed up by enough money to fund it. Or is it that NHS Trusts are setting their own priorities on how they spend our money?

The ‘Middle Wife’            

 by an Anonymous 2nd grade teacher     

 I’ve been teaching now for about fifteen years. I have two kids myself, but the best birth story I know is the one I saw in my own second grade classroom a few years back.      When I was a kid, I loved show-and-tell. So I always have a few sessions with my students. It helps them get over shyness and usually, show-and-tell is pretty tame. Kids bring in pet  turtles, model airplanes, pictures of fish they catch, stuff like that.  And I never, ever place any boundaries or limitations on them. If they want to lug it in to school and talk about it, they’re welcome.  Well, one day this little girl, Erica, very bright, very outgoing kid, takes her turn and waddles up to the front of the class with a pillow stuffed under her sweater.  She holds up a snapshot of an infant.  ‘This is Luke, my baby brother, and I’m going to tell you about his  birthday.  First, Mom and Dad made him as a symbol  of their love, and then Dad put a seed in my Mom’s stomach, and Luke grew  in there. He ate for nine months through an umbrella cord.”  She’s standing there with her hands on  the pillow, and I’m trying not to laugh and wishing I had my camcorder with me. The kids are watching her in amazement.  “Then, about two Saturdays ago, my Mom  starts saying and going, ‘Oh, Oh, Oh, Oh!’  Erica puts a hand behind her  back and groans. ‘She walked around the house for, like an hour,’Oh, oh, oh!’ (Now this kid is doing a hysterical duck walk and groaning.)  ’My Dad called the middle wife .She delivers babies, but she doesn’t have a sign on the car like the Domino’s man. They got my Mom to lie down in bed like this.’ (Then Erica lies down with her back against the wall.)  ‘And then, pop! My Mom had this bag of  water she kept in there in case he got thirsty, and it just blew up and  spilled all over the bed, li ke psshhheew!’ (This kid has her legs spread  with her little hands miming water flowing away. It was too much!) ‘Then the middle wife starts saying ‘push, push,’ and ‘breathe, breathe. They started counting, but never even got past ten. Then, all of a sudden, out comes my brother. He was covered in yucky stuff that they all said it was from Mom’s play-center, (placenta) so there must be a lot of toys inside there.’  

 Then Erica stood up, took a big theatrical bow and returned to her seat. I’m sure I applauded the loudest. Ever since then, when it’s show-and-tell day, I bring my camcorder, just in case another ‘Middle Wife’ comes along. 

Following on from last month’s report from the Royal College of Midwives, the UK Healthcare Commission say that the experience of childbirth for many women is blighted by a lack of beds, showers and toilets. Staff shortages and poor teamworking is also blamed for poor standards in some trusts, including those that have been investigated for unacceptable rates of deaths among new mothers. The report also claims that mothers are giving birth on Health Service ‘conveyor belts’ with beds being used for more than one birth a day in some maternity units.

The report concludes that it is virtually impossible to give women proper choice over where to give birth – one of the UK Government’s key aims.
Overall, 20% of trusts with mater4nity units were rated as performing poorly, and 33% of trusts didn’t provide personal support from a named midwife.

In January, the government announced an additional £330m funding (none of it ring-fenced) and action to recruit an additional 4,000 midwives by 2012.

But, according to the Royal College of Midwives current final year maternity students are finding it hard to find jobs and more and more midwives are now working part-time. So if the same thing happens with this extra 4,000 midwives, then we will have more midwives, but the total number of hours worked will not have increased in the same proportion, so the maternity service will not have improved by as much as the government would like us to believe.
To coin an old saying, “you can fool some of the people all of the time, all of the people some of the time, but not all of the people all of the time”

Well that’s what you thought before you became pregnant, but what’s the reality now?
Peanut butter and pickle sandwiches at midnight, dying for a chocolate brownie, cream and ice cream at 3am?

We all know that it’s not really you that needs, really, really needs, this particular food – it’s really that baby of yours that needs it right now! And if you can’t indulge hiom or her a little from time to time, who can you indulge?

Does pizza and salt and vinegar crisps do it for you, or is there another bizarre craving that you can’t live without?

So what’s on your list of the things that make it great to have a baby? To give you a start, here are some of our suggestions:
1. You’re extra special – as soon as you announce you’re pregnant, you become the centre of attention.
2. Together Forever – many couples find that having a baby improves their relationship.
3. Take It Easy – pregnancy is a great excuse for putting your feet up and watching re-runs of 24, Lost and Friends
4. Talking Shop – planning what to buy for yourt new baby
5. Spend! Spend! Spend! – you’ve done the planning (see 4) so it’s time to hit the shops
6. Mum’s The Word – no not us, but having a baby can bring you closer to your mum. (We’d love to see you to help with 5 above!)
7.Fantastic Fun – time to act like a big kid again
8. New Friends – you’ll make lots of new friends who are going through the same experiences as you are.
9. When two becomes three – you’ve stopped being a couple and become a family
10. Cuddle Up! – nothing beats having a cuddle with your new baby