Six years ago I had an idea to create a website that would list all baby-friendly places and facilities up and down the country. This included baby changing, breast feeding, bottle warming and family friendly car parks - that sort of thing.
The idea stemmed from my own experiences as a new mum and the tight schedule I had to work to, to make sure I wasn't far from somewhere I could breast feed and then change the baby's nappy. Luckily I lived in a fairly family friendly town so facilities were pretty good and as the little one was a summer baby I also had the choice of alfresco nappy changing and feeding for the first few months.
But heading away from my home town used to fill me with dread - just getting out of the house, making sure I'd remembered everything and getting to where I was going before the next feeding demand turned me into a complete stress head!
I'm sure I'm not alone in having read every single book and trawled the internet for parenting advice but what it all fails to really tell you is how to successfully get out of the front door and survive parenthood with a newborn in the big bad world outside. My first trip to the supermarket involved two trolleys, the little one in one being pushed by my mum and me with the other doing a supermarket sweep frantically scooping items off the shelf as I raced round in the small window between feeds. And then we discovered the special trolleys designed to accommodate babies in their car seat. Hoorah - life was starting to get a little easier - but it would have been helpful to have known this sort of thing before I set foot, baby in tow, outside the front door.
So, over numerous slabs of Victoria sponge cake - a staple diet during my year of breast feeding - I chatted to fellow mums about my idea and everyone agreed it was a good one.
Sadly, my idea got lost between bringing up baby and returning to work, and what happens if you leave an idea for too long? Someone else comes up with it.
So the good news is that there's a couple of websites and even an iphone app courtesy of the NCT providing this sort of information.
But what I've also discovered through my research is the general sense of dissatisfaction about this country's baby changing facilities and the lack of a warm welcome for breast feeding. So, wearing my campaigning/marketing/PR hat, I've decided to bring my original idea to life but with a focus to make Britain a proud place to bring the baby by campaigning for improved baby-friendly facilities.
So please come and join us. If you've found out about us via this blog, then please join the campaign at:
Facebook
Twitter: @bringthebaby
Thank you.
