What should go in your baby bag, for you and your baby.

Libby Cain.
Libby is a nurse, midwife, lactation consultant and childbirth educator.

The early stage of labour is called the latent phase, this is the preparation phase and it is important to let it unfold at its own pace, trust your body, it knows how to do this.

By Libby Cain.
Libby is a nurse, midwife, lactation consultant and childbirth educator.

A newborn baby's skin is very fragile and delicate, as it can take up to a year to form the protective acid mantle of healthy adult skin. Baby's skin is also 20-30% thinner so is particularly sensitive to drying, rashes, and reactions to skincare products.

Libby is a nurse, midwife, lactation consultant and childbirth educator.

For breastfeeding women who suffer from blocked/plugged ducts or recurrent episodes of mastitis are often advised by their midwife or lactation consultant to increase their intake of lecithin.

By Libby Cain. Libby is a nurse, midwife, lactation consultant and childbirth educator.

Thrush can be present in your nipple or your breast and is due to an overgrowth of one type of fungus. It is hard to grow on a swab so diagnosis is often just after considering a mum's symptoms. Unfortunately it is one of the major reasons woman often give up feeding.

By Libby Cain. Libby is a nurse, midwife, lactation consultant and childbirth educator.

Although colostrum is produced from as early as 16-22 weeks it may not be visible until 28 weeks. From this time it is possible to gently squeeze around the areola and see this yellow early, concentrated milk or you may see signs of colostrum-yellow flakes on your nipple.

By Libby Cain. Libby is a nurse, midwife, lactation consultant and childbirth educator.

If every 8 year old in the world is taught meditation, we will eliminate violence from the world in one generation. - Dalai Lama.

You are not alone in your aloneness.
There are loads of us. That followed the partner. Or followed the job. Whose heart will always partially belong elsewhere.

There will be people in her life that won’t show up for her, I don’t want to be the first.

In those precious first moments, after your body left mine, a hazy cloud shifted instantly. One I didn’t realise was smothering me.

By Lacey Owen.

Bed time is the hardest because once your child is asleep you don’t have to be brave anymore. Bed time is for the tears.

Does the two year journey to her conception become just a blip not the monthly breakdown it once was?

Are you allowed to still hurt even though you've been blessed with a miracle?

By Han Findlay.

When it’s an hour before bed
And I wonder how I will do it
And I think how much I wish
I had more energy to get through it

By Hayley Fuller.

She walks slowly toward labour and delivery cradling her tight swollen belly. A loving gesture she doesn’t even realise she’s making and soon it’ll be gone.

By Lacey Owen.

I’m beginning to forget the earliest version of you.

Finer details that once took pride of place in my mind are slipping through my fingers like tiny
grains of sand.

Memories of you, of us, lie in wait as attempts to clench my brain shut all end in vain.

And it scares me.

By Lacey Owen.

I'd love to go back and mother that version of you, but as this version of me; the mum I am today.

Written by Karen McMillan from Mother Truths.

These sleepless nights, in our little bubble.
While the world is heavy with so many worries.
Your only worry is a world in which I am not there.

By Jess Urlichs.

That perfect home, remembering clean
Realising now, this is a what a home means

The longest nights as I stroke your hair
Your eyes flutter closed just knowing I’m there

By Jess Urlichs

I’ve never been a cryer, but ohhhh motherhood got me good.

By Jess Urlichs, Writer.

https://www.instagram.com/jessurlichs_writer

In life, if someone was screaming at at you, shouting, whining, hitting. If there was constant noise that was stressing your body. If you needed space but there wasn’t any...your body and your mind would tell you to walk away. You’d leave. You’d go, you’d breathe. You’d walk, talk, calm, ground, focus, refuel, recover. It’s an inbuilt, self-protective drive.

’m working on forgiveness, I’m working on myself, I’m trying to locate her, high up on a shelf.

THEY SAID, you're helping him too much, you'll regret that,  they said. They denied us of our rods, and filled our hearts with dread.

If you ever see a mum, pacing with a pram nearby, with her head bowed down, can't quite look you in the eye…

We hang onto the looseness, cry over the leakage and break ourselves over what we ‘should be’.
But they know of no comparison, only the you of yesterday and the you of today.

"Time stands still best in moments that look suspiciously like ordinary life" - Anon.