Nominations closing soon for JOHNSON’S® Baby Mums’ Midwife of the Year Award, which gives mums the chance to show their appreciation

 

Nominations will be closing on September 13^th 2010 for the second-annual JOHNSON’S® Baby Mums’ Midwife of the Year Award. The Award is sponsored by JOHNSON’S® Baby and is the only award where mums can nominate their midwife to be recognised for their expertise and support before, during and after birth. Mums who want to make sure their midwife receives special recognition should log on now to make sure they don’t miss the deadline.

 

The aim of the Award is to celebrate midwives who have gone above and beyond the call of duty, and have helped and supported mums through a difficult pregnancy or labour, or who have made the birth of a child a magical moment that mums cherish forever.

 

The JOHNSON’S® Baby Mums’ Midwife of the Year Award is one category within The Royal College of Midwives’ (RCM) Annual Midwifery Awards. The RCM is the UK’s professional organisation led by midwives for midwives and hosts the annual award ceremony to recognise the excellence, innovation and impact of midwifery practice in the UK.  JOHNSON’S® Baby has been involved in celebrating excellence in midwifery through the Awards for a number of years, in its role as a key partner in The Royal College of Midwives’ Alliance programme.

 

To nominate their midwife for JOHNSON’S® Baby Mums’ Midwife of the Year, mums can simply log on to www.babycentre.co.uk/midwifeoftheyear and tell us why. Nomination forms can also be found in Bounty Overnight Essentials Bags, given to mums on the labour ward.

 

Last year’s winner, Hayley Darby, was nominated by mum Karen for her role in the birth of baby Maisie. Hayley describes the moment that she found out she was the overall winner “It was surreal. I was so excited. It was amazing to think that Karen took the time out to say thank you by nominating me. I know so many midwives make life-changing differences to the lives of mums and babies every day, so it’s a wonderful thing to be nominated.”

 

A carefully selected panel of mums and midwives will choose six regional winners who’ll be invited to accept their trophy at the prestigious Royal College of Midwives Annual Midwifery Awards in London, where the overall JOHNSON’S® Baby Mums’ Midwife of the Year will be announced. And what’s more, all the mums who nominated the winners can attend the awards too!  The Awards event is a unique opportunity for midwives to learn about innovative and exemplary projects in fields that promote normal birth, excellence in research and addressing inequalities in health. It is also a chance for them to meet leading members of the midwifery profession and senior health officials. It promises to be a really magical day, with a gourmet meal and special guests in attendance.

Sign up for a Babygrowers Discount Card during September and receive a Giggles Interactive Computer Game for Babies, worth £16.99.  While stocks last.

With over 25 companies signed up to offer you a wide range of discounts, plus special weekly offers, can you really afford not to have a Babygrowers Discount card?

Sign up now at www.babygrowers.co.uk

A recent colic survey carried out by Consumer Analysis Ltd., revealed that the third most common treatment for baby’s colicky symptoms, after giving medicine and using massage, was to change the feeding bottle used to another brand.

 

Of the   28% of mums who changed their baby’s bottle to an alternative brand, 43% chose Dr Brown’s Natural Flow feeding system as their number one choice.  Amazingly, three quarters, (75%) who used this brand went on to report an improvement in their baby’s colic symptoms, a result  completely outperforming all the other brands used. 35% also stated that it worked instantly – after just one feed with over half, (53%) seeing an improvement within a day in their baby’s colicky symptoms.

 

The survey also revealed that almost half of all babies in the UK will suffer with colic in their early weeks and months, yet the condition still remains poorly understood. There is no known cure for colic but there are a wide range of medicinal remedies available which the survey revealed were not always welcomed by mums. In fact, 46% of them reported they were concerned about giving medicine to such young babies.

 

The constant crying associated with ‘colicky’ babies proved distressing for parents, with the study revealing that many parents failed to understand why their well-fed and healthy baby wouldn’t stop crying. It showed that even if they did recognise that their baby had colic many didn’t know what to do about it or who to turn to.

 

Many mums reported getting very different messages from their health professionals on how to treat their baby’s colic.  Seemingly unable to agree on the best course of action to take, some GP’s avoided prescribing medicines altogether, whilst others believed it to be the best solution. Many recommended gripe water and rubbing the baby’s tummy or back.  Subsequently, frustrated and sleep-deprived mums reported being left to their own devices, trying out multiple different ‘cures’. Some of the more obscure remedies noted included, boiling cumin seeds and giving the baby the water, while some breast-feeding mums had tried drinking fennel tea to solve the problem.

 

Mums who opted to change their bottles to Dr Brown’s Natural Flow feeding system also reported that their baby appeared not to be sucking in as much air as with other brands. Many said that they had tried all sorts of colic remedies to no avail before switching to this brand. Improvements were seen with some of the other brands of bottles used, but often mums couldn’t be certain if it was the bottle that had made the difference or not, as they were using other ‘methods’ at the same time, such as    anti colic teats, drops or medicine. However, they did report that Dr Brown’s Natural Flow had resulted in the quickest improvements, noticing a marked difference after an average of 5.4 feeds.

 

Key findings revealed:

 

o        Dr Brown’s Natural Flow was the first choice (43%) for mums changing their baby’s bottle to relieve the symptoms of colic.

o        Three quarters of babies with colic (75%) whose mums changed to Dr Brown’s Natural Flow saw improvement in their colicky symptoms after their bottles were changed.

o        Only two out of five mums with young babies (42%) could correctly name one or more of the symptoms of colic.

o        According to mums in the survey, the most well known sign of colic is the baby’s legs curling up to their stomach (26%), followed by long periods of crying (23%).

o        Colic led 62% of mums to be frustrated that they couldn’t solve the problem, 29% felt that the crying caused a lot of stress in the household an a fifth (20%) felt guilty because they thought that they were doing something wrong.

o        Concerned mums were more likely to turn to their health visitor than their mum for advice about their colicky baby (47% vs. 29%).

We are still adding companies in who want to be involved but here are a list so far of companies you can access a discount from once you have registered and paid for your card.

Aviva - for both car and home insurance
Sainsbury - for groceries and general merchandise
Butlins - get money off their best deal packages
My Munchkin
Baby Not Included
My Funny Bunny
Monsters and Munchkins
Big Green Smile
Babipur
Natural Nursery
Green Jelly
Cotton Baby
Tots and Tiddlers Toys
Dam Tam
Hello Baby
Green Child
Barnyard Kids
Lactivist
Slumber-Roo
VUPbaby
Precious Memories
and many more to be announced later.

So go to www.babygrowers.co.uk and sign up now for our discount card and start saving yourself some money NOW!

Today is supposed to be the launch of the new Babygrowers Discount Card site and at the moment we are experiencing a few technical hitches i.e. the beta site is still live and not the full site.

So we will be posting information on our Babygrowers Posterous blog until normal service is resumed today.

So for up to date information of who´s on board etc, check out our Posterous blog here http://babygrowers.posterous.com/.

Today the Babygrowers Discount Card is officially launched.  The aim of the Babygrowers team is to help you save money in the first year of your new baby´s life. 

We all know how expensive new babies can be, even when we are trying to budget and look around for bargains.  So we have teamed up with a whole host of different online companies to help make a difference to your pocket!

For a yearly fee of £14.99 with £1 going to one of our favoured charities you can sign up to receive access to our unique discount codes, weekly newsletter and other special offers which are just for our members.

Find out more information at www.babygrowers.co.uk.