Whats is stock you ask?

Just a quick word about our tee availability, we have been really chuffed with the emails we have been receiving about when our site will be open and which maternity & breastfeeding tops will be available; it’s always really cool to hear from you.

We have been getting alot of interest, maybe more than we had anticipated so please when we open if your size is not available in a particular style we will try our very best to sort this out ASAP. We will be accepting pre-orders for all designs we carry once the site is up and running, so some patience maybe needed.

Wow cabot circus Bristol & our Tees

Wow somethings totally amazing happened today, visited very briefly Bristol’s new cabot cirus shopping centre for the first time : (Harvey Nichols was amazing) and spotted a lady wearing one of our Maternity “melons” pink ringer tees. It was amazing, totally made my day. I would have taken a picture if i had my camera, although i think the lady might have thought i was a complete weirdo if i had done that. 

This is our 2nd tee spotting incident, first one was about 5 weeks ago in Tesco Bradley Stoke when yet again a “melons” tee was spotted. It was a breastfeeding shirt this time, and matthew spotted the lady wearing it. We’re not stalkers honestly!! ha ha. It’s the best feeling ever to see someone wearing one of your tees after all the hard work gone into it.

We are always open to pictures of our customers in our shirts so anyone reading this who wants to send a picture in please do : girls@mamafeelsgood.com .

Opening soon

 We’ve been saying we are opening soon for about 2 months now, but honestly this time we really are!! There is just so much that goes into getting a webstore open, all the back end organisation is crazy, and what you think will take 5 minutes drags onto about 3 days. I’m not joking i’ve (Liz) developed a twitchy eye with the stress of it all, and it’s driving me crazy!! The more i think about it the worse it gets, people think i’m coming onto them now because i’m can’t help winking !! ha ha.

Just have to iron out a few things with the site ie providing returns address and telephone number etc, and getting the FAQ’s together and then we should be ready. So hopefully we are looking at this week 🙂

More midwives needed in England

Yeah we totally agree with this report from BBC news, it’s great the NHS is getting more money to employ more midwives. It’s so nice to have the same midwife during your pregnancy & labour maybe now this will be more of a realistic option. So many women see alot of different midwiives that it gets a little upsetting.

Our friend Katherine has just started her midwifery course at Cardiff University and we wish her all the best. She will make a fabulous midwife, so anyone in the Bristol region in about 3 years time you’ll be well looked after!

Maternity Belly bands

Got a “normal” top that you really want to wear but your bump has made it impossible? Well Mama Feelsgood maternity & nursing bands might just come to your rescue. Basically they are 90% cotton 10% spandex so they are really stretchy, they go up over your bump,and in the earlier weeks of pregnancy can be used to disguise unfastened trouser button etc. Then when you really start to bloom they can cover the short fall between your top and your trousers. Just adds a little more choice to your maternity wardrobe without having to spend a fortune.

Don’t throw them away once you’ve had your baby because they are super usefull for breastfeeding too. Don’t wanna show your post pregnancy belly when you breastfeed? Well just pop on a tummy band and it helps keeps your dignity! We currently carry them in white or black and go from sizes 8 – 20. We do aim to provide larger sizes in the future. and more variation of colours.

Our Story

It started with a top…… thats all 1 top, and it mushroomed from there.

I had a crazy idea of starting my own internet store back in 2005, basically buying wholesale and selling other peoples labels. One problem i thought all the clothes sucked and they were hideously over priced….thats 2 problems!!

Anyways one day i travelled from Bristol up to London to see some maternity collections from a smaller retailer and was so cheesed off and dissapointed with the rubbish i saw. The owner patronised me on how customers will pay £65 for a maternity top even though it was made out of viscose (cheaper to produce than 100% cotton) and how maternity fashions are always at least a year behind current catwalk shows….what the …

 

It made me abit angry, it was like in dirty dancing where the holiday camp owner talks down to Johnny and belittles him (not that i’m running a holiday camp, or i’m johnny!!) , kinda you don’t know anything, just shut up and buy. Needless to say i didn’t place an order.

So i thought no way do i want to sell maternity clothes and breastfeeding tops i am not confident in, or that i don’t like, so i took a GAINT step and thought i’d make my own, well not literally because believe you me if it was me sewing the tees they wouldn’t last long ha ha ha. So it has taken roughly 3 years to go from idea to mamafeelsgood.com.

There’s been loads of ups and downs, mets lots of lovely people along the way and i can honestly say i am super glad i’ve done it. I’ve learnt so many things, and my main philosophy has been don’t compromise. We don’t make our tees from the cheaper fabrics ie viscose, polyester, and we don’t compromise on the weight of the cotton used; ours are all thick good quality, lasting cotton tees. We want to get involved with our customers and build a really good relation with them. We are here to help not to fleece you and run!!

Anyways sorry for the babble, thats just a little about us 🙂  liz & Matt Jeans…Owners Mama Feelsgood

Breastfeeding and Maternity Tee models

We just wanted to say a big thanks to all our friends who were super kind to come and model our breastfeeding tops and maternity tees. Sheri, Jess, Lynn & Christine all did a fabulous job, and made it look really easy . We had a laugh doing it too even though our first shoot took like 5 hours.

Laura our fabulous photographer really came into her own and added a great sense of direction and focus not forgetting took loads of kick ass photographs.

As this is Mama Feelsgood’s first collection of funky maternity t-shirts and breastfeeding tops it was so cool to see them on various people all with differing shapes and styles. Our maternity Vee neck tee is totally fabulous for your new found mama’s cleavage, a style we may well extend to our breastfeeding range in the future. Seeing the functionality of the nursing tops didn’t compromise on the style was a huge bonus too. 

Very exciting times, we really hope our first ever collection is well received, we are planning new styles and prints for further collections now, so stayed tuned !

Sarah Palin daughter Bristol Pregnant

Couldn’t resist mentioning that Sarah Palin the Republican vice-presidential hopeful daughter Bristol is pregnant. What a fantastic name …..Bristol.

As her mother is such a high profile person just think of  all the extra coverage she could give to breastfeeding and maternity issues. With several young children herself i’m sure she’s familiar with the pressure felt by new mums. Also with a child with Downs syndrome and how this would affect breastfeeding if at all would be an interesting subject which could possibly help other new mothers in the same situation.

nuchal translucency scan , (OSCAR scan) in Bristol

 Only kidding they don’t actually use a camera like this to take your scan.

Within the UK during a ladies pregnancy the NHS only routinely offer a few opportunitys for pregnancy scans. Usually a dating scan for as the name suggests to determine the stage of your pregnancy ie how many weeks you are, and the 20 week scan. Personally we don’t think these are enough as it’s so nice to see your baby in a scan. So you can always go private and pay for you’re scan.

1 scan that is open to everybody whatever your age if you are willing to pay is the OSCAR or Nuchal Translucency scan. It is carried out early into your pregnancy and is commonly used to detect some abnormalities in pregnancy including downs syndrome. In Bristol it is available from the Spire Health Clinic which is based in Clifton. It’s not really advertised that well that these scans are available, so here you go !!

Mama Feelsgood : Funky fresh maternity tops and breastfeeding tee’s

Money and Breastfeeding

BBC News Scotland recently published this report  stating the Scottish government has received 19 million pounds over the next three years to promote maternal and infant nutrition. Breastfeeding is one of the obvious methods of both maternal and infant nutitrion, and is expected to receive a greater amount of promotion to new mothers due to this cash injection.

The all important question is how can the government promote breastfeeding to a wide a range as possible within the UK ? Studies have shown the initial incidence of mothers breastfeeding their babies from birth has risen significantly over the last 5 years ( Taken from the government Infant feeding survery 2005) but by the 9 months post birth breasfeeding rates have dropped to approx 13% .

Of course there are many reasons why women give up breastfeeding, baby rejecting the breast, lack of milk , sore nipples etc but could one more obvious reason money. Our maternity benefits , maternity pay when compared with other european countries is much less. If we use Norway as an example the govenment has implemented that  each mother is paid1 years maternity pay at 80% of their original wage. 99% of mothers in Norway upon leaving hospital are breastfeeding their children and by 3 – 4 months post delivery 90% are still breastfeeding.

Perhaps because the stress of money has been lightened a little from the Norwegian mothers they maybe feel more relaxed to try breastfeeding? Who knows. But promoting breastfeeding has to be a good thing 🙂