Why I do what I do

Well, where to start?

I will try to cut a long, boring story short, but I have never been one to do anything the easy way. Eleven years ago I suddenly found myself as a single parent. My son, then 9 has autistic tendencies, and my daughter, then 4 has cystic fibrosis. After the initial panic I rearranged my part time working hours in a supermarket around school times and carried on. After several months I started thinking about what I actually wanted for my children and myself and remembered that I had put on hold a long time ago the dream to become a midwife. So I began looking into how to do just that and realised that the training alone would require me to be able to drive. So I learned to drive and finally passed my test on my third attempt (third time lucky and all that). I looked into it again and realised that I now had to do something to prove recent study in my chosen field. I found an access course at my local college that fitted in with school hours and was able to again rearrange my working hours, (the kids still expected to be fed while I was working and studying!!! Can you believe that?) Anyway, I got a place and was then told that I would stand a better chance of getting a place at university if I could show some work experience in a care setting, even voluntary work. I couldn’t fit any more hours into work, study and family for voluntary work, so I applied and got a job as a health care support worker on the bank at my local hospital and gave up my job at the supermarket. Ultimately the time came to apply to university and eventually I got a place to train as a midwife, my dreams were really coming true. (I actually pinched myself when the letter arrived.)

So I start my training and it was everything I wanted. I LOVED it. Every tiring, emotional, stressful second of it. And I was actually doing pretty well, I wasn’t getting the highest grades in the group but I was doing well enough. So life is pretty perfect at this point. I’m doing what I always wanted, and my kids are happy and well looked after. (Enter bolt of lightning here.) I get a call informing me that my niece (2) and nephew (4) are about to be taken into care by social services, no need to go into the details here. It would seem that I am the only person who is suitable to take them, or they were being put up for adoption. So literally overnight I become a single parent to four children. Well, me being me I just carry on as before, working, studying, hospital appointments, social services appointments, generally taking care of the kids and the house, the usual. Eventually I qualified as a midwife. One of the happiest days of my life was getting that degree certificate in my hand.

I get my first job as a qualified midwife and I’m happier than ever. I’m doing what I love, helping women and families through one of the most important times of their life and it is amazing. My nephew’s behaviour is steadily getting worse and is almost constantly getting temporarily excluded from school until he finally gets permanently excluded. At this same time my daughter’s health has deteriorated and she has been admitted to hospital 6 times in 8 months. I’m having to take more and more time off and using annual leave for appointments so never getting a break or time off to relax. This eventually took it’s toll on my health and I was signed off work with stress, ugh. I hated this but it made me see that I was failing on all counts. I couldn’t give 100% at work or home, which simply wasn’t good enough. So I tried to figure out what to do next. I thought about many of the women I had looked after as a midwife and that they often came into hospital in labour without really knowing what to expect, what they were “allowed” to do, what their choices were and often scared due to a lack of information and knowledge.

That is where the idea of Simple By Nature started to form. I wanted to find a way of giving women and families the information they needed in an easy to understand format so they really could make informed choices about their care during pregnancy, labour, birth and beyond. I had qualified as an infant massage instructor many years earlier but had never really done anything with it. So I decided to incorporate it into my business as a way of helping parents to really communicate with their baby and learn practical ways of helping their baby to relax, sleep better and help with trapped wind and colic.

Since starting my business I have been able to spend more time at home with my family. I am able to fulfil all of my children’s needs while doing something I am passionate about. I’m pretty sure that I will never be a millionaire but I am now loving what I do more than I ever thought I would.

So much for cutting a long story short!!!! Apologies for that, but I hope this gives an insight into why I do what I do and who I am.