Mothercare Born to... Range

I recently blogged about Save the Children and one of their current projects 'Build it for Babies' and mentioned that Mothercare had now launched a children's clothing range to raise money for the charity.

The range is called 'Born to...' and £1 from every item goes direct to Save the Children with items raging in size from newborn to eight-years. The money raised will go to help children in need both at home and abroad.

Moo's 'Born to Love' top is a beautiful powder-blue long-sleeved top, the words 'born to' printed on in silver whilst the 'love' is much larger and made up of pink sequins (and vaguely reminiscent of the very famous Robert Indiana pop-art sculpture). This is aged 2-3 years which fits really well considering how tall she is and that she's almost three.

Bear has a gorgeous baby-blue sleep suit which I must confess is my favourite of the collection because both the illustration on the front and the over-all design is just lovely. It reads 'Born to Dream' which also touches me on such an emotional level as we are so fortunate to be who we are and live where we live. My children can dream away to their hearts content and hopefully, one day, achieve those dreams. So many millions cannot. The suit has brilliant, striped, contrasting sleeves and the cuffs fold-over to create built-in scratch kits which is essential for any newborn. Bear also has a two-pack of bibs, one adorned with stars and the other reading 'Born to Smile' which are both thick and very absorbent.

Of the entire range, I do much prefer the baby items to those for older children, but this is purely down to personal taste as they're a bit more whimsical in design which appeals to me more. Here are my pros and cons...

Pros.

- All items retain their softness and shape when washed, even without fabric conditioner.

- Beautifully designed baby items.

- Great value clothing starting at £3 with £1 from each item going to charity.

- Trusted brand.

- Bibs super absorbent of liquids.

- Generous sizing.

Cons.

- I'm not a huge fan of sequins, especially on children. I find them rough to the touch and unpleasant to hug but this is a personal preference.

- Moo's top sadly stained on it's first wear and no stain-remover or method will eradicate it completely (washed out of other items no problem).

- Sleepsuit poppers up at the bottom rather than down the front, once again it's a personal preference but I feel like I'm pulling the skin down a sausage. A wiggly, often crying, sausage.

You can shop the complete range and read more about it here.

Clare

Please note these items were sent to us for the purpose of review. All thoughts, opinions and findings are my own.

Save the Children - Build it for Babies

Imagine you're nine months pregnant and your contractions have just started. You pick up your bag and head out the door and onto the road. It's getting dark and you're facing a walk of up to eight hours, alone and through an environment that is considerably less than safe. You have a one in twenty-four chance of not surviving this experience.

What if you weren't pregnant, but instead facing this journey with your seriously ill baby? Would that be any better?

This is the situation that women in Liberia face every day with only a third of the female population living within reach of a health clinic. Of that lucky minority, 60% are over an hour's walk away with some living as far as eight! 

Can you imagine living eight hours from help? I don't even live eight minutes from my local hospital...

Because of this, only 34% of women give birth at a medical facility with only 64 healthcare workers covering a population of 120,000 people (that's about one person with medical training per 10,000 people)!

It's this that, along with Save the Children, three midwives from the popular Channel 4 show 'One Born Every Minute' witnessed on a recent trip to Liberia to learn about what the charity is doing to help this situation. Louise Holt, Maude Hardy and Gemma Raby visited Save the Children-supported maternity clinics and hospitals where they met midwives, pregnant women and new mothers and learned of their plight. You can read all about their trip here.

There is still lots more to be done and Save the Children want to raise enough money to open a further six clinics in Liberia which they anticipate will annually achieve...

- 13,730 more babies receiving vital care within the first few weeks of life.

- 750 more women being assisted by skilled professionals to give birth in a clean and safe environment.

- 1,950 under-fives having access to medical help when ill.

- 7,300 adolescents and 10,600 women of child-bearing age will be able to access family planning and sexual health services.

- 40,300 getting vital information on staying healthy.

The goal is £500,000 to build and equip the six new clinics, so far, they're slightly over halfway there which is fantastic news though there's still some way to go! Save the Children are looking for your support to reach their goal and so I'd like to invite you to take a look at the Build it for Babies site, read Zinnah's story and help in any way if you can. There's also a nifty little application on the page where you input your postcode and it shows you where you'd be walking to if life in the UK was like this...mine took me halfway into Kent!

This week Mothercare have also launched a fantastically cute range called 'Born To' in support of Save the Children where £1 from every item is donated to the charity. Fashionable and philanthropic, I don't think there's anything better!

I'll finish here by saying that as the mother of a toddler and expecting my second any day now, I can't honestly think of much else that would terrify me, to be so far from help should my children need it. To face giving birth to my son by the side of the road and risk losing him to infection or the cold; the road is no place to give birth.

Clare

Please note this is not a sponsored post but a voluntary piece written in support of the #Builditforbabies campaign.