Mother & Baby

This magazine is great if you are an expectant parent, if you have a baby or if you have a pre-school child. It costs £1.99 each month or a 12 month subscription costs £23.88 in the UK or a bit more outside. It is over 140 pages long and is owned by Emap Esprit and has been in circulation for a few years. It seems to have that tried and tested air about it which helps especially if you are a first time parent. The magazine has its own expert panel, who make comments or write articles throughout the magazine, such as a midwife, obstetrician, paediatrician, relate counsellor etc.

There are many of these baby magazines about such as Pregnancy and birth, Prima Baby, Practical Parenting and Parents, but my favourite is Mother and Baby because it has such a wide range of topics covered and always seems to offer some useful advice, information or tips, no matter how pregnant you are or how old your baby or toddler is.

The magazine is bright, colourful and has good clear photographs. It is easy to read, can be dipped into or followed strictly from beginning to end. The contents are clear and if you want to write to or email them, their details are clearly seen on the first page. There are of course lots of advertisements, but they are quite relevant and useful to the reader of such a magazine.

The information, which can be found in the magazine is divided into sections to make it easier for the reader to go straight to relevant pages within sections of a particular area of interest. With reference to the May 2002 edition, the sections are as follows:

FROM BUMP TO BIRTH
This section covers the latest news and information on pregnancy as well as interesting useful topics such as ‘having an active birth’ and ‘bleeding in pregnancy’.
It includes useful advice from their resident midwife too.

HELLO BABY
Every month they look at a baby of a certain age and provide information and advice on what to expect from this age group. This is also the place where they would cover other aspects of baby’s health and well being for example asthma and colds or milk intolerance.

TODDLER TIME
Again, advice and information, useful to parents of toddlers, covering aspects of their health and well being, such as food ideas and helping them to swim. Also includes ways in which you can help your toddler to develop educationally in a fun way.

MUMS CLUB
This includes tips, letters, and celebrity gossip, real life stories of other readers as well as a wealth of other information useful to mums. There is even a page just for dads. This is not really a club, just an area where parents get a chance to discuss their views and experiences of having children. In Mays edition, one mum talks about being a surrogate mother.

SPECIAL
This section changes each month and covers a topic, which affects all parents or children. In May it was ‘Sleep’. Here you will find news, views and information covering all aspects of this topic.

BEST BUYS
This section changes according to the ‘special’ of the month and covers Best Buys. It is an invaluable section for all new parents, since it shows products which have been tried, tested and rated by a readers panel, into Best Buy and Mother and Baby’s Favourite. They tend to have a good range of items tested within each product section. Concise information is provided about how each item was rated and why. In May they tested feeding bottles, cots, sleep videos and maternity pyjamas.

JUST FOR YOU
Here you will find giveaways, prize draws and competitions all related to babies and parenting. Some of them require a telephone call to enter, which is ok except that some of them are premium rate lines so beware. I love this part of the magazine and have one various prizes in the past from them including car seats.

I would definitely recommend this magazine for first time parents, but would also recommend it as a good read for parents with subsequent children as it does provide good up to date information which may be new since they last had a child, as well as details relating to changes in the law which affect maternity rights etc.