What is your background and why did you start Acorn Pack?

In 2004, I was subtitling television programmes for the BBC. I was also expecting my first baby, who was born, ten days late, in April that year. I had him in the birthing pool at the Duchess of Kent Maternity Unit at Hillingdon Hospital.

After he was born, I hadn't a clue what to do. I'd been to Parentcraft classes, I knew the theory, I'd even read books, but I hadn't had any particular hands-on experience with looking after babies. The reality of doing it when I was still very sore from the birth and hadn't slept for 24 hours was daunting, to say the least. I wanted to breastfeed, but I had no idea how to go about it. He seemed to have too many arms and when I tried to latch him on, he would suddenly look over his shoulder at the crucial moment, or his hand would get in the way. In short, I wondered what on earth I was doing.

We took him home and muddled through. He seemed to be feeding OK (though he lost nine ounces of his 8lb 10z birthweight), but it hurt and I was very tired indeed. I read books (I recommend The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding by La Leche League International), I talked to a couple of other people I knew who had breastfed, but I didn't know anybody who had a baby the same age as mine for the first few weeks, so I didn't have anyone to talk to about it.

I tried to find a local breastfeeding group, but one that had been running had shut down and there weren't any others. I started to get better at it, my son started to gain weight and it began to feel a bit easier.

And then I thought, "Hey, it really shouldn't be like this, why should I have to seek out all this information, to use nigh-on forensic research skills to discover what's out there?" I'd just had a baby; I was in need of all the information and signposting in one place. I didn't see why my early parenting experiences should be hit and miss, reliant on a support group being open, my health visitor remembering to tell me things, or bumping into someone in the Post Office queue who knew about a good local mother and baby group.

That was where the seed of the idea for Acorn Pack was planted, but by then, my baby was a year old and I was expecting his sibling. I was, somehow, still breastfeeding - though he stopped when I was about five months pregnant.

My second baby was born in January 2006. Whilst pregnant with him, I had spoken to hundreds, if not thousands, of women about their experiences of birth and feeding, refining my ideas about the most useful ways to give pregnant women information, to collect their experiences and use them to inform the services provided by the NHS and Local Authority - targeting the spending of public money in the most effective way possible.

After my second son was born, again, I breastfed, but I had heavy pressure to give him formula (I had had gestational diabetes whilst pregnant). Having already breastfed one baby, I knew I could do it again, so I kept at it and we cracked it.

I decided that I wanted to try to make things better for women having babies in the borough. In 2007, I joined the Maternity Services Liaison Committee as a user representative and quickly found my way to the Breastfeeding Subcommittee. During my time on that committee, we saw:

• the rollout of the breastfeeding policy
• the appointment of an infant feeding coordinator at the hospital
• the set-up of a breastfeeding peer support training programme, which now has drop-in groups at the hospital and across Hillingdon
• the establishment of an annual breastfeeding conference for professionals with an interest in health in Hillingdon

I spoke at the first conference in 2009, about the language of breastfeeding support. I spoke again at the June 2011 Breastfeeding Conference, where I launched Acorn Pack Antenatal.

Acorn Pack is where all of the experiences I have had myself and spoken to other women (and men) about come together to provide a place for those expecting babies in Hillingdon - to find out what it means to have a baby in the borough. I’m really looking forward to seeing how Acorn Pack develops as people start to give us feedback about what works best for them.

So, where are we now? Well, thanks to the support of some really rather visionary and brilliant people at the London Borough of Hillingdon, Hillingdon Community Health and Central & North West London NHS Foundation Trust, who thought my vision – and, perhaps more importantly, my business plan – was a good idea, we’re at the point where women in the borough will be able to collect Acorn Pack Antenatal from Yiewsley Cornerstone Children’s Centre from this Monday. The packs contain samples, offers and information from Weleda, offers from BoobBaby, Pinter & Martin publishers, Handle With Love Baby Massage, Happy Tree Nursery – and there are more lined up for the next issue. They also contain a Families Information Services pen – and Acorn Pack Antenatal magazine, which is 40 full colour, glossy pages, full of useful information, thought-provoking articles on various different topics, accompanied by some wonderful original illustrations.

acornpack.com has been live since 7th April and has amassed more than 12,000 hits in that time. The Facebook page has more than 200 likers, the Twitter feed has more than 300 followers. Featured blog posts on the website are regularly shared across these social networking sites, provoking debate. Acorn Pack’s Klout score – a hugely popular online indicator of influence – is in the 60s. Klout has this to say about Acorn Pack: “You broadcast great content that spreads like wildfire. You are an essential information source in your industry. You have a large and diverse audience that values your content.” Which is nice.