YOU’RE PROBABLY WONDERING WHAT OR WHO MOTHERHOOD DIARIES IS…
Welcome to Motherhood Diaries, I am so glad you dropped by!
Motherhood Diaries is an online platform where parents and parents-to-be can share their thoughts and opinions on all things related to pregnancy and parenting. Here, you will find articles, product reviews, service reviews, event reviews, recipes, stories and so much more, all related to this unique journey that we humans are blessed with, from preconception all the way to parenting.
Keep reading for more tips on how to use the Motherhood Diaries’ online magazine website. Hopefully, you will find the answers that you are looking for.
2010 – THE BIRTH OF MOTHERHOOD DIARIES
My name is Leyla Preston, I am an ex-lawyer turned full-time mum of two boys aged 14 and 12 years old and three girls (5 years old, 3 years old and one angel baby.) I now spend most of my limited spare time working on updating Motherhood Diaries, my new sister site all about helping kids balance screentime, 365daysofnoscreens.com, food blog, Five for a Fiver, which houses my 5-ingredient recipes for £5 or less, and our brand new venture connecting prenatal and postnatal women in the UK to physical and mental services in their area. You can check out hand2holdapp.com here – we plan to change the world with this app!
Back in 2010, I became unexpectedly pregnant with my first child and was instantly thrust into the unwritten, unspoken world of pregnancy. No one around me was pregnant, so I had no idea about what to do with this new baby growing inside me.
I did what many people do when they find out they’re pregnant and turned to Google.
Bad idea!
Overwhelmed and feeling very much alone, I narrowed my search to an online pregnancy diary, something that I could turn to every week, so I could relate to at least some symptoms I was exhibiting, like nausea and bloatedness.
I found one generic site, which bombarded me with so much advertising I unsubscribed instantly. Suffering in silence during one brief lunch break while working a temp job at a legal consultancy in Mayfair, I created my own online pregnancy journey and I have never looked back.
Motherhood Diaries started off as a very simple personal weekly diary of my first pregnancy, from Week 4 to Week 41, and my only followers were my mum and my best friend, who wasn’t even pregnant, bless her. She became my bona fide proofreader and with her nod of approval, I published a weekly post, which, fast forward almost twelve years has spanned into so many other opportunities.
2010 – 2021 – AND THEN I HAD MY KIDS
After Week 41, I had my baby, and the birth was hugely traumatic. I confided in my new circle of mummy friends from my NCT antenatal class and they urged me to write about my birth story and share it with the world. I was anonymous, with only a handful of friends and family who knew that it was me behind the keyboard.
I wrote about my birth story and shared it with my NCT friends, who then shared the story with their friends and family. Before I knew it, I had tonnes of emails from mums who wanted to share their personal birth stories on Motherhood Diaries too! Shortly afterwards, I had my second baby and expanded my blogging to recipes I had created along the way to becoming a mum and products that I used and loved.
In the late months of 2012, Motherhood Diaries suffered a security hack, and much of my content was wiped. I was distraught. After months of trying to grab whatever little content I had left, I closed the website down for a complete refurbishment and in May 2013, Motherhood Diaries relaunched itself as a global magazine.
2013 – MOTHERHOOD DIARIES GLOBAL MAGAZINE FOR PARENTS WAS RE-BORN!
Complete with a press release, Motherhood Diaries Global Magazine for Parents came back out of the woodworks, now topped to the brim with factual articles and personal stories from 70+ contributors from around the world.
In those eight months, I had been ultra busy with my two boys, meeting and networking with all kinds of parents and sharing stories with one another. My love for the pregnancy and parenting industry became a full-time passion for learning how to birth safely and with support.
My new aim was to provide a judgement-free platform where parents and parents-to-be could share their wealth of knowledge and experience on all aspects of pregnancy and parenting and lean on Motherhood Diaries as the go-to resource for those raw issues that most of us parents face, but may not always want to share with the world.
2021 – SO, WHAT IS MOTHERHOOD DIARIES ALL ABOUT NOW?
Well, I’ve had two more babies since then and even suffered a huge loss, but Motherhood Diaries is now an open platform for parents and parents-to-be to share their personal stories with the world, hoping we can all connect and reach those millions of parents and support them in their own unique journey through pregnancy and parenting. You will find lots of informative content on all aspects of pregnancy, from preconception to beyond birth. And our community is still growing!
REGULAR TV AND RADIO CONTRIBUTOR
Motherhood Diaries has made headlines and I now regularly contribute on the radio and have been on TV a few times, talking about pressing topics. Check out my press section for where I’ve made little cameos here!
WHY IS MOTHERHOOD DIARIES ANY DIFFERENT TO OTHER PARENTING BLOGS/MAGAZINES?
The magazine is not just one person’s very personal view of pregnancy, childbirth, and parenting, it is an entire bank of people’s views. You see the raw deal here, the stuff people don’t really talk about openly or in public.
Becoming an MD Contributor means you can also share your story with the world! Click on the link below to be taken to the form to start the journey.
HOW TO NAVIGATE MOTHERHOOD DIARIES
Motherhood Diaries is very simple to use. You will find easy navigation tabs related to each crucial stage, i.e:
- Preconception – Whether you are thinking about getting pregnant or actively trying, this section offers informative, tried and tested ways to help maximise your chances of conceiving safely and naturally
- Pregnancy – Pregnancy comes in all shapes and sizes, so it’s important to ensure you do your best to look after yourself and your baby. You will find lots of content from the early stages of pregnancy all the way to the latter months.
- Labour & Birth – No matter how much you prepare for birth, it never really turns out how you expected. Read about how to help speed labour along and how you can maximise your chances of having a quicker and easier birth.
- Parenthood – You’ve had your baby and now the fun begins! Read about how to live with a brand new baby at home.
- Blog – I still like to document my life with the kids and include all my personal stories in the blog section.
- Latest Articles – These are factually researched articles that pertain to current affairs or new updates in the world of pregnancy and parenting.
- Reviews – Occasionally, I will use a product that I love and share how great it is in this section. Products that have been gifted to me will be clearly stated in each review.
- Press – This section I will include where Motherhood Diaries has appeared, either on TV, Radio or other websites/offline sources.
- Freebies! – Access extra premium content when you sign up! Occasionally, I will write extra content you can print off/save and use for personal use. These will be premium content that requires a password. Sign up to receive this password below.
ARE YOU TRYING TO GET PREGNANT NATURALLY?
Then Motherhood Diaries can help! Having gone through an arduous fertility journey myself. I have documented all the things I did that got me my three girls in my late thirties. Head here to get started.
ARE YOU PREGNANT?
Then let Motherhood Diaries follow along with you on your journey by heading here to start the journey and subscribing to personalised weekly emails. Grab your free WELCOME PACK too, which includes:
- What to do next
- NHS antenatal care flow chart
- Pregnancy timeline/overview
- Pregnancy symptom timeline
- Baby growth fruit and veg timeline
- And of course, your weekly personalised emails!
Motherhood Diaries is also working on a large project on how to get kids off the screens (thanks to the influx of internet/social media/online gaming!) Grab your free Activity Calendar which includes one screen-free activity for every day of the year here.
WANT TO ADVERTISE WITH MOTHERHOOD DIARIES? HERE’S HOW
Motherhood Diaries now offers bespoke advertising packages for brands and businesses who would like to advertise their products and/or services on Motherhood Diaries to keep the magazine going. If you want to learn more, please check out our Media Kit and email Leyla at advertise at motherhooddiaries dot com or use the contact form.
Please also don’t forget to check out our Ad Policy first and our section about how to advertise with Motherhood Diaries.
I hope you love reading Motherhood Diaries as much as I love working on it. My home is your home, so please stick around and say hi. Oh, and don’t forget to sign up as an MD Contributor and share your story with the world too!
Much love,
