I initially trained as a nurse and studied at King's College London - an amazing experience with lots of placements in such a wide variety of settings. I first worked at St. George's Hospital Tooting; then Croydon Community Healthcare Trust; and then the Central Middlesex Hospital. My roles during my 10 year Nursing career ranged from Orthopeadics (despite a horror of broken bones - I must have been mad!); to Elderly Hospital-at-Home; to Palliative Care (the most beautiful experience); and then to Pharmaceutical Research. My last role was as a Nurse Trainer for an independent pharmaceutical research facility and it was there that I discovered a love for training. I had my sights on the Training Manager's role......and then the babies started to arrive.
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I was shocked at my response. I had been determined to be a career woman after having children. My own Mum had lost tremendous confidence when me and my brother were born and, looking back, I wonder if she struggled with postnatal depression. She never really worked again and I was a little nervous that the same would happen to me. Hence my (at the time!) robust plan to return to work full time when Becca was 6 months old and pursue the management role. My babies had other plans though.....they rocked my world.
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I returned to work for a while but, whilst so many of my mum-friends loved returning to work, I found it too hard to be away from my babes. I was delighted to be expecting again when my first was just 8 months old. Childcare costs no longer worked out with 2 babies and a change of plan was in order. I retrained as an NCT Antenatal Teacher....and the rest, as they say, is history. Following a generous opportunity from NCT, I launched BellyTots in 2018.