Forums:
- Pre-eclampsia forum.
- NCT forums (one for dads, and members only ones too).
- Bounty forum is really good, as so many people use it. The "due in..." are good cos they're full of people at the same stage. There's multiple births & dads ones too.
- Emma's Diary forum is really good too. Again, with a bit of searching, you can find the "due in..." topics and they're full of loads of people at the same stages as you. Sign up for the freebies, emails, etc and use the same username for the forum. This website is hosted by the Royal College of GPs, so makes a nice change from all the commercial sites, plus the main site articles are very well researched.
- Mother & Baby magazine forum - not as good.
Email lists:
- Pampers sends you an email each week describing baby's development and typical pregnancy experiences.
- Bounty sends you monthly newsletters full of competitions, vouchers, special offers, etc.
- Baby fit is an american site, which sends a similar weekly email, plus daily emails on exercises, recipes and general advice for pregnancy and beyond. Some of the advice is really good, you just have to ignore the american fads.
- Emma's Diary sends weekly emails in a diary form, which are excellent being British and always very relevant to what's going on that week during pregnancy. When you sign up with the site, tick the relevant box for emails.
Freebies:
- Bounty is probably the best one, you get a "pregnancy" pack when you have your booking-in appointment with the midwife. Then you get a "mum-to-be" pack voucher either with the pregnancy info, or by signing up online (or both!!) that you take to Boots or Asda for your pack. When you go into hospital you get a newborn one, and then a voucher for a baby pack comes through when baby is a few months old.
- Pampers send you a box with DVDs, freebies and vouchers.
- Emma's Diary sends you a voucher to collect a pack from Lloyds Chemist.
- Boots Parenting Club sends you a magazine plus loads of vouchers for freebies (eg £5 of beauty products free, free single use camera) and money off vouchers, the best one of which is for a free changing bag when you buy one pack of nappies from Boots. You have to have an advantage card.
- Cow & Gate send you a free toy cow (which is very cute!)
- Hipp send you a free weaning spoon and vouchers.
- SMA nutrition send you a calendar of tips and advice from the start of pregnancy through to 12 months old.
- NCT send you a free "Bumps & Babies" magazine. It's very useful, but don't bother to get more than one, cos it's almost identical each time.
- Johnson & Johnsons free sample
Maternity clothes and baby products:
- Mamas & Papas website has web exclusive offers that are very good. NB if you live anywhere near Huddersfield, go along to the Mamas & Papas factory shop. In fact even if you don't it's worth travelling to if you want one of their pram systems, I got one for £300 instead of £525! Of course the other option is to get one off Ebay - that's even cheaper still!
- Jojo Maman Bebe has beautiful maternity clothes, I got the plum dress for my sister's wedding, although I actually bought it from ebay for half the price. Don't be confused by their sizing system - you should be your normal size towards the start of pregnancy and just one size up towards the end. I bought two sizes bigger and it fits well but is a little on the big side.
Other sites:
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