When I was pregnant I remember searching 'pregnancy products' in Google, because I wanted to see what stores were out there and maybe find some cool stuff that would help with all the crazy that was happening to my body. Stuff to help me prepare for labour and the trauma my body was about to go through - and anything to help with breastfeeding because I had been told my nips were about to go to war.

I remember not one store came up in that first page that sold a wide range of products focused solely on the mum's body and journey. NOT ONE. And so, here we are 3 years later and I'm again bloody shocked to see that when you google 'pregnancy products'... still nothing. Here's what you get. Lists of product recommendations. "Essentials you didn't know you needed!". That's great but these pages send you all over the joint, opening multiple tabs, again googling multiple products. And most of the time the products aren't even in Australia.

3 years ago I was already exhausted from growing a human so I pretty much gave up and probably ended up just going to Woolies and stocking up on the biggest pads they had (not big enough FYI). I wanted a store baby! I wanted something that was all about me, made me feel like I could take care of my body, prepare myself, pamper myself, arm myself even, with the things I wanted and the things I didn't even know I needed. I wanted to "Add to cart" so bad.

This got me thinking. There are over 300,000 babies born in Australia every year and I'll wager there is a good 300,000 baby-only online stores. Of course there are maternity/pregnancy products out there, but why isn't there a one-stop shop that every woman knows about to go to and find what she needs/wants?

I want to say irrevocably that I'm not in any way denigrating any stores out there that offer a range of products for pregnant women and new mums. I think you're all AMAZING and you provide an incredible lifeline of products to women who need or want things. And I know you can search other terms in Google, but shouldn't SOMETHING come up if you search 'pregnancy products'? Should we have to search for each particular product we are looking for? And what if we don't know what we're looking for and just want to see some options?

To me this all points to a larger issue that has historically erased the needs and desires of the pregnant woman. I really feel that this, in part, has led to a lack of options that so readily exist in other markets. Baby comes first. I get it. But when women are looking for pregnancy products for themselves, they are often left feeling confused, or exhausted, give up looking or don't even try. It's just another reason why so many of us ignore our bodies, live with symptoms/side effects and are unaware that there are things out there that can help us care for our bodies, minds and spirits. 

But what if there was somewhere that unapologetically focused on the mum and her journey through pregnancy? 

This is why we made The Maternity Market. Because damn it girl, you deserve to put yourself first too. You deserve to have a growing selection of carefully chosen products that you can choose from no matter what stage of pregnancy you're in, from the down-right essential to the treat yo'self.

The Fanny Flusher. Bloody essential for your bloody essentials.

Treat yo'self. This is what I'm talking about! Look at these babes living all in one place!

We're still infants in this big scary e-commerce world but we have SO many awesome ideas to grow and every day we are being introduced to new brands and preggo-friendly products that we can't wait to add to our range. We want to stock and support all of you.

And then pregnant women all over Australia will be sitting on their phones, laptops, computers, tablets (did I miss anything?) saying YAAAAAAS I'M A QUEEN look at all these goodies, just for me.

Bron x