Passionate about making a difference for women and their families, experienced midwives Steph Hellard and Vanessa Clemm provide online education for new and expecting families. Their unbiased, up-to-date, evidence-based resources are easy to read and understand, helping families to make informed decisions about their care. Their course covers everything from choosing your care provider in early pregnancy to preparing for the birth that you want and planning for your journey after birth. Here they talk to The Natural Parent Magazine about the inspiration behind Bloom & Pop, how they launched their business, and their hopes and dreams for the future.
The passion: What inspired you to set up your business?
After supporting thousands of families, both at work (as midwives working in education, leadership and research) and our own family and friends, we felt there was a big gap in education resources that are both simple to read and evidence based. It’s already hard for people to go and find pregnancy, birthing and postpartum information all in one place, but even harder to work out if its up to date information that is based on the evidence. So we created it.
We truly believe that all parents should have easy access to education (like online) that is of high quality, evidence based information without influence or bias: just the plain old facts, so that they can go and make informed decisions based on their own wants and needs
The launch: How did you start out in the beginning?
We started out as work colleagues – working in a busy maternity hospital, leading and teaching the midwives and doctors, alongside direct care of women and families. As we both went on maternity leave to have our own children, our friendship remained strong. Over a mums-only dinner date, we both revealed our inner desire to build something where women and families could go for support and information, that was evidence based, but also free from bias, hidden agenda or medical jargon that is so often affiliated with existing education resources. So, we decided to build it. We have only just gone live in May of 2024, so we are working on brand awareness and letting the course speak for itself – it’s full of suggested resource links, downloadable cheat sheets and simple information.
The innovation: What was the biggest breakthrough for you with your business?
Our biggest breakthrough was when we highlighted what stands us apart. And there is a lot. One half of the partnership leads a pregnancy care clinic – knowing exactly what women need from the source itself. The other half has a background in student education, research and innovation – totally across learning, best practice and desire to improve maternity care. Who is better qualified to develop and create an online learning course from pregnancy, birth and postpartum, and everything in between?
Yin and Yang: How do you balance work and family?
The business was constructed whilst both of us were on maternity leave! Neither one of us sees this as work – we absolutely love it, and totally believe what we’re doing is helping women and families. So yes, whilst we do our ‘work’ whilst our babies nap, or after toddler bedtime at night, the question is a hard one to answer when we don’t feel like it is work we are balancing: rather a passion or hobby we like doing from home.
