Izzy's Mum

Some of you have already noticed that we have launched our site! If you haven’t already seen it, go and take a look.

We will be tweaking the site over the coming weeks, and of course adding more products. For now we have the great Mamascarf nursing scarves, a great range of breastfeeding tops from Canadian company Momzelle, and a growing range of nursing necklaces from Lait D’amour.

In other news we’ve also got a more memorable address on Facebook. You can now find us at www.facebook.com/izzysmum.co.uk. While you’re there why not become a fan (if you haven’t already).

We’ve just heard that the social networking site Facebook as threatened to shut down a group which campaigns against Facebook’s censorship of breastfeeding mothers.

The group “Hey Facebook, Breastfeeding is Not Obscene! (Official petition to Facebook)” has nearly 250,000 members and was set up when users started being banned from Facebook for posting pictures of them breastfeeding their children. On the 2 Feb administrators of the group received emails from Facebook staff threatening to shut the group down for copyright infringement reasons. When challenged Facebook backtracked and said it was for “posting nudity or sexually explicit material and sending harassing messages to members”. They won’t be any more specific than this.

The group does have 5,900 photos, most of which are of mothers feeding their children, but all are tasteful and they don’t show excessive nudity. Group administrator Debra Balcaensays “To shut the group down would not only end valuable support, but give a message to the world that breastfeeding babies are somehow obscene. It’s just absurd.”

The group has issued a Press Release, and has asked that people spread the word in any media possible, in the hope that Facebook will allow this group to continue.

We feel it is important for our new business to have a really great logo. In order to find that logo we have been running a design competition over at the fabulous 99designs site.

We’ve had over 80 entries which makes the job of choosing one very hard, and so would love your feedback.

If you have a few minutes, pop over to our contest page to take a look at the entries (we’ve eliminated some we don’t like). Remember the site will be selling to mums of new babies, so imagine you are one (if you aren’t already) when casting your critical eye over the designs.

Each logo has an entry number, so let us know if there’s any you like, or any you hate. Leave a comment here, on our Facebook Page or on Twitter @izzys_mum (or you could even register on 99designs and comment there if you like).

We need to announce the winner in under 2 weeks.

Thanks in advance.

Hi, my name is Abby. 7 months ago my husband and I had our first child, Isabel. Wanting to give Isabel (or Izzy as she very quickly became known) the very best chance in life we decided to breastfeed her.

I soon discovered how hard it is to find suitable nursing clothing, at least nice clothes. It simply isn’t available on the high street, and surprisingly hard to find a good range on the internet. I believe that just because you are a mother who is breastfeeding, it doesn’t mean you have to look plain and boring. I have been to 3 weddings since Izzy was born, and finding outfits for these that still enabled me to breastfeed was nearly impossible.

So, I decided to start “Izzy’s Mum”. We will stock the best range of breastfeeding clothes, all presented in an easy to find way. We believe that you should be able to feel smart, confident, and dare I say it “sexy” in what you are wearing, and we will offer you the clothes to let you do so.

We will have everything from outfits for the smartest of occasions, to the basics you need for every day. All available for quick and easy delivery.

We are in talks with suppliers, and are developing a site which we hope will be the best of its kind (my husband, AKA Izzy’s Dad, is a web developer!), but in the meantime we want to hear from you. Are there any occasions you have found it hard to find an outfit for? Is there a particular item of clothing you would like but haven’t been able to find (we have already been given the challenge of finding a bright red nursing top!)? Maybe you have a favourite brand you think we should stock, or some advice you would like to share with other mothers.

You can keep an eye on (or subscribe to) this blog for updates and news, follow us on twitter @izzys_mum, or become a fan on Facebook.