This week…Bethany Kitt, midwife and founder of The Bump to Baby Chapter, and mother of three.

On maternity leave with her third child, Beth created The Bump to Baby Chapter (with her cousin Kate) to share their wisdom from their experiences as midwives and mothers. They teach antenatal classes with an honest, childbirth no filter approach and use hypnobirthing to show mums that birth without fear is possible.  They use blogs as a way of reaching out to mums across the country giving stories straight from the birthing room floor.

My little Munchkins are… Ayva, 8, Oscar, 5 and Nancy 1. Bringing me joy, laughter and grey hairs since 2009.

No-one ever tells you that… when you get pregnant things would happen to your body that doesn’t just involve getting a bump and big boobs. No one tells you about varicose veins, unwanted hair growth (snail trail) and even more unwanted hair loss – six months after having my third I thought I was going to lose all my hair the way I was shedding.

Birth was… They were all different, premature labour, a really quick labour and a really long labour. Yet with every one I felt so empowered that I had grown a tiny human that was now here to hold in my arms.

I couldn’t have survived the first three months without… copious amounts of chocolate.

I wish I’d known before that… “It’s just a phase!” It’s such a cliché but, with my first newborn, Ayva I thought that my life was now sleepless night, back ache, pyjamas and biscuits for breakfast. Yet in the sleep haze I seemed to forget that babies grow up and it gets easier. You never see an adult relying on mummy to get them to sleep, but at the time I thought I’d be rocking Ayva to sleep at 18.

It used to drive me mad when people said… “How are you feeding her?” With milk… that’s all you need to know.

The best present anyone ever gave me was…. A Shnuggle bath with baby number 3. It meant that I had my hands free at bath time as it’s a bath shaped seat. Game changer.

The most important that I’ve learnt is… To not give too many f****s. People will have their opinions. Mostly well-wishing family members. As mums we make decisions because we love our children and we do what we think is best with what we know at the time. We should always have trust in that.

I worry about… Anything and everything. Many evenings I will sit down and say to my partner how I feel that one of the children aren’t getting enough attention at the moment. He always laughs as he says it’s on a cycle with me saying it about each child every couple of weeks. I can worry that they are deprived of my time and that I spend too much time with them all in a week. It’s such a responsibility bringing up children to be appropriately behaved grown ups – it’s no wonder we worry so much as parents.

I wish… I kept on top of storing memories. I am now desperately trying to piece together and collect photos of the past eight years of my eldest as they are all stored on memory sticks and old iPhones. You just can’t beat a photo album with real pages and real glossy photos to flick through.

Motherhood is…. Wishing your baby to sleep through the night then worrying when they do.

Work is… being a midwife at NHS and antenatal teacher and hypnobirther at The Bump to Baby Chapter. I’m lucky that I don’t see my career as just a job, I honestly love what I do and hopefully the passion will never fade.

I want my children to know that… they are very much loved.

Blog: thebumptobabychapter.co.uk/blog
Twitter: @thebtbchapter
Facebook: facebook.com/thebumptobabychapter
Instagram: @thebumptobabychapter