Blog it for Babies

Last weekend saw a big first for me – my first ever blogging conference! I was so pleased to head along to a venue in a rather swishy part of London and meet up with dozens of excellent bloggers to hear about Save the Children’s Build it for Babies campaign.

I knew that Chloe (Cookie Jar Life) and Lindsay (Lilies Are Like) would both be there, both of whom I’d met before at a Save the Children petition hand-in, so there would be a couple of friendly and familiar faces in the room. It was lovely to see them both again, but also lovely to meet numerous new people for the first time. I will confess to being a little starstruck in the company of Mammasaurus, Actually Mummy, Mother Wife Me, HPMcQ and many others!

The real focus of the day was not so much the bloggers as the campaign though… and what a necessary campaign it is. I had used up my day’s supply of tissues within the first hour of the day.

We heard about women in Bangladesh like Panna, who has given birth four times but only had two of her babies survive, and women like Shipra who has also given birth four times, but who lost three of those babies within hours or days of their birth.

1 in 19 children in Bangladesh do not live to see their fifth birthday because access to basic services such as healthcare is very limited, particularly in rural areas. As a result, preventable diseases such as pneumonia and diarrhoea are claiming children’s lives at an appalling rate.

The bloggers in the room on Saturday were mainly women, many of whom are mothers themselves. We were all horrified to learn about the conditions that most women in Bangladesh have to give birth in – and I think it’s fair to say that it made us all look at our own birth experiences from a very different perspective. Even those of us who had complicated births now feel so lucky to have had the care, medical expertise and attention that we did.

Can you imagine living somewhere that only 18% of births have a trained health worker present?

The thing is, it doesn’t have to be that way. Save the Children already have the knowledge and the experience that will allow them to help women like Panna and Shipra.

The Build it for Babies campaign is a £1 million appeal that will allow Save the Children to build seven life-saving clinics in the poorest parts of Bangladesh. You can find out more about the appeal on their website – there are so many ways to get involved, and every single penny counts.

There are also a lot of ways to get involved even if you’re not able to make a financial donation.  I’ve included some useful links below. Please join me, in any way you can, to help Build it for Babies.

– You can keep up to date with the Build It for Babies Campaign by following Save the Children on Facebook and Twitter.

– From April 23^rd you can visit a virtual clinic and see exactly how your money is helping.

– Visit the Blog It for Babies website, set up by blogging superstar Mammasaurus, who is touring the country on a week long fundraising trip for the Build It campaign.

– Read posts from other bloggers who were at Saturday’s conference, or who have chosen to get involved in the campaign. So far I’ve seen great posts from HPMcQ , Grenglish,  Mother Wife Me , Mammasaurus, Plus2Point4, Dear Beautiful Boy, Actually Mummy, I Want My Mummy and Sunny Side Up  but I know there will be a lot more to come. Follow the #blogitforbabies and #builditforbabies hashtags on Twitter for more.

– Take part in the super quick and easy meme over at Chloe Witters.

Thank you so much for your support.