More than just another crunchy baby shop!

Here at Born, we've always prided ourselves on our ethics - we support organic, fair trade, local, sustainable and healthy products and love working with those that manufacture their goods in line with our principles.  But we also believe in good design, in having objects in your home and life that will bring you pleasure as well as serve you practically.  William Morris said “Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful”, and that is how I approach my buying for Born.  Is it healthy? Beautiful? Practical? Will it last?  Can I see parents - my friends, myself even! - handing this down to their children, being proud to have it in their homes?  If yes, then I know I am on to a winner.

Our customers know we stock our shops and website with this ethos, and therefore have come to expect certain things from Born; our toiletries contain no harmful chemicals, our plastics are all BPA free, our disposable nappies are as 'eco' as possible.  People visit us from quite a distance to see our large range of good quality 'proper' slings and baby carriers, to be able to see cloth nappies in the flesh, to try on a good range of decent nursing bras.  And we love this!  But did you know that we also stock many items that might not fit into the 'crunchy' mould?  Or did you see them and wonder - hmm, why do they sell buggies?  And what is with that dress, it's not organic?

We realise that not all parents are going to make the same parenting choices.  So while we believe that carrying babies, especially tiny newborns, is best for them, we do also understand that this isn't always going to be how your baby is transported around.  Eva and I both have Bugaboo buggies - and loved them!  Why?  Because they are designed and built so well, allowing you to have your child rear-facing.  Our kids have obviously all gone into car seats, so we stock what we feel are the best car seats on the market in our shops.  Many parents don't bed-share, for many reasons, so we offer cots which are more than just a large piece of nursery furniture; the Sleepi cot for example grows with your child and becomes a toddler bed.

With clothing, we do feel that there is room in Born for lovely goodies that aren't 100% organic.  Sometimes we find a local designer whose work we love - like Hana at Itsy Do. She makes one-off dresses for us, available to buy in both shops - they usually fly out!  And you won't find them anywhere else unless you sign up to her classes and learn to make your own.  Sometimes, at a trade show, we will see a range and just 'know' that it will be right for our customers; James had this gut feeling with Noa Noa Miniature Baby which is hitting our London shop right now.  Sometimes, I will see a range and it will be a slow-burner, with a bit of persuasion needed to stock it, such as Swiss brand L'Asticot - who are organic but not our usual style!  This season we have quite a few new brands coming into the shop: Hucklebones, Shampoodle, Tapete - as well as shoes by Livie & Luca.

What they all have in common is outstanding quality and first-class design.  And that is what Born is all about.  We truly believe that if you can make something in organic cotton, then that adds to the quality, that 'clean' plastics are superior to standard ones and that a brilliant buggy helps you be closer to your baby; and then you have satisfied William Morris' design criteria!

Becky
Born Buyer

 

Clifton Life April 2011

12 years old today

March 22nd 2000 is the day we opened the doors of our Bristol store.  Like so many things you start you're never sure where you are going to end up.  We did think we'd have more shops by now but with the advent of internet shopping, technically,  we can reach more people online than through a shop. We will have more shops in the future, because what we can't do online is have those conversations that you can only have face to face. I've had so many chats about ante-natal classes, birth, sleep, teething, breastfeeding, nappies, slings, most of which aren't related to products but just because I'm a mum, have 'been there and done that'.  I like to think that we don't 'preach' a right way to do things, but just by sharing our experiences give people an insight into a way of doing things that may be slightly different to the 'norm' whatever that is! Because to me (and the other 3 key people in Born) homebirth, long term breastfeeding, baby carrying, bedsharing, holistic healthcare and informed choice is our normal.

To celebrate our birthday come in and see us and tell us you've read this blog and you can have 15% off your purchase on the 22nd of March 2012, or if you can't come in use the code 'birthday12' for 12% off online purchases placed until the end of the day.

Love Eva

 

Sue Learner Independent Midwife Bristol

Sue Learner has been a midwife for 25 years and is one of 2 Independent midwives in Bristol. As well as offering midwifery services where couples can employ her to take care of all their ante-natal checks and be at the birth, Sue also offers a consultancy service where you can have an hour of her time to talk through any issue you have with your current or past pregnancy or birth experiences.

In this interview Sue explains how these sessions can empower you to have the birth experience you want or get over a birth that did not go as planned.

Sue can be contacted on 0117 927 6131

Sue Learner Talks to Eva about her new midwifery consultancy

The importance of sustainability

I thought I'd share a thought on sustainability, but not about the fab products we offer but the sustainability of Born.  Believe it or not 'being there' for new parents, to offer help and advice (as well as products) has always been at the heart of Born.  In the early days we even talked of making the shops charitable so we could spend more time on building support networks and promoting natural parenting  - profit was a means to stay around rather than the main goal.

So with the high street in a bit of a state and one of Bristol's independent baby shops Dinky Inc closing down we thought we'd just highlight the importance of supporting local independently run businesses.

It would probably be easier (and cheaper!) for us to be an online only store, rates and rents would be considerably lower as would staffing, however in doing that we would loose the main reason why we started the business, which was to bring to the high street and to everyday mothers the kinds of products that you just cannot find on the high street.

My biggest rant with our suppliers is when they allow internet only stores to sell their products and incredibly low prices (and sometimes even at a loss) which was what happened in the case of Dinky Inc. This is not sustainable business practice, and if we did that we wouldn't be here now.

We are all to aware that customers come into our stores, have demonstrations and then go online to buy exactly the same thing but cheaper. Most people would do that, however we are always happy to price match (where it means we aren't loosing money) so please ask us, especially if you want us to be around a little longer.

Eva