Giving birth to a great idea

JULIE PANKHURST, 35, thought up the successful friendsreunited.co.uk, the website that puts former schoolfriends in contact, when she was pregnant with her first child, Amber, now two. She and her husband, Stephen, a co-founder of the site, now have a second daughter, Sally, who is three weeks old, and live in Barnet, Hertfordshire. Julie says:

After I fell pregnant with Amber, I started thinking about my old friends from school. Until then, like many professional women, I was focused on my career as a computer programmer.

But being pregnant changed my whole outlook on life. Stephen and I had been trying for a baby for almost eight years and had practically given up hope with our IVF treatment when it was successful.

I was over the moon, but I also became more reflective and, for the first time, I slowed down and began to think about other things in my life, especially the past.

I wondered what was happening in the lives of old friends with whom I had lost touch. At the same time Stephen, a software programmer, and his business partner, Jason, were thinking about innovative ideas for websites, so I suggested the concept behind friendsreunited.

I thought it would fit in with my decision to be a full-time mother. But I was so busy immediately after the birth of Amber that Stephen had to write the entire program. The site was launched when Amber was six months old, and I spent the evenings working on it.

At first, I really enjoyed it because it was on a small scale, but after the website was mentioned on Radio 1 and suddenly took off, it became stressful managing it on my own.

I had no idea it would become so successful. We now have 5.5 million registered users, and receive 3,000 e-mails each day. But we're still just a cottage industry comprising Stephen, Jason and me.

Having set up this project so I could spend lots of time with my little girl, it's ironic that I've got almost a full-time job. But at least I'm working from home.

Now we've gone beyond just helping friends find each other. One of the most heart-warming stories is that a son given up for adoption managed to trace his birth mother through it.

It's stories like that which make me feel the work is so worthwhile.

ANASTASIA BAKER, 34, is the founder of an agency that specialises in nannies who look after newborn babies during the night. The former television journalist had the idea when she had her second child, Alexander, now nearly three. Anastasia is married to BSkyB executive James Baker, 38, and the couple also have a four-year-old daughter, Amelia. They live in Fulham, West London. Anastasia says:

When my first child was born, in 1998, I was a television reporter for the BBC. My career was important to me and I loved it so much that I was more than willing to work late into the night or at weekends.

Though my priorities changed when Amelia was born, I didn't want to give up work, so the best solution seemed to be to have a live-in nanny, Tricia, who worked from 7.30am to 7pm.

With full-time help, I thought we'd manage, but I hadn't considered the nights. James and I both need nine hours' sleep to operate, but Amelia kept waking up throughout the night and, like any new parents, we were soon suffering from severe sleep deprivation.

I staggered on, trying to cope, and three months after Amelia's birth I returned to work, even though I was often woken up four times in the night.

When I discovered I was pregnant again, six months after Amelia was born, I was panic-stricken. I thought I would barely get a night's sleep again. The only solution seemed to be to employ a maternity nurse to work around the clock, but they cost around £500 to £600 per week.

So immediately after Alexander's birth, I rang more than a dozen agencies asking for a night nanny, but they all seemed to think this was a very odd request.

Then I placed advertisements for trained paediatric nurses in training hospitals, and found Shireen Standley, my first night nanny.

Within four months, Shireen had Alexander sleeping through the night. And - just as important - so was I. Having Shireen saved my health, my marriage and my sanity.

I had also begun to realise that I couldn't continue my career because I really wanted to be there for my children. But I still needed to work.

My search for a night nanny had made me think that if I needed one, there must be plenty of mothers who wanted one too.

I spent three or four months trawling through teaching hospitals and putting adverts in The Lady magazine. By Alexander's first birthday, in June 2000, I had 15 nannies on my books.

It cost only about £2,000, because the nannies are self-employed and are paid when they have a client.

Today, we have 90 nannies and between 80 and 90 clients, and I have launched franchises in Hampshire and Berkshire. The business, which I called Night Nannies, makes around £120,000 a year.

I work on Night Nannies in the morning, and spend the afternoons with Amelia and Alexander, so I have the best of both worlds.

I dreaded the birth of Alexander because I thought it would mean the end of my sleep and career. In fact, it is thanks to him that I have got this fantastic new 'baby' that I am so passionate about.

JULIA MINCHIN, 36, is a former marketing manager who developed a hip-seat, for carrying children, while pregnant with her second son, Olly, now 18 months. Julia and her husband, Jeremy, 36, a former detective sergeant with the Special Branch, also have a three-year-old son, Tom. They live in Taunton, Somerset. Julia says:

After Tom was born in July 1998, I suffered from repeated back pain until I went to see an osteopath. It turned out that the way I carried Tom on my hip was throwing my spine out of alignment, and I soon learned that I was not alone.

For the majority of mothers, back aches are the result of picking up and carrying small children all day. Yet, astonishingly, there was nothing on the market to help us.

At the time I did nothing about the idea but when I became pregnant with my second baby, in the autumn of 1999, I began to see the potential.

As my body was creating a new baby, my mind was creating a new idea for me.

I already knew that, eventually, I wanted to set up my own business. I'd been an executive at Cobra Beer in London and had taken a career break and moved to Somerset to have Tom.

So I sat down with osteopaths, physiotherapists and designers to construct something that felt comfortable and was practical for child and parent. It was tricky to find the time, though, and when Olly was a tiny baby, I used to wait until he had nodded off, then raced upstairs to my 'office' (the spare bedroom) to work on it. Now, as Olly has grown so has my business. Our office has spread to three rooms in our converted top floor and we are selling to the likes of John Lewis and Mothercare. Last year, the turnover was £250,000. Yet I very much consider myself a full-time mother because my boys are my priority.

These early years are so precious, and I want to make the most of my time with them.

SHARI LOW, 34, started writing the 'chick-lit' novel Why Not? when she was pregnant with her second baby, Brad, born at Easter. Her novel is due to be published by Piatkus Books in the summer. She lives in Glasgow with her IT-consultant husband, John, 36 - who has a daughter, Gemma, 12, from his first marriage - and their first child, Callan, 17 months. Shari says:

I feel as though I am suddenly caught up in a wave of creativity that is coming out on all fronts: after years of fertility problems, I have had my longedfor second child. And my happiness also helped my writing: I was busy on my second book while carrying Brad.

Brad was delivered at Easter and Why Not? will be delivered to bookshops in late summer.

It's a far cry from what was happening in my life several years ago. I was caught in a job that I hated, which involved my being away from home throughout the week, so that I saw my husband and stepdaughter only at weekends.

And because I had longed for a baby for such a long time, I was becoming depressed about not being a mother. It made everything else seem much worse. At that point we had been trying for a baby for almost eight years, but without luck as a result of my polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS).

Turning 30 was like a midlife crisis for me. I thought 'Is this all there is to my life?' and felt so depressed. That's when my husband gave me the push I needed. 'You've always

said you were going to write a book. Stop talking about it and just do it!'

He was right. Throwing myself into writing took my mind off trying for a child.

In early 2000 I got a publishing deal for my book and also found out I was pregnant. I screamed with excitement, after eight years of trying. Callan was born in November 2000 and What If? came out the following February.

By a miracle, it seemed as if my first pregnancy had alleviated the symptoms of PCOS, and I quickly fell pregnant again.

While I was carrying my second baby, I felt so rooted. I was back in Glasgow, close to my family and friends, and felt that all the struggles in the past were behind me. And it was as if all this pent-up energy for creating things was finally released.

SHARON REES, 38, is the co-founder of a company which supplies personalised party bags for children's parties, hen nights and weddings. A former PA, she started the venture while pregnant with her second daughter, Bethany, three. Sharon and her partner Lee Proctor, 31, an accountant, have another daughter, Abby, aged four. They live in Bicester, Oxfordshire. Sharon says:

During my second pregnancy, I wondered what sort of future I could create for myself so that I could more easily combine motherhood and a career.

I was concerned because I had returned to my job as a PA after the birth of my first child, Abby, when she was only four months old. The result was that I had ended up feeling torn because I felt that I should be there for my baby.

Yet the reality was that I was often being sent away from home for work, and while having a few days in Sweden or France is fun when you are single, it is not when your priority is your child.

One day, when I was having tea with my friend, Tiffany Brownell, a month before I was to go on maternity leave to have Bethany, I wished hard for an idea to hit us in the face so that I didn't have to face the dread of returning to work after Bethany's birth.

That's when Tiffany started talking about the birthday party she had organised for one of her two children. She was complaining about the cost of the party bags she had put together. Each bag had cost £3, and with 15 children at the party she had spent more on the bags than she had on the food.

We suddenly thought we could do it better ourselves. For several weeks afterwards we kept bouncing the idea around.

So I didn't return to work after Bethany was born. When things got a little tight financially, I took in some typing work which I could do from home.

We road-tested the first batch of party bags on Bethany's first birthday. We had hand-painted them and filled them with traditional toys. The mothers were enchanted.

We have now launched a website (partypop-its.co.uk) and are branching out to supply hen parties and the like, so my life has changed for the better.

I'm fulfilled as a mother and can be there to take the children to nursery and pick them up. But at the same time, I have fun doing my work, which is how it should be. I know I'm very lucky and, as a result, I feel my girls also benefit.

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