It’s amazing to sit back and think that Mama Pack have been running long enough for us to be able to write a ‘History Of’ article!
In March 2000 Mama Pack founder Yzzy Howell set up a simple chat facility for parents she had met online, this quickly grew into a forum and then a website around the forum which she named Goddess Mums. Many of the mums on the forum made their own nappies, cloth san pro and clothing and liked the look of an E Store Yzzy had designed that sold her ring slings and Babymoon Pads – Mumzmall. So one by one Yzzy built stores for these people until the WAHMpire that is now known as www.wahm.co.uk was born where over 1500 Work At Home Mothers have passed through and started up their own online business. Yzzy’s husband now runs WAHM while Yzzy helps out and does the design side.
Anyway, meanwhile, over on Goddess Mums, daily chat about parenting, pregnancy and birth continued all held together by the mantra Your Body, Your Baby, Your Birth – which seems to now be used by many organisations from Doulas through to Pregnancy Yoga centres!
One day back in Spring 2008 Yzzy sat back amazed at what she had read on the Goddess forums. A mother had been handed a Mum & Baby weaning pack in her clinic and had found a can of Coke! Upon her revelation of this find several other disgusted mothers came forward and admitted they too had found Coke in their packs and how the other contents were things they simply wouldn’t use. Disposable Nappy vouchers, Formula milk samples, chemical filled wash powders and pots of thick white baby bottom cream that we all hated as it made our babies bottoms so sore!
Rob [Yzzyz husband and business partner] asked Yzzy what the problem was and off she went into a rant about samples, unethical, ethos, environment and mid rant stopped, screamed and said:

OH MY GODDESS I’VE GOT IT!!!! Yes she really does speak in purple!

Within half an hour Yzzy had written a proposal to all the store holders on WAHM asking them to come together to create a sample bag of WAHM products!

An announcement was placed on Goddess Mums that 25 pilot packs would be available for sale that Friday at midnight and that if anyone wanted one they would only have to pay for postage.

At midnight Yzzy loaded the 25 packs up to her store and went to bed.

The next morning Yzzy couldn’t believe her eyes! Her very first pack was sold at 1 minute past midnight to Simone [hello Simone] and a further 14 had been sold within the hour! By the time breakfast had been eaten all 25 packs had been sold and the email inbox was groaning with requests for more packs from disgruntled Mums who had been waiting for them to be on sale.

So another 25 packs were made and then 50 packs and then 100 and then companies not in the WAHM network started to contact us and enquire about adding their samples and discount vouchers to the pack. Janey Lee Grace Author and BBC Radio 2 presenter found out about our bags and started to promote them on her tours around the UK and with many of the suppliers she recomends in her Imperfectly Natural series of books.

In March 2009 Mama Pack had it’s own website, forum and had been trademarked. We were also open to requests from distributors and samplers.

One thing bothered Yzzy and that was the packaging, the paper bags looked fine and were ethically sourced but after a trip in the back of a Royal Mail van customers reported them being fit for nothing more than the recycling bin. So an ethical, reusable box was brought in to replace the bags.

This was fantastic as not only did it keep everything safe and was reusable but MORE samples could be slotted in!
We have loved having the boxes but as most things Yzzy started thinking again [annoying habit] and decided that while ‘some’ people might re use the boxes for keepsakes or paperwork she suspected far more of the boxes were ending up in the recycling.
So the boxes were phased out…..

The new Mama Packs were launched late May 2010 in yummy, organic, smelling divine hessian jute bags!

So there we have it… The UK’s one and only ethically influenced natal sample pack from conception, to birth and through the first TWO years!

We have some exciting samplers on the horizon and some fab new projects in the planning… We hope you loved your Mama Pack and hope your relationship with us continues in the forum.

If you have a photo of you or your baby [or bump] with a Mama Pack then send it to us and we will add it to this article.

MAMA PACKS ARE SAMPLY WONDERFUL!!

GALLERY