Our list of distributors grows and changes, some permanent fixtures on our distribution list and others who give out a few thousand packs a year at various Parenting & Baby Exhibitions. Below we will be featuring any feedback we get from our distirbutors / stockists.

If you would like to become a distributor or perhaps give out Mama Packs at your next baby show instead of goody bags then please read THIS article.

A review from a DCB customer:

MAMAPACKS

“Recently Mr C and I realised we were pregnant again (hurrah!), Cawood baby 2 is due in December.

Now for me, as well as the week by week steps of pregnancy and planning, the big fun whilst waiting for baby is collecting freebies and testing products for me and for baby. What can I say, it’s the Yorkshire in me! I remember being excited by the idea of the Bounty packs last time I was pregnant and being somewhat disappointed when I got them. I have to say that this time I wasn’t any more enthusiastic. In my “Mum to be pack” I received a tiny (truly tiny) pot of Sudocreme, a pampers pack with a dvd that show me what my womb looked like from the inside out apparently (I gave this a miss), one first size nappy and a slim pack of baby wipes. And paper, lots and lots of paper!! All promotional leaflets (including one for BFC – Books For Children, the book club you join but never seem to be able to get out of!), a Bounty “book” similar to the Emma’s dairy one you get from the midwife and little else. I kept the nappy, used the wipes on Kieran’s post-chocolate face and put the Sudocreme in the first box. Everything else was thrown out, what a waste!

Somewhat disillusioned, I can hardly explain how thrilled I was when my MamaPack arrived from DaisyChainBaby!  Beautifully wrapped in easy to recycle brown paper was a not so small jute bag  Opening the bag and delving in was like opening a Christmas stocking! Now the contents of a Mamapack vary from bag to back but I will list just some of the contents of mine: an individually wrapped TeaPigs t-bag (caffeine free chamomile flower), a Natracare individually wrapped panty liner and breast pads, a very decent-sized tube of Palmers cocoa butter massage cream (I will definitely be getting some more of this, it is fantastic and smells yummy!), some organic cereal from RudeHealth, some Pregnacare cream, some GinGins (hard candy double strength ginger sweets which were fantastic for morning sickness- had I discovered these earlier on I would have ordered a cupboard-full!), a Weleda baby sample for Calendula change cream, more cream from Maclaren for Mum & baby, a beautiful pin from Million Mums, a charity dedicated to speaking out again the needless deaths of women in childbirth, an ECloth (great for glass and mirrors!) and some SoapNuts! Now the soapnuts I was a bit dubious about but what it tells you on the instructions is very true, I will safe a small fortune on washing powder using these, it works out at approximately 3p a wash, less if you are a bit more conservative like I am. There was very little in the way of paper, certainly no “useless” paper, but I was impressed to find a small bag with a selection of business cards for businesses listed on wahm.co.uk (mums who work from home) offering relevant businesses and services. I am enjoying ploughing through these and will be logging onto WAHM when I’m done to see what else is on there!

Receiving the Mamapack was lovely, because as well as being packed with useful practical samples it really felt like I had received a treat! I had intended to write this as a comparison between the Bounty & Mamapack but to be honest, there simply isn’t any comparison! I have already recommended this to other Mum-to-be’s and will continue to do so (may even get myself another one a little further down the road lol!).

You can visit DaisyChainBaby to get your pack now, using this direct link: www.daisychainbaby.co.uk

Nicki Cawood, Mum of 1 and half!

“ I’m Nicky, mama to six, wife to one, a real nappy advisor with Bucks County Council and I run Clothie Bots.

I first heard of Mama Packs when I was pregnant with Fonzy, my youngest.  At the time they were mystical things that crunchy mamas had & not for everyday types like me.  Oh how wrong was that?!

I discovered real nappies when Fonzy was 7weeks old, I cant for the life of me now remember all my old prejudices against them as in reality they are just so simple to use and on top of that they look absolutely fab.

It was one late night of tinternet nappy research that I came across the Mama Pack site.  Yes the contents were eco, but they were for me – lentil eating wasn’t a prerequisite! (no offense to lentil eating mamas out there)  I applied to be a distributor not thinking for one moment that I would be accepted and was totally thrilled to find out that Bucks was still searching for someone.

After a couple of emails and a chat with Yzzy it was finalised that I would be the official distributor for Mama Packs in the Bucks area.

My first consignment of Mama Packs arrived and Yzzy had very kindly placed an extra one in there for Fonzy & I.

In all honesty I was quite blown away by the contents.  I had collected my first pack for the ‘other’ (think kitchen roll) pack that the midwives give you and didn’t bother to go back for the others.  Perhaps I had a dud batch but I found it so commercial, buy this to be a better mum, type of thing.  A small nappy cream sample, a ‘sposie nappy and perhaps washing powder – non of it inspiring.

The Mama Pack in contrast had; cookies, muesli, soap nuts, sweeties, pregnacare, natracare feminine products and a wealth of information of some lovely & incredibly talented mamas who work from home.  I hadn’t realised there was a whole cottage industry out there!  We sat there going through the box, lots of oooing & aaahing.

So what has being a distributor meant to me? Well it wont make your fortune, there is no mark up on the packs.

What it will do however is bring traffic through your website & offer Mamas an alternative to the ‘hospital’ packs.

A fair few of the packs that I do distribute are bought by people for their friends who are near the end of the pregnancy and playing the waiting game… and they have been described as winning all the layers of the pass the parcel with so many goodies in there.

If I have a consultation with a local mama for nappies I take a pack with me as a gift and it makes a nice ice breaker.

Anyone spending £35 or more in store will receive a pack if they want one too.

Other times through a number of forums I’m on the topic of Mama Packs arises and I tend to point the mamas to both the Mama Pack site and also let them know that I stock them.

I see them as a valuable promotional tool, marketing.  I regularly offer one as a prize for the monthly newsletter draw that I hold.

So far I’ve not had one negative comment on them, they have changed from what I understand when they were first about, but they have evolved for the best!

I promote the Mama Packs through a page on Clothie Bots, in the advertising I have in a couple of places, on the cards I send out with orders, on parenting forums that I’m on, when chatting with other mamas at toddler groups whenever I possibly can!  I worry that maybe Ive become a nappy bore and Mama Pack evangelist ”

Thank you Nicky! Why not visit Nicky’s website at www.clothiebots.co.uk