16 Inspiring Mums Who Launched Businesses While On Maternity Leave

As soon as you become a mum, you quickly realise that work doesn’t always fit around your parenting duties and there aren’t always the products and services you need available. So why not create them yourself in the time you have spare from nappy changes and bath times?  

Get inspired by these ‘mumpreneurs’, who started their very own successful businesses while on mat leave. If they can do it, so can you.

Amanda Peffer, founder of Blade & Rose
Amanda started children’s fashion brand Blade & Rose while on maternity leave with her four-month-old daughter. She constantly found herself pulling down her daughter’s dresses and shirts to cover her nappy and so designed a range of baby leggings because she couldn’t find any fun or fashionable styles in shops.

The brand’s really taken off and is now stocked across the UK as well as internationally and her husband even gave up his job to work full-time for the company, making it a real family business.

Alia Arain, founder of Aara’s Baby Food
Alia came up with her business venture when she struggled to find a nutritious and natural food range to suit her baby. Aara’s Baby Food is freshly sourced and features appetising flavours from around the world to help give babies the best nutritional start in life.

Sally Hall, founder of Dorothy and Theodore
Sally founded lifestyle shopping site Dorothy and Theodore while on maternity leave with her second child. She launched the company one week before giving birth and took advantage of her time off work to grow her business as much as possible.

Bernice Hewson, founder of Babycademy
Bernice recognised the positive impact music had on her little one and came up with the idea of creating a musical product for newborns that would be educational and also help with babies’ skill development just four months into her maternity leave. Just one month later, Bernice registered her new business, Babycademy and a year on it’s a huge success and a multi-award winning company.

Natalie Massenet, founder of Net-a-Porter
Pregnant with her first child, Natalie starter Net-a-Porter and has never looked back. The luxury online fashion empire was launched from Natalie’s London flat with the help of her then-husband, a team of 15 others and a £1.2 million investment.

Nicola Norris, founder of Bibee Maternity
Nicola felt that her maternity wear options were limited when she got pregnant. As a mum-to-be and then a breastfeeding mum, she was after maternity clothing that didn’t sacrifice style for functionality. She wanted to buy clothing that was practical and comfortable, yet still luxurious, stylish and flattering. And so the Bibee dress was born. The interchangeable front can be attached to any Bibee dress or Bibee tunic to create a different look each time. Genius.

Lisa Ebbing, founder of Hotmilk Lingerie

While on maternity leave with her first child 10 years ago, Lisa created Hotmilk Lingerie to sell gorgeous maternity underwear and sleepwear. Previously Lisa worked as a TV production coordinator, but gave it up while pregnant with the aim to come up with her own business venture to make an income. Which is how Hotmilk Lingerie came about.

Lynda Harding, founder of SweetDreamers
Most parents will be familiar with Ewan the Dream Sheep, which was invented by Lynda when she struggled to get her sixth child to settle. She eventually discovered that one of the most reliable ways to soothe him was to dim the lights, switch on the vaccum clean and rock him in his cot. Unsurprisingly, she couldn’t find a product that did all of this so she invented one! Ewan, the soft and cuddly sleep aid, was created as the first SweetDreamers product, a range that has since expanded.

Jenny McLaughlan, founder of Gumigem
Jenny launched her baby teething jewellery brand Gumigem while on maternity leave with her second child. He had a habit of tugging and chewing at her jewellery when he was teething, so she decided to create a line of baby-safe jewellery that he could sink his teeth into.

Cheryl MacDonald, founder of Yogabellies
After being made redundant on maternity leave, Cheryl started her own yoga teaching business Yogabellies. She’s since been awarded multiple awards and accreditations and offers a number of different classes in the UK.

Lucy Jewson, founder of Frugi
Lucy was originally a marine biologist, but while on maternity leave in 2004 she had an idea to start her own business. Lucy wanted to use cloth nappies for environmental reasons, but soon realised that they had one slight problem; they gave the babies that wore them a bigger bottom and finding clothing to go over them was a real challenge.

So she started making her own clothes and, realising demand for them, launched Frugi. Some 10 years later, the award-winning clothing sells worldwide and is stocked in over 500 shops in the UK, as well as John Lewis.

Fiona Smyth, founder of TotsBots
The idea for TotsBots came along fairly soon long after the birth of Fiona’s daughter. She’d used disposable nappies with her first born and made the decision not to go down that route again. Instead, she designed the first TotsBots cloth nappies using an old towel and found the prototypes worked well.

Next she made some for friends and found the feedback was positive, prompting her to put her all into launched the business. In 2003, together with the help of her husband, she revolutionised the washable nappy world by making bamboo nappies. Now almost 15 years later, the business is going from strength to strength.

Rifat Jan, founder of Fill n Squeeze
When Rifat’s second daughter, Sofia, was born in 2010, she used the time off to put an idea she’d had for a while into action. Her first daughter, Zara, was a fussy eater and by the age of 10 months, Rifat found herself giving into to ready prepared pouches – despite not wanting to.

“One day I played a trick on her,” says Rifat. “I cut the end of the pouch, filled it with my food, placed a clip at the end of the pouch and handed it over to Zara to eat. I couldn’t believe it; the cheeky little monkey ate it all up. It kept me thinking if only there could be a way to store homemade food in these pouches.” She turned her brainwave into a prototype and came up with the Fill n Squeeze pouches. Today, the products are available in a huge amount of stores and the company is set to expand to include a cook book, a pouch spoon and different pouch sizes.

Sam Telfer, founder of breastvest
Sam started breastvest along with her school friend Helen Preen in 2007, after they both started a family. “We were both breastfeeding and I had an idea for a piece of underwear that would mean mums could wear normal tops to breastfeed,” says Sam. “I was sick of wearing the two, pretty pricey breastfeeding tops I had, but kept ruining the necklines of my favourite tops by pulling them down to breastfeed.”

What became breastvest was a simple piece of underwear, which scoops under the nursing bra and covers the postnatal tummy so mums can lift up whatever tops they are wearing to breastfeed, safe in the knowledge that breastvest has them covered.

Sam made one for herself and quickly realised loads of mums were interested in buying one. After extensive market research and product testing, the product launched in 2009 and is now stocked in over 100 UK stores and globally, too.

Cara Sawyer, founder of Snoozeshade
Cara’s brainchild was probably the most obvious and practical parenting product – the SnoozeShade. She got the idea after becoming frustrated with hanging blankets and coats to her baby’s pram when they were out and about and is now the creator of the UK’s best-selling sun and sleep shade.

Amanda Kingsey, founder of Snappy Bin
In 2004, Amanda was on maternity leave with her first child when she had the idea to develop ‘Snappy Bin’ to help with nappy changing on the go. The portable bin holds your nappy sacks open, leaving your hands free to hold a wiggly baby. It wasn’t until she was on maternity leave with baby number three that the product developed further, she found someone locally to make it and tweak the design. Now, while on maternity leave with her fourth child, she’s got the production side of things going and the product is available to buy.

Did you, or someone you know, start a business while on maternity leave? Let us know in the comments.

[Baby Blog: My Maternity Leave Will Be Over Soon – But I’m Not Sure I Want To Go Back To Work]

[Baby Sleep Buys: Products To Help Your Baby Snooze Soundly]