Founded in 2017, Dearbump was the brainchild of CEO Emma Jarvis and was born out of her own personal pregnancy journey.

Emma says she became concerned about the lack of products and information available for new and expectant mums, so took matters into her own hands by creating a brand that would help support and guide women throughout their pregnancy.

Having established a strong position in the market with their popular subscription boxes, the company is now launching a specially-designed corporate programme to help bridge the gap between employer and employee.

Women make up around 46% of the UK workforce and an estimated 80-85% of those will become pregnant during the time they are employed.

Despite this, 90% of mothers returning to work after pregnancy reported that they had no formal support programme and one in three say they found the return to work following maternity leave very difficult.

At present, £1.65 billion is spent in the UK on replacement costs of new mothers per year. Recruiting and retraining staff presents a significant loss for businesses not only in terms of talent but also in time, cost and productivity.

The programme will aim to support expectant mothers throughout their pregnancy and beyond, including the often difficult and emotional process of returning to work. It will offer advice, information, wellbeing checks and much needed emotional support.

The Women’s Organisation has supported Emma through our Enterprise Hub programme, signposting information on access to funding and brokering introductions to key contacts in the local business community.

Emma is currently planning the launch of a crowdfunding campaign to support the new initiative and hopes to be able to roll it out to businesses nationwide in the coming months.

Emma explains: “Studies have shown that the lack of support and a poorly managed reintegration back into the workplace are responsible for women feeling unhappy at work or leaving their job altogether.

“Despite these shocking numbers, there are currently no programmes in place to combat this and no official guidance for employers or employees to ensure a smooth transition for working mothers.

“Dearbump’s goal is to tackle this gap in the market to help employees feel happier at work, saving employers billions of pounds in replacement costs in the process.”

To find out more about Dearbump’s products and pregnancy programmes, head to https://www.dearbump.com/

instagram handle: @dearbump_.