Fertile Mind

Hi, I’m Christine and I just have to tell you the extraordinary story of how this whole business came about.

Okay, so I had a simple invention – bellybelt (a kit that turned jeans and pants into maternity wear) – which I wanted to launch onto the market.

However, I had very little money with which to do it (I wasn’t working as I’d just had my first daughter, and my husband Mike and I were mortgaged to the hilt in out renovators’ delight on Sydney’s Northern Beaches).

What to do?

All I could think of was to put my beloved fairly new car up for sale.

Luckily, someone was keen – a man turned up with his mother to look at the car. But instead of buying the Volkswagen, he bought half the business!

That’s how Peter Hooker and I met, and we are still the co-owners of Fertile Mind all these years later.

At first Fertile Mind was a part time enterprise run from my garage. Peter brought business skills from his time as an equities analyst, and I brought LOTS of experience in the pregnancy sector (I went on to have three more daughters!).

We both did other things – I joined Sky News and later the ABC, and Peter become involved with various board roles.

As bellybelt grew in popularity around the world, we welcomed a growing and wonderful staff of mostly working mums, who do a great job of fitting in between school holidays, sick children and athletics carnivals.

When we can all get together, we have fun looking at new products and sharing parenting advice, laughs and tears, and chocolate. We began in maternity accessories, but other mothers have shown us great breastfeeding and baby products – so we’ve expanded to include a quality selection of the best.

I hope you enjoy having a browse around the site and on our lighthearted Facebook page.

We pride ourselves in excellent customer service (and were awarded GOLD in the Australian Customer Service Excellence Awards), and I will be happy to respond to any comments positive or negative about your dealings with our company on any level.

All the best for your pregnancy journey,

Chris.