My name is Karin and I am the mother of two lovely children; a girl who was born in 2009, and a boy who was born in 2014. I am married and live with my husband in the wonderful part of London that is NW8 and St John’s Wood. My pregnancies were very traumatic and challenging; it turns out I suffer from a debilitating and potentially life threatening (if not treated) pregnancy condition called hyperemesis gravidarum/HG. While I would not wish this condition on anyone, I am not sure NW8-mums would exist today had I not gone through that.
I am quite active in our neighbourhood. Becoming a mum has opened so many unexpected doors to me and I am constantly meeting new people. It is quite wonderful! Some would say I know almost everyone, and this has happened since I had my daughter.
After her birth, I started organising coffee mornings; very much to my own surprise as I suffered from quite bad postnatal depression and anxiety where even leaving the house was a struggle for me. I felt as if everyone looked at me as if I were a weirdo and not coping well.
Our group of mums used to meet in a local restaurant every Friday morning. Those Friday mornings became a lifeline for me. Gradually I started writing to the group about various child related things and doing what later went on to become the first NW8-mums’ website, but back then in a very unofficial way.
Many of my friends urged me to turn my ‘knowledge’ into a website, so that I could share it with many more, and a few years later, here we are. I hope you like my website and find it useful. If there is something you can’t find or if any information has changed, please let me know. I constantly update it, but even I miss things from time to time.
Having a support network is imperative, and having gone through a huge amount personally related to traumatic pregnancies, miscarriages, postnatal depression (PND) and pregnancy depression, bereavement, etc, I am happy to be a listener should you want to share something with me.
Please feel free to email me on NW8mums@gmail.com if you would like to learn more or if you need support.