Launch Date Set for Birth Announcement Service www.babygrapevine.co.uk

A new state-of-the-art birth announcement service called Baby Grapevine, that will reduce some of the stresses of giving birth, will launch on 15 February 2006.

The new birth announcement service, sponsored by Emma’s Diary, will eliminate the need for Mum and Dad to make and return numerous phone calls to a long list of friends and family who all want to be kept informed about the happy event as it unfolds. Now with Baby Grapevine, Mum and Dad can tell everyone with just one phone call. Right from the minute that the mother goes into labour, the excitement can be shared with all family and friends simultaneously. No one is the last to know.

The father can simply leave a voicemail message on the Baby Grapevine service announcing that the mother has just gone into labour and then update it at regular intervals. Family and friends are automatically sent a text message so they can dial into the service to hear the personal voicemail messages and even leave messages in return.

The expectant parents need only register the mobile and home phone numbers of all family and friends, with their permission, on the Baby Grapevine website in advance of the birth.

Baby Grapevine is much more than simply a birth announcement service. It also allows family and friends to see photos of the new baby within hours of the baby being born. These photographs, plus videos and other keepsakes can be uploaded to the site to build an online album and scrapbook of the new family member. Family and friends will also be able to add their congratulations to the site via an online guest book as a lasting memento for the baby.

Donna Kent, Founder of Baby Grapevine, commented, “Baby Grapevine is the perfect solution to the age-old problem of trying to keep everybody happy and up do date during a demanding and emotional time. It helps Mum and Dad, is easy to use and everyone is the first to know. It takes some of the strain out of the pain of birth”

David Castle, Managing Director of Emma’s Diary, added, “This birth announcement service will help Mum, Dad and the health professional at the same time. Our job is to make sure that enough Mums and Dads know of and derive benefit from the services available.”

Babygrapevine is a family business, set up by Donna and Paul Kent. The service was developed as a direct result of their own experience. Their first child was born after Donna had been in labour for nearly two days. Trying to call everyone and keep them informed about what was going on was very difficult. Friends and relatives were getting concerned and the midwives were getting inundated with calls. All this added to the stress of the situation. Paul and Donna therefore decided to set up a service that helped midwives, parents and their friends and family keep in touch.

Baby Grapevine is a web and telephony-based birth announcement service which allows family and friends that have been pre-registered on the system’s website, to automatically be kept informed of events by text messages and voicemail thereby reducing the stress on the parents. As well as being of enormous help to the parents, it also greatly reduces the workload of the nursing staff who will now, no longer have to take messages and answer countless questions about the birth. The service also includes an online album and scrapbook of baby that can be built up from birth.

Emma’s Diary is published by Lifestyle Marketing (Mother & Baby) Ltd, a lifestyle publisher, on behalf of the Royal College of General Practitioners. The publication is distributed to over 80% of mums-to-be at their doctor’s surgery on confirmation of their pregnancy. For more information, see www.emmasdiary.co.uk

For more information on Baby Grapevine, please contact:

Donna Kent
Baby Grapevine
The Showground
Selsfield Road
Ardingly
West Sussex
RH17 6TL

Tel: 01444 892192
E-mail: donna@babygrapevine.co.uk
Web: http://www.babygrapevine.co.uk

Submitted by:
John Wood
UpTone PR & Marketing
East Grinstead, West Sussex
john@uptone.co.uk
http://www.uptone.co.uk