Mother turns magazine publisher

Veronika Robinson publishes the magazine from her spare room

When Veronika Robinson failed to find a magazine on parenting that offered her the kind of help she wanted - she started her own.

Now her publication, The Mother, sells about 8,000 copies a year, as far afield as Japan and Saudi Arabia.

Mrs Robinson, a mother of four from Glassonby, Cumbria, says she aims to offer the best possible advice to mothers-to-be and parents.

"I contacted some of the best known writers around the world. They have all been very keen to contribute.

"We want to promote fertility awareness, while recognising that parenting begins before conception.

'Nude photographs'

"This means looking after your body and the environment you live in.

"We follow that philosophy right through to natural birthing, breast feeding and holistic education and natural immunity."

A bid was made for public cash for the project, but Mrs Robinson said it was turned down because the magazine shows images of women giving birth.

She said: "We did look at some funding. But we couldn't get support for a magazine that had nude photographs. A lot of our photographs are of women birthing or pregnant, for example."

Mrs Robinson said a website has helped promote the magazine globally.

She said: "The website made it possible for us to get subscribers in straight away.

"I put together everything in the spare room, collect all the articles and then take it to a local printer and send it around the world.

"We get a lot of feedback from people who, even though they don't always agree with what we publish, feel challenged by what we say and seem to want more."