By the time I found out I was expecting John – baby number five – there was not much in the way of baby and child care that I was not familiar with. This once puzzled me too because when I was the Mum of three I applied for a casual position in a creche – ten hours a week – and was rejected on the basis that I was not a ‘qualified’ child care worker. That always made me laugh – the fact that to have kids you need no qualifications at all but to work them you need a diploma!

When I was pregnant with John I had the internet to browse around for the latest info – with my first baby I just bought up every baby magazine I could find and they were really good to read. Nothing much has changed over the years except that now there are websites like pregnancyvitamins.net for women who want to research all the vitamins there are on the market for new Mums. There are also ‘buddy’ sites where women can chat with others about their problems and get advice whereas when I was starting out you wrote in to a magazine column and waited several months for your letter to appear in an edition. If it ever did that is…

I signed up to a website five years ago and did the chat thing just to keep up with the times, and even though I dispensed more advice than I sought I still get emails from some of the ladies five years on just comparing notes. And I still get the update emails on ‘my five year old’ and at what stage he should be at. I am glad I didn’t have any problems along the way but it is good to know that the Mums who do have got a world of advice out there to help them.

Or more to the point what would you put IN your skin to look younger…? if you want to achieve really noticeable results from a facial it needs to be drastic and we are talking about the type of product with ingredients resembling dad’s paint stripper.

The age-old combination of cleansing, toning and a face-mask may leave you feeling relaxed and your skin looking glowing, but in reality it will make far more difference to your mood than it will to your skin and usually the results will be gone by the following day. But it makes us feel good about ourselves. But what would you consider sticking needles in your face as a treatment for wrinkles…?

Women who go down the botox route already do this but now interesting results are being seen from regular acupuncture. There is a lot of sense to this ancient form of Chinese medicine; people with bad backs swear by it and some women have used it as a form of pain relief during labour. I would not scoff at it because those who have tried it have achieved remarkable results similar to those who use botox – and without the toxin in your body. Only thing is you would have to get over any fear of needles – but it sounds like it could be worth the effort!