About Emily Hardwicke
I'm the mother of an extremely energetic four year old boy and his far more chilled out baby brother! Currently I live and work in Switzerland as an Assistant Headteacher in an international school but I have always loved writing and it has long been a dream of mine to publish a book.
I’ve hugely enjoyed the challenge of publishing something that I believe will help other parents and I can’t wait to share it with my own children. I’d love them to be proud of what they have inspired.
Teaching has enabled me to live, travel and work in some fantastic places around the world. Everywhere I've been I've kept notebooks of random scribbles, and more recently a collection of half formed thoughts in the notes section of my phone while I'm up feeding a baby in the night or stuck on the sofa having a contact nap! Normally my job is too demanding for side projects but with each maternity leave I've come a little bit closer to publishing something more tangible.
One of my main motivations for the Seb series is to explore everyday scenarios that many children and their parents face. Engaging narratives that may also offer some tips on how to parent during these tricky moments are intended to provide prompts for you to then discuss with your child.
The protagonist Seb is a blank canvas for a whole range of emotions as he experiences many little challenges as he grows up!
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'A big change for Seb' is a book designed to help breastfeeding parents with their weaning journeys. I had many hiccups whilst feeding my eldest son - engorgement, blocked ducts, nursing strikes and illnesses - but by far the biggest challenge was working out how to stop feeding!
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It was hard to find the book that I needed and wanted - one that depicted breastfeeding a toddler age child as normal, as well as being matter of fact and straightforward in prompting a child to stop.
In the end, we experienced a gentle ending to breastfeeding when my son was two and a half and I used many of the strategies that you will see in the book.
This photo is the first time I ever breastfed in public. We were dealing with nipple shields, a poor latch and a general lack of understanding of what I was supposed to be doing! There was also a freak summer thunderstorm which made the whole experience very dramatic! However, once it was done, I felt far more confident about feeding in public and have been whipping them out (when needed!) ever since. Notice I am wearing dungarees...I do like a dungaree...
Since writing the book, I've been developing an Instagram and Facebook support page to help women find information and connect with each other about the many breastfeeding challenges you may experience during a breastfeeding journey. I've also contributed articles and blogs to different online platforms and magazines. You can learn about some of them here and follow me @sebtheseries to benefit from additional support!
As a contributor for @boobingit, I keep up to date with current breastfeeding issues and often write about them here!
This article discusses the challenges I faced feeding an older child and some of the judgement I experienced.
This controversial piece discusses the role of breasts in our society and argues for better education of breastfeeding as well as more representation in our media to normalise breastfeeding.