Or How I Became a Mom Entrepreneur
by Christine Poirier, Toronto
Before becoming pregnant, I was far from thinking about breastfeeding or about becoming a mom entrepreneur. I was busy doing research for my PhD in French literature at McGill University, thinking academia would be my career, and I had no idea about just how much having a baby would change my life.
I was lucky. The delivery was painful, but beautiful, and breastfeeding went well right from the start. I have always been a crafty person, and since the nursing tops I had been given were sagging on me, it made sense to create my own. So I did, only one week after the delivery! Right away, my friends from the moms’ group asked me if I could sew some for them. I felt more like spending time with my little one than spending time in front of my sewing machine, but the idea of starting my own business started growing from there.
When my daughter was about nine months, I had a plan for Momzelle, and I convinced my brother Vincent to follow it with me. We started Momzelle together, working on better and better prototypes, sourcing wonderful eco-friendly fabrics and learning about fair trade practices. I am still doing research, but it is not so much with books anymore. I spend time in the streets, looking for the newest fashions, for colour trends, and time designing the Momzelle nursing collection, thinking about the other nursing moms out there. It is because you exist, because I know what kind of differences our clothing makes in your life, that I am here running Momzelle, and loving every second of it.
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