Expert Advice

Do you need fertility, pregnancy or parenting advice? Our panel of experts includes doctors, midwives, nutritionists and counsellors. They regularly log onto the site and respond to your questions.

Thirza Ashelford answers your parenting questions

Thirza Ashelford is principal of internationally acclaimed childcare training centre Norland College.

She has extensive childcare experience, which includes many years working with children with severe learning difficulties. Thirza has also written information booklets for the National Childminding Association.

Read Thirza's response to your questions

Alison Brown answers your pregancy & birth questions

Alison Brown has been a midwife for around 17 years. Prior to this, she was a nanny and a nurse.

Alison loves working in all areas of midwifery, from shifts on the labour ward to antenatal assessment and helping woman breastfeed. Her areas of expertise lie in postnatal care, antenatal care, breastfeeding and all aspects of infant feeding.

Alison has three children, Imogen, Henry and William, and she had them all at home.  

Read Alison's responses to your questions 

Dorothy Einon answers your child development questions

Dorothy Einon is a leading author of books about child development, behaviour and parenting. 

Dorothy's speciality subjects include encouraging play, choosing toys, behavioural problems, children and sleep, tantrums, conflicts in the family, pregnancy, childbirth, preparing to read and learning to write! She has three children.

Read Dorothy's responses to your questions 

Fiona Ford answers your nutrition in pregnancy & breastfeeding questions

Fiona Ford is a State Registered Dietician based at the Centre for Pregnancy Nutrition (CPN) at the University of Sheffield. The CPN hosts the national Eating for Pregnancy Helpline and website, providing information about healthy eating in pregnancy and while breastfeeding.

Fiona has been working in this area for 15 years. She has two grown-up children.    

Read Fiona's responses to your questions

Eileen Hayes answers your toddler questions

Parenting and child expert Eileen Hayes is a trained family counsellor, author of several parenting books, magazine columnist and parenting coach. She is Parenting Advisor to the NSPCC.

Eileen, a parent of four,  wants to help parents with the challenging but rewarding task of bringing up children.

Read Eileen's responses to your questions

Dr Rob Hicks answers your sexual health & general medical questions

Dr Rob Hicks works in a hospital sexual health clinic, and is also one of the UK's most prominent media doctors. A prolific health journalist, he has columns in Reader's Digest, Men's Fitness and Prima Baby. He is also the author of two health books. 

Rob lives in London with his family.  

Read Dr Rob's responses to your questions

Zita West answers your fertility and conception questions

Zita West is a practising midwife, acupuncturist, nutritional advisor and founder of the Zita West Clinic, London's leading fertility clinic which specialises in integrating

complementary therapies into mainstream medicine.

Zita has helped many famous clients with their pregnancies, including Kate Winslet, Cate Blanchett and Stella McCartney. She written six books;  has made countless TV appearances and has columns in two leading parenting magazines.

Read Zita West's responses to your questions