Alchemy Publishing's magazine titles, Your Pregnancy, Your Baby and Baba & Kleuter, have all recorded excellent growth for their forthcoming end-of-year supplements. Liezl de Swardt, MD of Alchemy Publishing, says that pages in My Better Birth Guide and Top Toy Guide are up by around 25%.
My Better Birth Guide will be bagged with the Oct/Nov issue of Your Pregnancy, which will be on shelf on 29 September 2004. This supplement has grown to 80 pages, an increase of nearly 25% on the previous edition. Edited by Shelagh Whitby, it will focus on key areas of concern to expectant mothers, like:
- What each hospital offers
- Writing your birthplan
- What to ask your gynae
- Choosing a midwife and other essential guidelines
"Pregnancy is an emotional time for most women. They are excited, nervous, happy and scared - often all at the same time," says Your Pregnancy specialist editor, Tina Otto, herself an experienced midwife and internationally certified childbirth educator. "My Better Birth Guide is published once a year and the main sponsors are Elizabeth Anne's and Huggies. It's a true compendium of knowledge that will inform and reassure the mother-to-be," she says.
Top Toy Guide will be bagged with the December issues of Your Baby and Baba & Kleuter magazines, which will be on shelf on 16th November 2004.
"At 120 pages, this will be the biggest ever edition of this supplement, which Alchemy has published very successfully for seven years," says de Swardt. "It will feature 300-400 toys and the cover hero will be Spider Man. We conduct research each year to determine the most popular figure of the last 12 months - "Spidey" came out tops by a long way in 2004!"
The guide aims to be a showcase of toys and games that are currently available, to help parents and family make the right choice in toys for Christmas, says de Swardt. The guide also features age guidelines, prices and stockists, so all the research and homework can be done before you hit the shops.
"We'll also be showcasing the results of the South African Toy of the Year Competition, known as the Teddy Awards. It's the outcome of a stringent judging process organised by the Toy and Baby Association and the judging panel includes representatives of both the toy retailers and the child professions, like nursery school teachers and occupational therapists. All toys entered are then donated to a charity of choice for Christmas gifts," says de Swardt.
