Gina's Biography
Gina Ford grew up within an extended family on a farm in the Scottish Borders where, even as a child, she looked after younger cousins and neighbours. She moved to Edinburgh to study Hotels and Catering and, during her college years, joined a premier babysitting agency, where she became popular with parents of young babies. Upon graduation she moved to London, where she continued to work with babies and toddlers amidst the erratic hours of the catering industry.
Gina left London to travel the world within the catering industry but, wherever she was, she still found herself drawn to families and called upon to baby-sit or take on the role of temporary nanny. After several years of this dual career, Gina returned to England and, given her skill and passion for working with children, made a conscious decision to follow a career in childcare.
Gina’s first appointment was to help a mother whose baby had sleeping problems. Despite no formal qualifications, Gina’s years of hands-on experience led her to solve this particular family’s problems within a few weeks. On the strength of this gift with babies, and her proven practical ability, she was recommended to other families and her reputation escalated. For years she was one of the most sought-after maternity nurses, specialising in caring for newborn babies and toddlers with serious sleeping and feeding problems. In 199? Gina was nominated by ‘Harpers & Queen’ as one of the top ten maternity nurses in the country. She worked in many parts of the world with hundreds of different families, from leading lawyers and high-flying bankers to newspaper editors and other media personalities.
Gina’s particular talent was not only nurturing the child, but ensuring that the mother was well cared for too.
As Gina’s reputation grew, she was approached by a number of publishers, and in 1999 was persuaded to write her first book, ‘The Contented Little Baby Book’. It was a runaway success, largely due to enthusiastic personal recommendation, its matter-of-fact style and practical approach appealing to fathers and mothers alike. Since publication, and now fully revised and updated, it has consistently been the best-selling parenting book in the UK. In 2000 Gina retired from maternity nursing, but for the next four years ran a successful consultancy service, helping and supporting many thousands of parents by telephone and email.
In 2004 Gina recognised that, despite the wealth of parenting information available, many mothers still felt isolated. In an effort to fill the gap, Gina launched www.contentedbaby.com and, in the process, created a wonderful, supportive and dynamic on-line community.
Contented Little Baby is now a lifestyle choice for millions of people around the world. But part of this success is down to the fact that Gina still makes a point of talking directly to many mothers every week. In a recent Daily Mail survey Gina was listed as one of the most influential women in Britain today. The Independent newspaper, in the feature “The power of one”, describes her determination to change attitudes of parenting this century. She is still as hands-on as ever, which allows her to have a unique and sympathetic understanding of the problems parents face and, more importantly, how they might solve them.
Gina is the author of eight highly successful books, details of which are provided below, or visit www.ginafordbooks.com for further information. As well as achieving best-selling status in the UK, Gina’s books have been published in the US, and translated into Spanish, Hebrew, Dutch and Chinese.