Leamington-based health and fitness expert reveals top three worries causing mums sleepless nights

Analysis has shown that Google searches beginning with ‘Why does my child…’ and ‘Why is my child…’ peak between the hours of 10 pm and 2 am in the UK, proving that parents are spending what limited sleeping hours they have worrying about their children’s health and wellbeing. Across ten days, the highest spikes occurred at midnight and 2 am, with these 5-hour periods accounting for a total 31.4 per cent of all searches.

The areas that are keeping them most urgently awake are both money and health. The most popular searches at those times were for how to claim child benefits, the symptoms and remedies for ear infections, and the signs of neurodivergence – particularly ADHD.

Mari-Carmen Sanchez-Morris, a former paediatric intensive care nurse turned women’s health and fitness expert, who is a mum of three herself, can relate. She comments:

“Those middle-of-the-night-moments – the ones where you feel like you’re the only human being awake and the thoughts of “Am I doing this right?” are racing – have been some of my most difficult as a mum, so I get it. The feelings of doubt, worry, and apprehension can feel all encompassing, and the loneliness only adds to the weight. With no-one else to ask and a need to know, Google can seem like the best place to turn. However, as I’m sure anyone who has run a midnight search knows, they often do more harm than good…

When one Google search of ‘best parenting method’ delivers over 62 million results in less than a second, it’s easy to see why. With countless opinions, contradictions, and an overwhelm of information – most of which is unverified – these searches just contribute to the stress parents feel and the idea that they can’t get it right.

What’s more, Mari-Carmen believes that this is an issue disproportionately affecting women, and with studies showing that mums are more worried than dads when it comes to children’s wellbeing and lose more sleep when becoming parents than their male counterparts, she might be right. Experiencing it first-hand as soon as she became pregnant with her first child, Mari-Carmen felt confronted and confused by the clashing opinions on how best to care for her own health and her baby’s.

Now, using her knowledge of health and medicine from her PICU nursing career, as well as her training as a personal trainer and nutritionist, Mari-Carmen has created the Fit Mama app. A one-stop safe-space with expert research-backed guidance from qualified professionals, both for women and by woman, the app’s dedicated ‘Mums Zone’ is an archive of advice everything from mental health, feeding, and developmental play; to sleep, fertility, and even relationships.

Building a community of mothers wanting to retain or reclaim their identities, the Fit Mama app aims to facilitate safe conversations and offer open advice from other mums and female experts, as opposed to unknown, unverified websites. Mari-Carmen adds:

“Communities are highly important for maternal mental health: they help mothers feel more connected to their lives before having a baby, alleviate fears that they aren’t doing it ‘right’, and build bonds between mothers. Everyone wants a place where they feel safe and listened to, so it’s important that accessible in-person and online communities exist for mums to feel heard and seen. Add to this the ability to also access correct, evidenced, and appropriate information, and we have a solution that can really help mums to feel empowered to do their best: for both themselves, and their babies.”

Fit Mama puts expert advice and a supportive community right in your pocket, alongside fitness routines that suit your changing needs. The Mum Zone acts as a space where mums – expecting or experienced – can access reliable information and connect with others on their motherhood journey; empowering women with knowledge, fostering a supportive network, and ultimately, ensuring the best possible health for both mums and babies.

To find out more information, and to download the Fit Mama app yourself, visit the Mari-Carmen fitness website.