Curated Portfolio
A personal selection of past work
Broadsheets & Tabloids
Heather Welford 1979
Assistant Editor
Parents Magazine
During the many years Heather has worked as a freelance journalist, she has written for both broadsheet and tabloid papers.
Here is a selection of pieces featured in the Guardian, Independent, Telegraph, Daily Mirror, the lifestyle magazine Fabulous - a Sun on Sunday magazine and, most recently, The Critic.
10 June 2024
A major maternity support group is at war with its trustees over its insistence that men should be enabled to breastfeed
Here is the latest update from a previously unshelled trench in the sex and gender war: the British branch of the oldest international breastfeeding support organisation is fighting the majority of its volunteer trustees on its Council of Directors.
This is the battleground that impacts maternity and breastfeeding — the very territory where you might think gender identity ran a justifiable second place to the biological reality of pregnancy, birth and early nurturing.
Read full article online
24 February 2023
Bethany North rightly castigates theatre audiences who disrupt performances and spoil others’ enjoyment (I’ve worked front of house in 40 theatres – and audiences behaved terribly in all of them, 22 February).
A few years ago, my husband and I were watching Il Trovatore at the Nice Opera in France. A very loud-voiced gentleman in the back row, sitting directly behind us, kept commenting on the performance to a female companion. Our British-style restrained shushing and repeated glares made no difference, and we were annoyed that ushers standing nearby did nothing.
21 March 2019
It's been about 45 years since I last marched in protest. From 1969 to 1975, as a schoolgirl and then a student, I was at it all the time. Now, as a grandmother, I'm doing it again.
But this Saturday, I'm getting up at the oldie-unfriendly time of 4am, to catch a coach from Newcastle to London (a coach! These days I travel by train first class with my senior rail card). I've been spurred to do more than just write to my MP, shout at the telly and listen to the Remainiacs podcast.
12March 2012
Brace yourself - today’s orthodontics are far more effective than they used to be
27 May 2008
There's nothing especially different about levels of child obesity in Leeds, or about the concern expressed in professional circles. Just like in any other area, all the research shows there are more overweight children than 20 years ago.
11 March 1999
IT'S PLAYTIME for the 29 pupils in Mrs Enid Martin's reception class at Pelaw Infant School, Chester-le-Street, Co Durham. The children, dressed in winter coats and hats, are lining up to leave the classroom. Georgia's wearing a pink-and-white print padded jacket, and she's managed the zip all by herself. She's sturdy, and tall for four, towering over some of the tiny tots waiting for the "off".
11 August 1999
The North: ...or hip-hop, drum'n'bass and house. Or maybe a gig, or some stand-up. By Heather Welford
Those in the know direct you to the North if you're keen on non- stop partying. "Manchester's still got a good reputation for great student entertainment," says Michael Wood of the (formerly names) StudentUK webzine (thestudentsunion.co.uk). "But Leeds is pretty good, too, and Bradford is forging links with the student-friendly venues in the city. There's a growing comedy circuit that takes in a number of venues in the northern universities."
10 April 2009
No child should grow up in fear of physical assault from their own parents.
When we permit it, we risk harm to the child physically and also to their emotional and mental development. Parents can't teach good behaviour by demanding blind obedience backed up with physical pain, or the threat of it. Britain should follow Scandinavia and outlaw all physical punishment of children inside and outside the home.
Why I love ...
... the Geordie accent
27 September 2004
The news that foreign healthcare workers in the north-east have signed up for Geordie lessons at Newcastle College this term comes as a surprise. Are we really that hard to understand?
I concede that phrases such as "me heed's pure knackin', man" and "Aa wiz pallatic an' Aa fell doon" may present problems on those long and bloody Friday nights in A&E. Yet surely the Sun was embroidering when it related the story of a nurse puzzled by a request for "the netty" instead of the toilet - I haven't ever heard the word outside whiskery old jokes. Anyway, you could probably guess at the meaning in context, especially if the netty-seeker explained he needed to "take a waz".
Career Archive
Heather is the author of several books on pregnancy, birth and parenting. She has written copy for businesses, PR companies, local and national government departments, including the NHS. She has written and edited reports, campaign materials, scripts and commentaries.
© Heather Welford
Heather's Photography © Derek Neil
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