Jo Tantum, a Nottinghamshire maternity nurse, has an international reputation which has taken her all over the world. She's now written her first book revealing how to get your baby to sleep through the night. Her career started with Jo training as a nurse at the Basford Hall College, Nottingham.
"I then worked at the City Hospital and lots of different nurseries and baby units around Nottinghamshire as well."
 | | Author Jo Tantum |
Jo believes the main problem for new parents is the lack of sleep. "It's a form of torture. To get a good nights sleep is the major thing you need. My book has a step by step guide on how to get your baby sleeping through the night." She says she found her winning formula through trial and error. It's 'hard work and not having any social life' that led to her international reputation but worldwide fame started to happen 'by word of mouth'. "Because the parents were so, so grateful that they were actually getting some sleep and they knew what to do... it kind of just went from there, people just started to call me and say that they'd heard about me and 'can you help me please'." It was her clients who suggested that she should write a book.
 | | Baby Secrets (book cover) |
"I get quite a few phone calls for my advice... quite a few people had said I should write a book. I didn't know where to start." But then the husband of one her clients, Nick Clarke of BBC Radio 4, who had already written two books, got his publishing editor online and it went from there. Jo says her lifestyle is pretty glam at times. Having worked for a Hollywood screenwriter Jo has ended up talking to some very famous people... Madonna, Bruce Willis, Sting and Trudi.
Jo now has two homes. She spends half the year in Nottingham working as maternity nurse - her sister lives in Farnsfield and her mother lives in Hucknall - but spends six months resting up in Adelaide, Australia. "I need to have a break. Maternity nurses can't work for the full year. I started travelling ten years ago and stopped in Adelaide doing maternity nursing and just fell in love with the place. Every year I go back and spend time on the beach with my friends." Jo Tantum's book, Baby Secrets : How to know your baby's needs, is published by Penguin. | 
