Jackie Heffer-Cooke gave up a high-stress TV career following the birth of her first child to help others navigate the trials of parenthood more smoothly with yoga and other complementary therapies.

Working 60-plus hours a week as a TV executive, ZenMuma (zenmuma.co.uk) founder Jackie Heffer-Cooke was close to burnout. Still in her early 30s and promoted from work experience to executive of leading daytime shows Loose Women and The Trisha Show within just six years, she was responsible for an annual budget of millions and a huge team.

But the impressive career success came at a price. “The pressure was so intense that I was hyper-stressed,” she says. “I had chronic insomnia and was often physically sick on a Friday morning before the show went to air at the thought of what I might have to deal with that day.”

New mum

Then came baby Megan and literally everything changed.

The birth of her first baby in 2005 forced her to rethink her stressful media career trajectory and moved her onto another, ultimately equally successful and more meaningful path, that led to the founding of ZenMuma.

Indeed, life after Megan brought with it mindfulness, yoga, personal growth and the discovery of wellbeing – ultimately allowing Heffer-Cooke to share what she had learned to a wider audience through ZenMuma.

“I was totally unprepared for Megan’s arrival. It shocked me into a new way of being and life was never the same again…in a good way,” she says. “I worked full time when I was pregnant and maternity leave lasted all of three days before Megan arrived early and stressfully by caesarean section.”

She adds: “I had been living for years in a state of high stress and anxiety. I left work on the Friday, went to my work’s leaving do on Monday then 5am the next morning my waters broke. I had been working 60 hours a week while pregnant and hadn’t given myself any opportunity to think about being pregnant or what labour might be like.”