While the last few years have been extremely tough for most if not all small businesses in the country, there have been plenty of new ones open against the odds — some being new initiatives such as ‘Mother Earth’ Spa.
The Spa is owned and operated by Amogelang Moloi (29) in Phakalane-Phase 2 with focus on prenatal wellness. It generally prides itself with provision of support to pregnant families and mothers in general. The company’s services include childbirth education classes, prenatal yoga, prenatal fitness training and prenatal/postnatal spa treatments.
Moloi explains to Sunday Standard that immediately after completing her degree in Entrepreneurship and Business Development at the University of Botswana she went into business.
She adds that her company’s prenatal spa treatments include prenatal massages, which she says is therapeutic bodywork that focuses on the special needs of the mother-to-be as her body goes through the dramatic changes of pregnancy. The goal is to help minimize stress, promote relaxation and prepare the muscles for childbirth.
Postnatal treatments include postnatal massages, Yoni steaming, and belly binding. This helps accelerate healing and restore their health the most natural way.
Moloi adds that their spa treatments are not only specially designed for pregnant postpartum mothers. They are also suitable for diverse groups of women as they have other women centered treatments.
She says her personal experience as a mother propelled her to start this business. The lack of services that she needed when she was pregnant with her first child led her to starting this business in 2019.
She initially thought those services were readily available to pregnant women only for her to find out that they were not being offered anywhere in Gaborone. And that is when she took it upon herself to change that and went back to school to get all the qualifications she needed.
“The non-existence and lack of education around pregnancy and wanting to support and provide a pregnancy/ motherhood nurturing environment is what set me on this path.” She explains.
She studied her childbirth education training at an institution based in USA and both her prenatal yoga and prenatal fitness training in South Africa.
She says due to the Covid-19 pandemic they have faced major challenges in how they conduct business. Which resulted in having to change how they normally do business by migrating most of their classes online and working strictly by appointments.
“As a business that relies on foot traffic, we have had to rethink our delivery to our clientele due to the Covid-19 restrictions. We had to reimagine our offerings to abide by social distancing guidelines. But of course, in business you have to re-invent and keep moving forward.” She says.
She says Batswana are receptive to the nature of her business and are steadily getting to know more about it.
“It is something that is new to Batswana. They are still getting used to what we offer, but regardless of this it is something that they are open to and curious about.” She states.
Amogelang has two employees, a client service officer and a beauty therapist who does all the spa treatments.
She says pregnancy is a life changing step and it is time people moved away from thinking it is some sort of taboo or illness because it is meant to be enjoyed and Mother Earth exists to make that journey with you.
