UNITED KINGDOM / AGILITYPR.NEWS / July 23, 2026 / Cardiff mum Sophie Milner didn’t set out looking for a turning point. She was just trying to get through the week - and she found a lifeline.

Her son, Leo, was a baby, her partner Aaron was recovering after major bowel surgery, and life at home in Cardiff had shrunk down to hospital visits, sleepless nights, and just trying to keep going amid a pandemic. 

Somewhere in the middle of all that, Sophie found Baby Sensory. Now, she’s the one leading Baby Sensory Cardiff East and has just celebrated her 5th anniversary with the award-winning parent and baby classes.

Back then, Sophie wasn’t thinking about careers or business decisions. She was a parent on maternity leave, getting through lockdown like so many others, looking for something that felt normal again. The classes gave her that: the soothing routine of turning up each week and being somewhere that felt safe.

Baby Sensory sessions are built for babies from birth to 13 months, using simple sensory experiences - light, sound, movement, textures - to support early development. Parents are guided through what each activity is doing, but for many, it’s also the first time in the week they get to sit down with other adults who understand what life with a baby truly is like.

Sophie said, “I remember sitting there thinking, this is the first time in days I’ve properly exhaled. It wasn’t just about Leo enjoying it, although he really did. It was about me too, having somewhere to go where nothing was expected of me except turning up.

“I think that’s stayed with me more than anything. You realise quite quickly that everyone in the room is carrying something you can’t see. So I’ve never liked the idea of parents feeling like they must be ‘on’ when they walk into a class. Some days are messy. Some days you’ve barely slept. That’s fine.”

The opportunity to take over Baby Sensory Cardiff East came later, after Sophie had stepped back from her original plans to become a primary school teacher and started rethinking what work needed to look like alongside family life. It wasn’t a polished, carefully planned decision - more a moment of recognition that this was something she already believed in.

What she wants now is simple: that the classes feel like they did for her. Familiar faces. No pressure. A place to sit on the floor with one’s baby and not feel out of place doing it, finding joy in watching babies develop in leaps and bounds.

"And if parents leave feeling a little more connected than when they arrived," Sophie says, "that is enough."

She recently received the Wow World Group community impact award in recognition of her work in the local community. In addition to running weekly classes, Sophie also arranges meet ups for parents, produces what’s on guides for half terms and summer holidays and runs summer events promoting the local businesses of mums attending Baby Sensory classes.

For more information, please visit www.babysensory.com/cardiff-east.