Aufochs Gillespie - Green mama-to-be: creating a happy, healthy, and toxin-free pregnancy

A good farmer farms soil. The plant grows itself.

This saying sums up my experience of parenting. At our best, parents are just good farmers, preparing that soil of family, rhythm, meals, and home from which our children are nourished and fed. This is never more obvious than when the child is still in the womb: where the entire environment of this new life exists within our bodies. Yet pregnancy is just a preparation for the same truths that we will encounter again and again in child-rearing.

When you choose to be a green parent, you are committing to be that farmer, growing the seeds of beloved new beings by lovingly tending to the soil. You try your best, looking to help from the research, traditional wisdom, and other farmers, but you also come to understand that there is a lot of faith involved, since much of parenting, like farming, is out of your hands.

I must admit, I have forgotten many of the details of my pregnancies. At the time, I thought I never would; but, actually, Im not all that surprised. Pregnancy was not what I expected. Id read books and articles and researched many topics, so it wasnt not what I expected either; its just that I truly didnt believe any of it would happen to me especially the less pleasant stuff.

Ive met a lot of parents-to-be over the years through my writing, teaching, and consulting as The Green Mama, and Ive come to think that this attitude is ubiquitous this overwhelming, almost delusional optimism. Having a baby is hope made manifest. The shadow side of hope, however, is a sort of but that wont be me attitude that can apply to almost everything, even as its actually happening to you. For me, this included I wont be nauseated, exhausted, incapable of getting out of bed, dry-heaving at the smell of the kitchen, vomiting at the thought of food . I even thought I wouldnt find birth all that painful or the postpartum period depressing. Not me . Id also told myself I wouldnt gain more than a pound a week. But when my day-by-day pregnancy guide said, You may have gained up to five pounds at this point in your pregnancy, I found I was adding a one in front of the five. I just assumed it was a typo. (It wasnt.) I will never weigh more than 150 pounds , Id thought. Well, I did.

The Crib Sheet

Confused by an acronym in the book? Here they are spelled out.