Natural Parents Do It Yourself

It's that time again! You might remember the great post in December 2011 that highlighted the Natural Parents Network Volunteer's most popular or favorite posts from the year. 

Well, we are back and this time we are bringing you a collection of posts that focus on Do It Yourself projects, How To's, Tutorials, Recipes, and anything related to a step by step guide or informational how-to. There are a lot of really wonderful posts here and I hope that this serves as an excellent resource that you can pass on to your friends! Enjoy!  

Sunday Surf - Mixing It Up

Barbie and McDonald’s Happy Meal Disaster

PhD in Parenting shares how Barbie and McDonald's are sending some is sending some pretty nasty messages to girls. 

Speaking Up For Those Who Can't

Up, Down & Natural Shares how she took a stand for a Breastfeeding mom. 

I have to say she's pretty great!

The Perfect Placenta 

Job Description: Mommy shares so awesome info on the placenta. 
Not to mention some pretty cool pics.

Things To Prepare For A Homebirth

Dairy of a First Child shares some tips preparing for a homebirth. 

Someday I will have a Homebirth.  :)

Agree to Disagree Online and Remain Respectful

Welcome to the February 2012 Carnival of Natural Parenting: 

Respectful Interactions With Other Parents

This post was written for inclusion in the monthly Carnival of Natural Parenting hosted by 

Code Name: Mama and Hobo Mama. This month our participants have focused on how we can communicate with other parents compassionately.

I have been working with a lot of advocacy and parenting groups online which has helped me learn so much about different aspects of parenting and life. In some groups, I am pretty active and in others I am more of a lurker. I love trying to make a change in the breastfeeding world and I am constantly striving to parent more naturally and these groups help a lot with this. I for one am very thankful to be part of the Natural Parents Network Team, they truly are an amazing group of women. We have come together and support each other in many ways, whether it be a virtual fundraiser for a fellow mom who's baby was in the NICU, words of encouragement, advice, or even donating personal items for a mom in need. But not all online interactions are as up lifting and moving as these.  I have also had the privilege to meet a lot of people online while working on projects that I truly believe in. Online interaction certainly have their challenges; plain and simple, online can be tough. Messages are miss interpreted, you don't know the other people in the group,  people take certain liberties behind the disguise of the Internet that they may not in real life, and it can get heated pretty quickly, and people can get pretty nasty.

My Favorite Post about "Bring Breastfeeding Back to Sesame Street"

Image By Joni Rae

This has been an amazing two weeks! I never thought that this would happen! The momentum is unbelievable, as I am typing we have over 25,000 signatures and they are continuing to go up! The Petition was only posted 13 days ago. I have come across a lot of post about my blog post / the petition these are my favorite.  First some amazing places that my blog has been discussed on. The most exciting was TIME.com, I was ecstatic when that showed up in my Google Alerts and it is so supportive!  Huffington Post was our first big break in the online seen. Annie from PhD in Parenting did an amazing article on Care2 which set the ball in motion. Thank you Annie! Now for my favorites! 

Natural Birthing Celebrities

For the next few Friday's I will be featuring Celebrities that have helped bring back Natural Parenting in one form or another. It all starts at birth. See who has had a Natural Childbirth and their thoughts on it.  

Cesarean rates in the United States have reached an all time high of 35% and this number is climbing. This may be why there was a 20% increase in the number of home-birth in the United States over the last five years, this number is climbing as well.  Home-births may still only count for 1-2% of the births in the United States, but this increase shows that women are becoming more educated about their birthing choices. Realizing that it is possible to have an intervention free birth at home, or in water, or even at a birthing center.

Ricki Lake "BBB"

Ricki Lake has definitely become one of the Hollywood faces advocating natural birth. Her documentary, "The Business of Being Born" (BBB) gives a look inside hospital births, how they are setup to go a certain way and it can be very difficult to brake that cycle.  She also shared her home water-birth of her second son. The four part series “More Business of Being Born” also includes “Celebrity Mother’s Talk Straight Birth”.  Against popular opinion, not all of Hollywood wants a scheduled designer birth followed by a tummy tuck. 

Take a look at who in Hollywood have had a natural birth, home-birth, water-birth, and even some unassisted births. See what they have say about there amazing experience. I was sure to included some of the proud celebrity dads who have supported the wives!

Jessica Alba

Actress Jessica Alba and husband Cash had a Hypno-Birth. She told Us Weekly about the delivery of her daughter Honor saying, "I didn't scream. It was really Zen. The labor was more like a meditation. I did yoga breathing."

Pamela Anderson

 Actress Pamela Anderson with then husband Musician Tom Lee Jones, said on Larry King “I gave birth at home both times natural with a midwife, in water with nothing. Not even Tylenol."

Erykah Badu

Singer Erykah Badu, had all three of her children at home. She says. “Maybe to some it’s scary, but preparation is the whole key. When a mother has found out she’s going to have a baby, her whole life — her diet, her mood, her energy — should kind of prepare her. After she prepares herself, fear is never a part of it. I expected success and health, so I made sure I surrounded myself with it. By the time I had my third baby, childbirth seemed a very natural part of life to me.” Erykah, now works as a Doula and is training to be a Midwife, she says her clients refer to her as “Erykah Ba-Doula”.

Most Viewed NPN Blogger Posts of 2011

I am proud and honored to be volunteer with the Natural Parents Network (NPN), a community of natural-minded parents and parents-to-be where you will be informed, empowered, and inspired. When you visit the NPN’s website you can find articles and posts about Activism, Balance, Consistent Care, Ecological Responsibility, Family Safety, Feeding With Love, Gentle Discipline, Healthy Living, Holistic Health, Natural Learning, Nurturing Touch, Parenting Philosophies, Practical Home Help, Preparing for Parenting, Responding With Sensitivity, Safe Sleep, and so much more!

The volunteers who dedicate their time and energy to make NPN the outstanding resource it is also spend countless hours informing and inspiring others on their personal blogs. To close out 2011, the NPN volunteers have come together to provide you with some valuable reading material. Each volunteer has selected either their most viewed post of 2011 or their favorite post and shared the link here. Please take a few moments to visit each post. Our intention is to expand our reach as bloggers and informed parents and parents-to-be who are still growing as we move through our own journeys. Each volunteer has provided links to other social media sites where you can follow them as well.

We hope you enjoy reading these posts as much as we enjoyed writing them. We are always looking for new volunteers so please, contact us if you are interested. Just a few hours per month can help other mamas in a huge way!

Favorite Breastfeeding Book and Website

When I was eight months pregnant I was so nervous and fearful. Not of the actual birth, but of not being able to BF. For some awful reason when you are pregnant everyone wants to tell you their horror story. This goes for the whole experience... You hear horror stories like...I was sick for the entire pregnancy, the never ending labor, the delivery from hell, it took 16 weeks to walk normally, the countless sleepless nights that are approaching, the endless crying you will endure, the pain of breastfeeding and the I was unable to breastfeed.

For me the BFing was the most worrisome. I really, really, wanted to be able to do it. I have always wanted to be a mom, even as a child I have pictures of me pretending to BF a doll.
Check it out wasn't I cute!?! My biggest fear was not producing enough milk. I was told so many stories of women who did not produce enough milk. I was even told of my Great-Grandmother who in Cuba did not produce enough milk for my Grandfather. The family had to buy a goat for him. And then he ended being allergic to the goat milk so they had hire a wet nurse. Talk about crazy! I was also told, because I was well endowed that the baby might not be able to get the milk to come down. I was seriously petrified of not being able to feed my child. Well ladies don't listen to a single negative story! That would be my biggest piece of advice. I ended up producing  more then enough milk for my son and so much that we had to buy a deep freezer. Read about that later.