My Natural / Crunchy Motherhood Journey

Looking back, my first step in becoming crunchy and more natural in my mothering was with home schooling. I stumbled on it one day during my first pregnancy and after months of consideration, saw the great value in it and, with my husband, decided to become a home schooling family.


Fast forward three years and my next run-in with natural mothering came after a tragedy. My body went through a rough time and the need for a healthier diet became vividly apparent. That began my search into natural health through diet. I learned to read labels and never take anything food-wise at face value at the supermarket. I was well on my way to becoming a natural Mom.


I searched online to figure out just what crunchy was. I found a test that confirmed that, yes indeed, I was well on my way. This led to me being open to natural child birth at home as I heard more mothers are choosing to do. My hospital births weren't exactly giving me cause to sing their high praises, so the switch was easy to make. I found that the philosophy of home birth was so refreshing. It felt good to be given the permission to follow my heart rather than being made to feel foolish for my thoughts by doctors who act like they know it all.


Now I was in deep. I kept seeing AP everywhere I looked and people were buzzing about it. After the home birth I found breastfeeding was a natural follow-up which led to co-sleeping and babywearing. Shortly after that elimination commnication, the vaccine debate, the circumcision issue and benefits of breastfeeding became interesting to me.


While baby wearing, cloth diapering, gardening, choosing to not circumcise, saying no to vaccines, co-sleeping, home birthing, water birthing, maintaining an unassisted pregnancy, choosing an unassisted birth, sewing things for my children and practicing elimination communication have gotten me the right to call myself a natural mother, I still have lots to learn. There are so many other ways to extend the philosophy of being a conscious parent that I have yet to begin trying out for myself.

I don’t feel like I’m in competition with any other Mom because I’m not. Every Mom has to find what works for her and her household and what feels best for her to do for her children. I do know the more I research about natural things the more inclined I am to try applying that knowledge to my parenting as the right choice for our family.