Not just for hippies anymore.....

Yesterday I went to a morning tea get together at my midwife , Sue's, office. It was for moms and moms to be. I had not attended one before and was finally able to make it. I was a little nervous because although I know that I am "normal" and not all weird and super hippie I kind of was expecting some really eccentric, out there mamas. I could not have been more wrong. I definitely learned a lesson, don't judge.

I walked in and it was a room full of beautiful women, women of all shapes and sizes, all different backgrounds, professions, walks of life. It was so amazing to feel surrounded by women who all had one thing in common, and as it turns out, its not that we all just wanted to have a home birth, we all wanted (want) just the best for our little ones, not just the babes we were carrying, but all the others (for some of us) at home. Its about researching, not just doing because someone with a title next their name tells you to do it, eat it, get it. I loved every single boob filled minute of it, and even that seemed like THE MOST natural thing in the world, at any given moment there were no less that 4 babies nursing. (awesome)

So the conversations flowed, the stories were told, and questions were answered. Some were there who had never had a midwife but only hospital births, there trying to decided if they wanted to go with a midwife/home birth, some had had all their babies at home, some had tried but had to be transferred to hospital, some were first time mamas, and some that had a mix, like me, hospital and home.

Its also not about doing what everyone else is doing either that is into the "natural" lifestyle, but its about all of us making our own choices, what works for us and not just for convenience but for what is right for us, our kids, our family unit. So one may breastfeed until age 4, another until age 2 and that is OK, and there was this feeling of acceptance, and love, and unity. We all know motherhood is hard and it felt like this little tribe, we are all there with this similar purpose and it was just amazing.

I started to realize (duh) that women are really starting to take birth and motherhood back. By that I mean, we aren't just doing what our mothers did, or doing what the doctor tells us, or what some book is telling us to do. We are doing our own research, trying new things, and doing what feels right to us. All the co-sleeping, cloth diaper wearing, breastfeeding longer than 6 months, Baltic amber teething necklace wearing, organic homemade baby food, well it just fits and feels like the most natural thing ever, and that we aren't all a bunch of hippies either....