How to hold down a full-time career, get a graduate degree, participate in a social/charity group, and grow a fetus in your uterus all at the same time. The working woman's guide to pregnancy.

Tuesday, November 28, 2006

Being an Earth Goddess

One of the first stops I made after realizing that I was pregnant was to my little hippie town's natural food co-op to stock up on flax seed, fruit leathers, and organic milk. And of course a copy of a magazine called "Pregnant Hippie Earth Goddess" or something.

I had visions of nurturing my little one in utero with the best natural foods, pre-natal yoga and massage. Once delivered, we're going to use cloth diapers, breastfeed for years, and bond over Joni Mitchell music... or so we think now.

The first of these plans that fell by the wayside was the midwife. Every year, a group of natural parenting advocates and midwives march in our town's independence day parade, so I knew we had midwives around. I set up the appointment early (even before I had called my regular ob-gyn), to go see what this was really all about.

Let's leave it to say that I was not impressed. She told me they can't guarentee they'd be there for delivery and that they don't actually have many hospital rights. Heck, they even deliver at the same place my ob-gyn does. But the clincher... she charged me for the visit! In my opinion, this was a marketing moment for her, not a medical appointment for me.

So I opted to go the standard route. Hopefully, I'll be able to hold out a bit longer on the other elements of hippie mothering. Or maybe, like women across the country, I'll find out that this Earth Goddess thing isn't all it's cracked up to be.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

LONG LIVE THE EARTH GODDESS! Stay the course!!