Where It All Begins
When we first conceived of Making Our Milk Safe (MOMS) five years ago, the co-founders and I decided that in order to tackle the chemicals ending up in mothers’ milk, we’d need to track them back to their source. In the course of conducting our early research, one thing became clear: the problem of our toxic legacy began long before we were here. Before we became mothers, we were daughters. Before we were daughters we were in the womb, before then we were eggs, waiting patiently in our mothers ovaries for our lives to begin. Little did we know that our future health and potential had already been determined, in many ways, by the chemical exposures experienced by our mothers and grandmothers before and during their pregnancies.
In a recent lecture produced by EcoBirth, an organization that advocates for a clean world, safe births and healthy babies, Dr. Sandra Steingraber used her own stories as a daughter, mother, cancer survivor, ecologist and author to help guide us toward a future unburdened by a toxic legacy. In addition to Dr. Steingraber, the October event also brought together experts in the environmental health, wellness, and birthing communities to talk about how to create a world in which babies are born toxin-free, births are experienced in a safe and natural way, and that babies are brought into the world with connection to the planet that will nourish and sustain them throughout their lives.
For more about EcoBirth, visit http://ecobirth.blogspot.com. For more about Dr. Sandra Steingraber, her books, or future speaking engagements, visit www.steingraber.com.