Is it possible to have a healthy pregnancy and baby on a vegetarian diet?  I have been a vegetarian for about twenty years and have lived to write about it on the Green Baby Guide.  Still, many people seem surprised that I’d continue living meat-free once I had a baby on the way.  Why do I do it?  Here are two reasons:

It’s cheap.  We are full-time vegetarians and rarely spend more than $150 a month on groceries for a couple and a toddler, allotting $60 to organic vegetables and the rest to whole grains, nuts, cheeses, and fruit.  A family our size would shell out $368 on the USDA’s “thrifty plan.”   Instead of relying on coupons and other cost-cutting tricks, we save by skipping the meat. 

I’m conserving resources.  Aside from my thriftiness (and childhood pickiness), I’d always told people I avoided meat “for the environment.”  I knew that eating lower on the food chain was more efficient, but didn’t look into it much further.  I was surprised to learn that livestock (and the grain to feed livestock) takes up a whopping thirty percent of our land’s surface, taking over what used to be wilderness and Amazon rainforests. [1]  Most of us are aware that cars are big polluters–livestock creates eighteen percent more greenhouse gasses than all of our transportation methods put together! 

What are your reasons for avoiding meat?  Did you have a vegetarian pregnancy?  Do you plan to raise your kids as vegetarians?  Raising my daughter vegetarian has worked for me (so far, anyway).  For more Works for Me Wednesday ideas, head on over to We are THAT Family.

[1] According to a 2006  report published by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization

We attend birthing classes, read books on natural childbirth, practice our breathing, and then the big day arrives. What happens when things don’t go as planned?  When you’re whisked off to C-section after hours of labor?  Or when the pain exhausts you to the point that you need an epidural to continue?

While I had a great experience with our local midwifery clinic and would highly recommend natural childbirth, I was lucky to have several stories to reflect upon before I went into labor.  My sister-in-law, who worked as a family physician for some time, shared that women often experience a sense of failure when things don’t go as planned and they aren’t able to labor naturally. She encouraged me to make a birth plan, educate myself, and then be willing to let go of expectations if things suddenly changed.

Rebecca had to face that outcome in the midst of labor because she had broken her ankle just a few weeks before delivering, which limited her movement and made the pain of childbirth more intense. Although she still planned on delivering naturally, the pain exhausted her to the point that she was utterly unable to move forward.  With the help of an epidural, she got through labor and ended up with a lovely baby girl.

While it’s important for women to know that natural birth is possible, we have to be careful not to judge people who choose other birthing options.  Nor should we idolize people who are able to labor naturally.   As any woman who has gone through a traumatic childbirth experience can share, all that matters in the end is that they were handed a beautiful baby.

Have you heard of the Bokashi Bin?  It’s an indoor composting system that sounds ideal for busy parents of young children.  The product makes the following amazing claims:

• It can handle meat, dairy, bones, and produce scraps!
• It’s odorless
• It’s small 5 gallon bin will easily fit in your kitchen.  (The company recommends buying two so that after one fills up you can let it sit for ten days while you fill up the second, always rotating back and forth.)
• The “tea” or liquid runoff it produces comes out of a handy spigot at the bottom and is great for your garden or houseplants.
• Food breaks down to a “compost product” that can be dumped outside in just ten days.  (Apparently it’s the texture of hummus and smells pleasant!)
• All it takes to activate this wondrous system is a sprinkle of Bokashi—which is made up of water, wheat bran, molasses, and microbes that break food down quickly.

But is it all true?  How can you be composting meat and dairy inside and really have no odor?  If does all it claims, can high rise apartment dwellers actually compost?  What would they do with that “compost product” since they don’t usually have outside space?  We’re both fascinated with this product but want to hear from someone who has actually used it.  Thanks for your input!

Some of you wash every other day while others let the loads build up for over a week before tossing them in the wash.  What would you recommend as a washing schedule for those just getting started?  How frequently do you have to launder them so that smell isn’t an issue?  We all have different tricks for keeping those diapers clean while cutting down our workload.  What are yours?

With the price of dried beans at around a dollar a pound, it’s clear why vegetarians spend less on groceries than meat-eaters (assuming they resist costly meat-alternatives).  Spaghetti with homemade marinara sauce can feed eight people for under $2.00–total.  But the savings go beyond the grocery store.  Vegetarians enjoy one or two extra years of life and spend less on healthcare.  Not ready to commit to a full-time vegetarian diet?  Once-a-week meat-free eating still helps out your health, pocketbook, and the planet.  (More on this concept next week!)

Check out some of Vegetarian Cooking for Two’s lazy vegetarian recipes.

Here are some ideas to get you started: 

Breakfasts are perfect for reluctant vegetarians.  Even dedicated carnivores can get behind a bowl of cereal, eggs and toast, oatmeal, fruit, and yogurt. For lunches, think PB&J instead of bologna.

For the meat-and-potatoes crowd, try serving substantial vegetarian side dishes such as macaroni and cheese as the entree along with a big green salad.  Experiment with vegetarian versions of foods you normally eat: bean burritos, spinach lasagna, spaghetti without meatballs, soup and grilled cheese, chili sin carne.  Don’t rely too much on cheesy dishes or you’ll squander the savings and forfeit the health benefits of meatless eating! 

For more adventurous ideas, borrow vegetarian cookbooks from the library or surf the Web.  Pasta can be prepared in a myriad of meatless ways, Asian curries and noodle stir-fries taste delicious without the chicken, and Mediterranean fixings such as hummus, falafel, and Greek salad  all satisfy the more discerning vegetarian palates.

Some may worry that adding more vegetables and beans to their diets will cause gastro-intestinal distress.  Actually, the more you eat these fibrous plant-based proteins, the better you’ll digest them.  Many digestive disorders can be prevented or reversed with a high-fiber diet.  Rural Africans who eat a high-fiber diet don’t have many of the digestive issues we have in the industrialized world.[1]  Gradually adding more plant-based foods to your diet may actually help your problems rather than cause them.

Stay tuned for ideas on raising a baby vegetarian, getting more protein on a vegetarian diet, and saving the planet with part-time vegetarianism.

 [1] According to Jackson Siegelbaum Gastroenterology website (www.gicare.com)

You know how it happens: You’re strolling casually through the grocery aisles when suddenly a horrible stench fills the air and you realize that your diaper bag is still sitting on the living room floor.  What do you do?

Or you’ve just driven thirty minutes across town to run a set of coordinated errands only to have your little one erupt in sobs of hunger.  But she just ate!  You have no food, no spoons and now the choice to buy grub on the go or drive all the way back  home.  

We’ve had to buy baby food or toddler snacks, disposables, wipes and even a pair of pants once to deal with the short term emergencies created by our forgetfulness.  While these events were funny and even a bit adventurous, we finally realized that we needed a more proactive solution. 

Now we’ve equipped each of our cars with an emergency kit that will save us from buying diapers or foods that we’d rather not purchase on the go.  We simply filled a container with a freezer bag full of wet wipes, a few disposables (although if you have enough diapers you could certainly use cloth), some plastic bags for our son’s dirty cloth diapers, an extra outfit or two, and small containers full of crackers, dried fruit, and other edibles.  

Now we save money, limit our purchases of disposable products, and are able to feel confident as we head out into the world–even if we leave the diaper bag behind!

What are your tips for making life a bit greener and less expensive?  Thanks for adding your links below so that all of our readers can learn from your advice.  Everyone’s welcome, but if you don’t know where to start, click here for directions.  Thanks for joining us this week!

In the March issue of ShopSmart, put out by the publisher of Consumer Reports, experts analyzed used baby gear to determine “when you can gratefully say yes and when you should gracefully say no thanks.”  I am devoting several posts to discussing their findings.  (This is the last in my series of “used gear safety” posts.  Whew!  Check out my posts on secondhand baby bath tubs, car seats, cribs, high chairs, strollers, and toys.)

Here are ShopSmart’s views on hand-me-down baby garments:

Safe: As long as buttons and snaps are on tight and none of the thread is unraveling from the fabric, the used clothing is fine.

Unsafe: Pass on any article of clothing with drawstrings because they pose a strangulation hazard.

It appears that used clothing poses fewer risks than many other secondhand finds.  Of course, I’ve got to point out that clothes with loose buttons or snaps or unraveling threads would probably be a great bargain, and anyone with basic sewing skills could fix the problems.  Also, it’s fair to say that many new garments often have these same issues.

Would you consider buying secondhand clothes for your baby–and would you buy damaged clothes with the intention of mending them at home?  Although I haven’t bought damaged clothing and fixed it up myself, I’ve got to admit that it’s a very green idea.

Used clothing worked very well for me.  For more Works for Me Wednesday tips, check out We are THAT Family.

If you’ve been keeping up with my series on using a midwife, (click here, here or here for my three previous posts) you may be getting depressed.  Yes, the Nurse Midwifery Birth Center is wonderful, quaint, friendly and covered by most mainstream insurance—but what are people supposed to do who don’t live here in Eugene, Oregon?  What if you’d like a midwife, but aren’t sure where to start looking?

Here are a few tips that I’ve gleaned from friends and family who have found their dream midwives with a bit of research.

1. Ask friends, family and co-workers.  The best references are from people who have had a positive birth experience with a skilled midwife.
2. Check online directories. Midwifery Today has an online directory that can give you names of the people in your area.  Their national conference is being held right here in Eugene, Oregon, this Spring! 
3. Interview your midwife. This is a critical relationship and deserves some important investigation in the beginning.  Ask if she has had any emergencies or fatalities in her history.  Make sure she’s willing to go to the hospital if things go wrong and most importantly, make sure you feel connection and trust in her presence.

Any other tips?  I know several of you have found midwives through hospitals or had doctors come to your homes for the birth.  How did you manage to find the right person to deliver your baby? 

In just a few months, I’ll be enjoying maternity leave.  It’ll be a treat to have a few months off since with my first child I went back part time when he was just six weeks old.  Since I never really had the time to be home, my husband and I have split laundry, cooking and cleaning pretty evenly from the beginning.  This time I wonder if it will be different since I’ll be home for a stretch and might feel obligated to pick up more domestic duties.  How have you managed to share the household workload with your spouse?  Did it change during maternity leave–and more importantly, if you did go back to work how did it shift again?  Any advice you can offer will be greatly appreciated!

In the March issue of ShopSmart, put out by the publisher of Consumer Reports, experts analyzed used baby gear to determine “when you can gratefully say yes and when you should gracefully say no thanks.”  I am devoting several posts to discussing their findings.  (I’ve already written about baby bath tubs, car seats, cribs, and high chairs.)

I was surprised to read ShopSmart’s views on used strollers:

Safe: Strollers made after 2007 when new safety standard were published are safe.

Unsafe: Any stroller made prior to that date, or has missing, loose, or broken pieces is not.

My daughter is still riding around in her 2005 Maclaren Triumph–which was new at the time of purchase, just a few years ago.  I was hoping to sell it once Audrey no longer needs it, and I’d heard Maclarens have a great resale value.  I may have to look into the more recent safety standards, but I hate the idea of every pre-2007 stroller cluttering up our nation’s landfills.

Would you feel all right about accepting a hand-me-down stroller, even if you knew it was made before 2007?  (Also, if you know anything about the safety issues with these “old” strollers, please chime in!)