Georgia was born in a hospital, me in classic Movie Childbirth position, with attending midwives who had assured me I could give birth however I wanted: in the birthing tub, squatting, hanging upside down with flowers in my hair, anything. But then they scoffed at the idea of a birth plan, offering instead offhand verbal assurances. I mean, they did hundreds of births, and they knew the drill. But I wanted some options, and there in New Jersey, there weren’t too many.

The last birthing center in the state had closed right before I got pregnant, and since a neighbor’s home birth went awry and the closest home birth midwives were two hours away, I didn’t feel confident enough to choose that. I was inspired by Ina May Gaskin, and The Baby Catcher, and I wanted to give my body the chance to do this amazing thing that women can do, with the option of drugs, but not the assumption. I wanted to decide in the moment if I wanted to use the birthing pool, or walk around, or squat and sing or shout and not be restricted by monitors and medically established rituals for treating childbirth like a disease. So I chose the midwives and the hospital with a birthing tub, and when it came time for Georgia’s entrance, and while I was otherwise occupied with contractions and pushing and such, well suffice it to say, they weren’t very supportive of my ideas for the way I wanted my baby’s birth to proceed.

Sometimes it feels like a small thing. So it was a little traumatic, so my midwives terrorized me, what’s the difference if I have a healthy, happy(ish) four year old now? Usually it doesn’t come up at all, but I was recently surrounded by all things Natural Baby, and I started to feel sorry for myself all over.

A little confession (sound familiar?): In one of my other, nonblogging lives, I work for a perfectly lovely person who works really hard to create honestly pure and natural products for pregnant women, mamas, and babies. I loved her products and wrote about her for LIME before I found myself in the lucky position of working with her. I recently helped (wo)man her booth at the FREE Natural Baby Expo, not giving away natural babies, just letting people know about her stuff.

Standing there amid the various birthing pools with full-color birth video accompaniment, booth upon booth of slings and carriers, a fabulous, innovative baby hammock, diaper or diaperless (!) options, and oodles of great products for babies and mothers, I was struck by how, forgive me, natural it all felt. There were plenty of crunchy, Birkenstock wearing, long grey-tressed midwives and doulas, as I expected, but also many funky, chic, fab-shoe wearing midwives and doulas. There were hippie mamas who already knew about baby-wearing and pregnancy herbs, but there were a lot of just plain folks very interested in a more natural way of doing things. There is definitely more interest in natural birth and baby products, and a concerned sense that not everything put out there to buy for your baby is best for your baby.

I spoke with a young pregnant woman who just couldn’t figure out why she had such bad heartburn and hemorrhoids, and why were her feet swelling so much? But most of all, what natural thing could she do about it that wouldn’t hurt her baby? So many mamas were wearing their babies, not concerned with the advice of a generation or two ago that too much holding can spoil a baby. The overriding feeling was that birth is a natural, normal process, not a disease. (And just a quick aside, if you are pregnant and want the drugs, and a scheduled birth or C-section to make it easier on you, that’s completely valid and should only be up to you. After all, people once had teeth pulled without the benefit of painkillers—just because it’s “natural” doesn’t mean it’s right for everyone!) It was really refreshing, and empowering, and there was lots of stuff to support what used to be a very alternative way of thinking. I’d guess it’s a very fast-growing market, considering all the gewgaws and gizmos now available for a natural-thinking mother-to-be.

It almost made me want to have another baby just to get it right, and be able to use all these new and fabulous things that support a mother’s wish to give birth and raise an infant naturally! Almost.