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What's in The Mother's mailbag - 2009

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Mailbag from issue 37 - November/December 2009

Dearest Veronika and Paul,

Today I received my first issue of The Mother, which marks the start of my annual subscription, plus a few back issues that spoke to me. And after only reading a few various articles, I now know that spending the few extra dollars for Air Mail was the best decision I could have made.

I cannot wait until I have more time to sit down and read all of these, and share them with my husband and friends.

Thank you so very much for this wonderful magazine. Such wisdom and insight is often pushed around and buried, and kept out of the light to inhibit as many as possible from living a free and natural life; however, when it’s the truth, it shows up everywhere. That cannot be stopped.

Eternally Grateful,
Jennifer, USA

I must admit that I never thought I would be the sort of mother to read this magazine, but since having my second and meeting other like-minded mamas, I have come to embrace happily our evolving parenting style, and can’t wait to read this fantastic looking resource! It can be hard to find information and companionship when taking a more natural path, so things like this are, I think, surprisingly important.

Autumnal blessings with an extra dash of gratitude,
Naomi

 Dear Veronika,

I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for the wonderful experience that was The Mother camp. The births of our children were magical moments which signalled the start of a new life and direction for Emma and me, both individually and as a couple. One of the first lessons that children taught me was that time and love are probably the most precious commodities we have ~ and the fact that you and your family gave so much of both to make The Mother camp so successful is truly amazing, and for which I thank you all from the bottom of my heart. As I said on the final day of camp, the experience has changed my life, as yet I’m still uncertain as to the full direction and extent, but the significance of the camp as part of my personal journey is significant ~ I just need to start processing it all now! While I am still wistful about the whole camp experience, I feel completely nourished both physically and emotionally ~ it was a beautiful event, set in a geographically stunning location (although the micro-climate could do with some minor tweaking!). I cannot thank you and your family enough for everything you gave to us during the camp ~ it has set us on our path to greater happiness and attachment. My only hope is that we get the opportunity to come together again in the near future. Wishing you and your family much peace and happiness (and rest!).

Love, Steve

Dearest Veronika & family,

I hope you’ve had time to rest and relax and catch up on sleep, warm clothes and baths since camp.

I felt bad leaving when there was still packing up to do, but we had a six hour journey to get home, and so I decided I must go in order to get home and get some sleep before work the next day. I would definitely have preferred to stay and help you all till the very end.

I’m going to write to you properly to thank you for camp, and to explain how transformational it was for me, and my sister Sarah wants to write to you, too. I miss you all a lot; it’s very strange coming back to ‘reality’ out of that freedom, the acceptance, the support, the loving community full of beautiful people. I’m left feeling like there’s something missing, but I have many treasured memories and pictures to keep and to nourish me.

I wonder if you could let me know how to join in the e-group? I met so many friends, and would love to stay in touch and to be a part of the group. I have one more favour to ask (it’s for Sarah): is there any way you could send me the recipe for her favourite meal EVER ~ the ratatouille! She has even kept her meal token to stick in her scrap book! We forgot to copy it down when we were at camp. Wishing I could hug you once again (you give the best hugs, Veronika and Paul ~ you were truly a wonderful surrogate mother and father to us during camp. If I could bottle hugs, they would be yours, oh and Paul’s voice of course!)

With much love and thanks, Laura xxx

Dear Veronika and Paul and Bethany and Eliza,

How are you all? I don’t know what to thank you for because I loved ALL of camp! My dad says I’m not allowed to run around with my shoes off, but at camp I was allowed to and I liked it. I even liked getting mud squidged between my toes. I’ve never done that before. I am doing it loads now, and at camp it made me like more vegetables, and it’s made me strong; so strong that I helped move loads of boxes yesterday! Before camp, I looked at the menu, and I was a bit worried in case I didn’t like the food, but I LOVED EVERYTHING! I made friends at camp, especially Lauren and Tilly and Callum. I liked being able to be loud without anyone saying ‘stop screaming’ or ‘calm down’. I  forgot to show you my lavender bag. I spent five hours making it and sewing my name on it. It was fun. We hung them up in our tents.

I’ve never been camping before, and I really, really want to come next year even though our tent nearly collapsed on our heads!

Thanks for organising camp. I thought it was fabadabadoosie! I hope you can read that word!

Lots of love from Sarah xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (times a thousand kisses!)

Dear Veronika, Paul, Bethany & Eliza,

Hope you’ve had a restful time at home, and you got back ok ?We got back ok yesterday. We feel tired, but in a healthy well-exercised and challenged way. The fact that we didn’t get a migraine/eye problem proves to me that it’s been a very good thing for us all as a family. After two pretty quiet years, we had the energy to give ~ and it feels great!

Hugo got to witness a camp built from scratch by a truly industrious team that we are very proud to have been part of. So we thank you for the opportunity to remind ourselves what is possible. We feel energised, very positive and ready for moving on from this house. The TM camp was a very special space to be, lovely parents, parents-to-be, and beautiful and adorable children. Thank you all so much for the immense amount of work and planning involved, and inviting us to be part of it. We miss you, and beautiful Limetree Farm. Blessings, Love & Light,

Alex xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Oh thank you, thank you and know that you are in my heart and in my prayers and in my eternal gratitude for your PRESENCE and your POWER and your LOVE. May your resources always be quickly available to you in times of trembling, and for all your other needs and desires.

HUGE LOVE, Nicola xx

Thank you, Veronika! The Mother is such a wonderful, wonderful publication. Looking forward to the next issue.

Nina

Hi Veronika,

Received the starflower tea today. Every time I order from you I aim to mail and say thank you, but I never seem to get round to it! So here’s a big thank you for the tea that has helped my PMT loads, and made my hair really shiny! And thank you for your magazine, and for The Birthkeepers, which has been a huge inspiration. I’m trying to become pregnant with my second baby, and plan to freebirth as much as possible, so reading all those stories in your book was great!

Lots of love, Melany x

Dear Veronika

Thank you for your time, support, understanding and love. The transition from being mother of one dear soul to mother of two has been the most challenging time of my life. I’m now four months into it, and it feels as if my heart has finally grown to begin to be able to hold the love required for the job. Our hearts so often seem so squashed, crushed, restricted ~ at least mine does ~ the challenge for me in being a mother is learning how to truly and deeply love. It makes me weep. I have been given this incredible task, and yes, my boobs are full of love and my cup overflows.

Thank you for being the angel of support that I needed so much in a time of darkness. Thank you for being alive and open to hear your calling. Each dear spirit that has the courage to do this, opens the door for others to step onto this path… I know not where mine leads, but I step onto it, yes with a good deal of fear and timidity, but also with joy, faith, and most of all, love; love that I am learning anew each moment, each day. Thanks and love to you, and all those dear to you.

Blessings, Emily

I wanted to thank you for sending the latest copy of TM so quickly after we renewed our subscription. I gain so much from each article, recipe, story and snippet, and find it amazing to look back over the three or so years that we have been subscribing, and see how much our lives have changed. When I was first introduced to TM, it seemed scarily ambitious and beyond our reach, although we knew that the fast-paced, unattached way most people around us chose to parent was not for us. 

Although we were dedicated to starting a simpler, more contented and healthier phase of our lives, I could simply not see how we would ever overcome what I perceived to be the obstacles that stood in our way. I would read with envy, the joy that parents in your magazine experienced at having their children sleep in their beds, without understanding how we could possibly make the seemingly insurmountable changes required to make even that happen (even though these ‘obstacles’ were 90% in my own head, and ‘what will people think?!’). Yet, I felt so connected to the readers of your magazine in a way that I didn’t with other mothers I knew, that it felt safe for us to travel this path, with only you as our guide. 

Our transition to co-sleeping, baby-wearing, non-vaccinating, home educating, home birthing, resourceful family that we have now become has been so gradual that it’s with astonishment that I now look at our lives and reflect on how far we’ve come. We still have a great deal of way to go as there’s still so much of our lives that is not making us happy, and is not what we want it to be, but the more confident we become in our choices (and the less I care about what other people think of our choices), the more I realise that these changes can happen, too. As our family grows, so we grow, and I want to thank you for being the soil that we have rooted ourselves in, as well as the sunshine and the rain that have kept us going when we started to wilt.

I also want to thank you very much for publishing Liz Pilley’s story of her Highly Sensitive Family (and thank Liz for sharing it). Recently, my relationship with my own highly sensitive daughter has reached a crisis point as I struggle to understand what is causing her to react so extremely to so many aspects of life. Reading about Liz’s experiences was like reading an entry from my own diary. My daughter is a child who needs extremely high levels of reassurance and patience, and understanding her needs through Liz’s words has allowed me to stop resenting how much she demands of me, and how slowly we have to take things, but to appreciate how much she enriches our lives. It seems clear as day all of a sudden that I am a HS mother ~ a fact which explains so much about my own attributes, and I realise that my daughter and I are not destined to collide with each other, but are, in fact, perfectly matched to help each other understand why we are the way we are. I feel very blessed. Liz’s honesty brought tears of relief and happiness to my eyes... at last I can move forward and celebrate the unique qualities of our daughter (and myself), instead of endlessly wondering where I went wrong and whether I simply failed to ‘integrate’ her properly into society.

Thank you on so many levels, with love,
Clare

Hi all at The Mother,

Just a few thoughts as I try to organise them into some shape or form in my own head…mainly about the anti-smacking bill currently being overturned here in NZ. Yes, that’s right ~ ‘being overturned’ is what I said. First passed by the Green Party two years ago, NZ was actually moving upwards from the devastating record that we hold in child abuse. Clean, green, safe New Zealand admits at least one child a week into hospital from “suspected or definite” child abuse...wow...and when we had the chance to stop this cycle of abuse and make a positive change for our future generations, we New Zealanders have spent a staggering nine million dollars on the referendum to overturn this ~ just so we can smack our kids, and think that it’s ok to do so. What’s worse, this is how the referendum was phrased: ‘Should a smack as part of good parental correction be a criminal offence in New Zealand?’

So, someone please tell me how why and when is smacking “good” parental correction? I feel so passionately about this, it makes me mad that New Zealanders can actually think like this. That we actually think that it’s ok to hit and be violent towards someone who trusts and relies on us. You know, Once Were Warriors wasn’t just a fictional movie. It’s time that we realised that parenting is so much more than this, and if it gets to the stage where violence might be your answer, then something is really going wrong way back up at the beginning…at least try listening to your child, and stop trying to control. It’s a coward who hits a child; a coward who tries to control by hitting. Control doesn’t equal hitting, and hitting doesn’t equal respect. What it does equal is angry kids and parents, and it also equals full and over-full prisons. Can someone please tell me why New Zealanders are spending nine million dollars overturning something that is a long term positive step in recovering from sending one innocent child to hospital a week because someone, a trusting adult, lost control? If that child survives the visit to the hospital, they have yet to survive the life of anger and crime. Why are ‘smacking’ and ‘good’ in the same sentence then? And more importantly, why is it that New Zealanders, in their droves, think that smacking is ok?

Sending you this message/thoughts from a loving, anti smacking house
Bryan, Sarah and Grace (3) New Zealand

Dear Veronika and Paul,

Thank you for all the effort, organisation and everything you put into running the camp. Molly and I had a lovely experience and time of learning! It felt like something shifted for me while I was there. It may have come from the Pheonix ceremony round the fire, or the wind and fresh air clearing my head! But there was more calm inside me! There were many lovely, lovely families there that were a pleasure to meet. Thanks for bringing us all together. The talks were brilliant, and some real food for thought. Working together with new people in the kitchen was memorable and fun. We loved the meadows and the woods. I think things would have been less challenging if we had had good weather, and perhaps many of us learnt to go with the flow more! We left early due to sleep deprivation from the winds at night, and feeling the cold and rain. I apologise for not being there until the end. I understand that to really feel the community, we needed to be there longer to appreciate and to bond. I could really see it happening on the Monday. Again, it was lovely to meet you and Paul,

Best Wishes, Emma and Molly

Hello Veronika,

I adore the work you do, and have just finished reading both your books. They are portals to endless inspiration ~ especially when living in a country like Cyprus, which doesn’t encourage breastfeeding beyond 40 days, and places obstetricians up there with Zeus. I wish I had had the courage to have birthed at home; I thought I could have a ‘home birth in a hospital environment’ (paradox?!), and ended up emotionally traumatised by my crude doctor’s betrayal. Should I be blessed with having a second child, I hope I will listen to my inner wisdom and give birth at home. Your book, The Birthkeepers, will be right by my side.

Looking forward to the next issue of The Mother magazine!
Love and blessings for all your restorative work, Erini, Cyprus

Dear Veronika,

I have just read your book The Birthkeepers, and I wanted to tell you how much I loved it. I decided to read this book, after the traumatic birth of my second son in March this year. I had planned a homebirth, but was told that I couldn’t have it at 36 weeks, as I’d developed high blood pressure. I ended up going to the main hospital, where my body shut down as soon as I got there. I had a midwife who kept going on about her shift ending, insisted on checking me, then pushed my cervix aside ~ as she said I was only nine centimetres ~ without even asking. Things went from bad to worse, and to cut a long story short, I ended up with an epidural in case of emergency c-section, and my poor baby was forcibly pulled from me with forceps. It was awful, and such a shock after the lovely non-interfered with birth of my first son. We’d love to have another child, but I cannot go through that again. Your book is giving me the courage to go it alone next time.

Thank you. Sarah

As shared on The Mother’s egroup:

Just wanted to share with you all some of the ways I have been trying to spread the word about The Mother. Have so far: -
[] posted the TM link on my Facebook account to all who are my friends, three times (they say that one needs to view an advert six times before it sinks in)
[] emailed all my friends who I thought may be interested
[] posted on our Home Ed yahoo group, shall do that one again
[] and (most fun of all), left luggage labels with TM web address in the loo of Boots, attached to the breastfeeding chair, plus gave out leaflets to people out in Oxford ‘babywearing’, telling them that I want to share something special with them... Hope these missions are generating some new subscriptions. ...will keep on rocking!

Lots of love, Kim xx

Hi Veronika,

Thanks for the back issues. Can’t wait to read them. I’ve got them all now apart from the ones that are sold out. This is the best mag I have ever read. Please, please don’t stop printing it. I hope you sort out subscriptions, as life would not be the same without The Mother in my life. 

God bless, Cindy

Could you mention in the letters section that we run a fortnightly group in Bristol for anyone practising or interested in EC, called ‘Nappy Free Baby’. I think of it as a freedom from total dependence on nappies, rather than not using any nappies at all...tricky one to name...some say EC is better..... 

email susanna_waters@yahoo.co.uk for more details.

As always, the Mother magazine rocks! Recently, we had a lovely Blessingway for my friend Ruth, and I read The Shadows poem from The Drinks Are On Me’ ~ beautiful. We are now waiting for a patter of new footsteps…Moment of the weekend: Breastfeeding Flo (16 months) on (shut for vehicles) Southwark Bridge, looking out at Tower Bridge during the Thames Festival Feast, while wearing an edible hat! ~ what great fun.

And last, but not least, I was hoping that you could publicise in your letters page an opportunity for mothers to come to our ‘Parent and Toddler’ Group at the Waldorf School of SW London on Mondays and Tuesday afternoons, as well as the new ‘Hedgesparrows’ outside Nature group on a Tuesday morning, and our wonderful Advent fair, selling crafts, fine home-cooked food, with music and seasonal craft activities, on Saturday, 5th  December in Balham ~ see http://www.waldorf-swlondon.org/ or call the school office on 020 8769 6587 .

Thanks, Sarah Houghton

Thank you kindly for your magazine, I very much look forward to my first issue! I’m not a mother at this point (age 34), except to two lovely ducklings, Finn & Tasha, and have been a dog mama, and am mother to hosts of vegetables, herbs and flowers on our organic family farm in NY state. I was thrilled to hear about your magazine this week from the Raw Reform newsletter, which I love!

With gratitude and green blessings, Linsay

I just wanted to say that we are delighted to hear that TM will be continuing. My wife was genuinely devastated when she heard the news that it would not continue. She said to me that she counts down the days until TM arrives, and savours every article. She even keeps the back issues so that our daughter Tallulah (3.5 years) can read them when she is older. As a dad, I also appreciate your magazine. I love the support, guidance and sense of belonging that it provides to my wife, and I also enjoy reading some of the more dad oriented articles when I can find a minute in between family life.

You have created something quite special, Veronika, and should be very proud of your contribution to families around the world. I believe that the impact of your work will be long lasting, as it helps mothers provide the kind of support that children really need, and provide a role model for their children and future generations.

Sincere thanks from the Orsborn household, Jay xx

I need The Mother more than ever. Today is the end of my Babymoon. I wanted to say ‘thank you’ for writing The Birthkeepers.

Your book is wonderful. It’s different from all the other books on the theme, and I felt that this is because it’s written with the heart, and so it touches the heart. When the author is a professional, even if a woman, you always have the impression that it is teaching you something, saying what is right and what is wrong. Your book simply gives the power to follow your instinct and your feelings. Thanks a lot... Micòl, Italy

Thank you so much for The Birthkeepers ~ divine and perfectly timed for me. Please also pass on my thanks to the generous soul who gifted a subscription ~ it means the world to me and my children.

Much love, Megan.

Mailbag from issue 36 - September/October 2009

Absolutely loved the piece about weeds ~ really spoke to me, especially as I am actually a ‘weed fan’!  …always checking them out to see if they are edible or usable in some way.

All the best, Natalie x

Dear Veronika,

I received your book, The Birthkeepers, yesterday and haven’t been able to put it down since. It really speaks to my whole being. Thank you for putting all of this wisdom and human experience into a book so it can be shared by women and men who need it today more than ever. Reading has brought back my own special memories of birth.

I planned to have a home birth in water with my first baby, Surya. I had many hours at home with quiet, supportive midwives, enjoying yoga, massage from my partner, and the focus from my breath. I had to be transferred to hospital due to Surya getting into an awkward position (knowing what I do now, I would have chosen to stay at home anyway, but at this time it felt right to go). Despite a minor wobble of confidence when I was greeted by a very judgemental midwife, I kept my centre and knew I could birth our baby gently and naturally despite our new surroundings. 

I kept in the present moment with my breath, and followed, trusted my body despite the pain of the contractions due to the hormone drip I’d been given. I consciously kept fear out despite the midwife saying I could end up with a caesarean! I followed breath and went with my body. A doctor came as I started to respond to my feelings and began to push (despite midwife advice). The doctor just stood in the background as I pushed and breathed and watched as I then smiled and laughed with my partner that the baby was on its way. The doctor asked how I could be laughing as I was about to give birth. As Surya was born, I felt such a sense of power, strength, energy and total ecstasy. I was high and totally in the present moment with tears of joy and amazement. The doctor then thanked us for allowing her to see a natural birth. She said she usually comes in when things go ‘wrong’ and this was such a change for her. I thought this was a lovely and quite powerful thing for her to say.

During this birth I felt so at one with myself and all around, even though the circumstances weren’t exactly as I’d hoped, but I realised that the strength and beauty of birth was actually inside me no matter where I was.

I love the book. It puts into words so many things that need to be heard and understood by people today. I now teach pregnancy yoga and talk to women about their connection with the Earth, and their own power and ability to birth their baby. I am so happy to be able to share your work with them so more and more women can become aware of their choices and their power and use this inner knowledge however they choose to have their baby. Thank you for spreading this light.

Love, Clare

I am really enjoying TM ~ it has a great mix of things that I already do but don’t often know why, and ideas that I have not heard of before!

I realised the other day that I live in a natural birth/parenting desert, knowing only one other lady who still exclusively breastfeeds a child my daughter’s age (5 months); no-one who co-sleeps; one other lady who uses a sling; and no-one who uses cloth nappies. I also don’t know anyone who doesn’t use sleep training/ prolonged crying techniques. Hot topic of the moment is weaning and how to shovel dairy and meat products into a little baby. If I mention that I’m vegan I get that look that suggests I have just sprouted an extra head or two! 

I made Eliza’s blueberry cheesecake yesterday which went down very well. My husband had three helpings and couldn’t believe that it had no dairy. She is a very talented girl! Thank you again for a very informative magazine.

Best wishes, Lizzie

Thanks for another fantastic issue of The Mother magazine. I thought you might be able to use some of these holiday snaps of my son Craig.

Love and best wishes, Fiona Matthews 

I love your magazine; although I am not yet a mother in the physical sense I feel I am very much a part of your community in a spiritual sense.

With warm wishes, Lucy

I received my copy of your book The Birthkeepers last week. I read it over two evenings, and I have to say how deeply disappointed I was... that the book had to come to an end! I just wanted to go on and on reading the wonderful birth stories of these awesome wombyn ~ true goddesses every one. Along with the loving wisdom contained in the first part of the book, well, I felt I wanted to give birth right there and then. Initially I did wonder if this book would be relevant to me, and I have to admit I smiled when I read your thoughtful inscription about invoking my inner Birthing Goddess. I am blessed with four wonderful children, and am still happily nursing my two-and-a-half year old son, born just before my 46th birthday. I also have a beautiful 16 month old grandson.

As I read and reflected on the words, however, the Birthing Goddess stirred. She reminded me that, whilst it is probably unlikely now that I will have an ecstatic birth experience such as described in the book, I do have a role in passing on this sacred wisdom to my daughters, sons, future children by marriage, and, of course, my grandchildren.

Thank you for bringing us this important book.

Blessings, Jacqui Ferguson, Scotland

Was looking at the list of wonderful people involved in the making of your magazine and website. How about calling Karen the Web Mother rather than Web Mistress? Also, congratulations on another wonderful issue which arrived last night and has already been attacked by scissors and laminator so that The Mother piece on the back page can be stuck to the kitchen cupboard, and the Love you Forever piece on page three can be read to my group of pregnant women on Saturday.

Blessings, Samantha

Ed’s reply: Karen and I are both delighted to rename her Web Mother ~ thank you for the wise (and obvious) suggestion!

Thank you for our issue today; love the new design, gorgeous blue cover and nice creamy (vegan) paper. Your editorial brought tears to my eyes! Thank YOU all for your hard work and commitment, especially to Bethany and Eliza for inspiring you. The reward will be GREAT! Love the recipes, all very inspiring. So was the last edition too: loved the menstrual pad pattern, now I’m back to them and my mooncup! Also, the constipation article has got me thinking a lot! Must try newspaper with N. Also really beautiful back cover.

Love, Alex xxxxxxx

I really enjoyed the back issues I ordered previously. It’s a wonderful magazine that really enhances my parenting journey. I’m looking forward to TM35.

Many Thanks, Clair

Your magazine is so inspiring and enriching for the soul.  I finally feel like I ‘fit in’ somewhere. In the last couple of years I’ve found solace when helping women during the most unbalanced times of their life: pregnancy, birth, post-partum and menopause. I now specialise in dehydration and encapsulation of the placenta for new mothers. It’s difficult to talk about or advertise my placenta encapsulation with the public as most people cringe at the thought of consuming the placenta. I believe readers of The Mother magazine will appreciate the enriching benefits the placenta can bring to new mums post-partum. Mothers can order a home visit service, or if their partners or doulas are up for the challenge, ‘do it yourself’ hire kits are also available. 

Placenta capsules allow mums to adjust their hormones to suit them. Each capsule provides mini oxytocin boosts when needed, encouraging pre-pregnancy homoeostasis, and can even prevent the ‘baby blues’ or post-natal depression. 

I use my capsules daily to encourage a rich milk supply for my three month old baby boy. They help me carry out my day with two lively children under three without feeling overwhelmed, anxious or depleted. I hope to encourage every new mother not to waste their precious placenta.

Your amazing magazines are going to be lifelong assets in my home and I hope to build a rich collection over the years to give to my daughter when she decides to bring new life into this world.

Warmest, Lynnea Shrief
Koala Therapies - Natural Treatments for Women
inc. Placenta Encapsulation www.koalatherapies.com

Just wanted to share with your readers, and the columnist (Anton Saxton) who wrote about using lemon juice as hair wash (TM30), my joy with this discovery.

I have had dry/itchy skull since I have memories, and no matter what shampoo I used the situation didn’t improve. With lemon juice the problem has totally disappeared!! I am so delighted that I am in the process of converting my whole family (sisters and mum with history of eczema and psoriasis) to lemon “shampoo”. 

It also encourages me in my mission of getting rid of commercial cosmetics/toiletries. My mum is now manufacturing moisturiser for all of us, so next on my list are home made tooth paste and sun tan lotion. I wonder if Star Khechara can help with this? (Ed: it will appear in an issue next Spring, see also TM29.)

Regarding sun lotion, I read once a list of properties of all the different oils one can use as a base massage oil, and I remember reading that one of them had natural sun protecting properties, but I don’t remember which one!

And as we are moving to Australia in November, it would be information quite handy to have…

Hope you like the photos.

Lots of love, Maira

They just get better and better. Thank you yet again for a wonderful mag, and thanks for theextra copy which I will network.

Syster Ruth Shivani 
www.livinglifealive.com

LOVED TM 35!! Please, oh please tell me how much $$ I could send you for a copy of the print on the back cover! Did you or one of your precious children draw it??? It is exactly the colours and persona of my heart, and I would love to frame it for my wall and think of you often!! The summer here is warm and breezy. The grrrrls are wild and free, and I am slow and introspective and dreary. Sending loads of Summer love and hugs to you and Paul and Bethany and Eliza!

Lynda Cook Sawyer, Virginia, USA

Ed’s note: How to be a mother is now available for download as a PDF off the website.

Just wanted to write a note to you after renewing my subscription today. Thank you so much for producing such an inspirational magazine; I know you hear that all the time, but it has to be said!

I have gained infinitely more information of value from The Mother than I ever could have done from the so-called parenting magazines gracing the newsagents’ shelves. 

When I first started subscribing last year I only related to a few pieces in each issue. I even considered not renewing at one point; it was what I feel now was an inner struggle between the ‘mainstream’ and ‘alternative’...what I had been surrounded by, and what I knew in my heart was right. I know now where I am most at home, and where I want to be! As the year has passed, and more issues have been read, I find myself wanting to create for my family the most natural, nurturing environment that I can; and TM has, and will long continue to be, instrumental in that, I’m sure. So thanks again, Veronika. My family have you (and the whole TM family!) to thank for their own enlightened mother!

With many blessings, Carly

Dear Veronika,

Thanks so much for my copy of your wonderful and inspiring book and for taking the time to write inside and send a beautiful card! I wasn’t expecting to be pregnant again ~ I have a six year old daughter (despite having been told by the medical profession that we would never have kids without ICSI!), so I feel very fortunate indeed to conceive naturally again, and my daughter Emily is so thrilled at the thought of becoming a big sister at last. Baby is due 8th January ~ two days before Emily’s own birthday! Unfortunately, it looks like I may have to battle with the medical profession again though, as I have recently been diagnosed with arthritis in my right hip and a tear in the cartilage (apparently I have a shallow hip joint that I never knew about, and doing lots of running over the years has worn it away). I have been told that I will have to have a hip replacement at some point and that I might be on crutches around the time of the birth, and the midwife said recently that I will have to see a consultant who will “tell me what sort of birth I will need to have because of my hip”.  Still, they have got things wrong in the past, and I see a wonderful lady who does osteopathy and many other treatments, who keeps me going and helps to prove them all wrong! 

I had a natural birth last time, even though I ended up in hospital despite starting out as a homebirth (my midwife was most unhelpful and said that because I wasn’t dilating much the birth would take days. I actually ended up having Emily within 20 minutes of transferring to the hospital!). So I just wanted to say that I am so pleased to have a copy of your book, and will keep it with me on birth day to inspire me then, too!

Thank again,
Claire xx

Warmest wishes and many thanks for the copy of your new book, Veronika. I’ve been dipping in and out continuously on the fast approach to our first baby’s birth in October! Just gorgeous!!!

Laura

I loved reading The Drinks Are On Me, and I have since recommended this refreshing book to many others. Our 14 year old daughter loved reading it, also. Have subscribed to your mag as a result of reading your book and enjoying your down to earth, honest, humorous and intelligent writing. Well done for writing such a valuable book. I’m sure it will inspire many, many mums to come. So important to get the message across in such an accessible way.

Best Wishes, Anita

My son, Harry, will be 19 this October, and is leaving home to venture out into the big wide world now. It seems a very long time now when he was a babe in arms. At the time I was breastfeeding, your magazine was not around. I found support from La Leche League, and listened to my own body and my son’s needs. Your magazine is a great inspiration to mothers out there today, and gives them confidence to raise their children naturally. Thank you for recommending the Ringing Cedars of Russia series. I am now on book three, and am thoroughly enjoying them. I am now heading along another journey of my womanhood ~ the start of menopause. I attend meditation classes which are very helpful. May I wish you and all your family love, happiness, peace for the future. Please keep up the excellent work you are doing: a wonderful job.

Lots of love, Jeannette xxx

I would like to say thank you. I am so happy to have come across your magazine. I live in west Cumbria, and am bringing up my 19 month old girl in the way that feels right to my heart: full-term breastfeeding, co-sleeping, and a natural diet. My partner is in full agreement, but most of our friends look after their children very differently, so it has been quite isolating and hard at times, and sometimes I’ve questioned and doubted myself. Our homeopath gave me some old copies of The Mother, and I am hooked! It’s so reassuring and inspiring to read the articles and stories, and to eventually feel part of something instead of being on the outside. Thank you for this fantastic source of support and inspiration that encourages me to continue and cherish every gorgeous moment with my happy and content little one. So exciting to know that is all happens not so far away in beautiful Cumbria, too!

Lots of love from a very happy mother! Clare

Beloved Veronika ~ your beautiful book arrived the other day. I popped it into my doula birth basket as I drove off into the still night to sit in the blessed space of birth. I dipped in and out of it as the mama laboured deeper and deeper, groaning in the darkness of her safe home, her family around her. The lapping water of the pool creating flickering light from the glowing candles around the room. My heart felt so full and overwhelmed with the privilege to be in this intimate and sacred space, your loving words filled my heart even more.

My journey of birthing into my own motherhood is the most truly amazing gift I receive every day ~ in the reflection of my own children’s eyes, and when I am handed a newly born glowing babe to hold not long after I have seen them enter Earthside.

Thank you so very much for holding the space of The Mother. Blessings to you and your family.

Enclosed, enough for five of each of your beautiful books for my beautiful mamas and their families.

Samsara

Dear amazing Veronika, thank you, thank you, thank you for your beautiful book, card, fab magazine and mostly your support. We’ve both separately dreamed of freebirth, and intend to welcome our baby this way ~ so excited! We’ve got the best birth pool, and are luxuriating every night. I just wanted to say your beautiful words and vision of how motherhood, childhood and life can be are endlessly inspiring, and give me greatly needed nourishment. True touchstones. Wishing you all the blessings of the Universe.

Anna and family xxxx

Mailbag from issue 35 - July/August 2009

Thank you for the inspiration, joy and ideas your magazine brings to my home and others’. It shows me I’m on the right way, despite all those ‘who know better’ around us (be they family or not!). Sunny greetings from Switzerland,
Mireille

I’ve been managing to catch up on your blog at the library, as we don’t have a computer at home. Your writing sparks many positive thoughts with me, and makes me more of the ‘wild woman’ I want to be ~ and mother, too. Thank you for all the wonderful work that you do. Motherhood is wonderful, and I cherish every day.

Me and my children, Rosie and Rowan, have been planting lots of organic seeds. The strawberry plants are full of flowers. The children can’t wait for the fruit. With love and Light to you all. Love, Claudine

I absolutely love your magazine, and am subscribing after a friend showed it to me. I run a parent and toddler group at Exeter Steiner School, and have shown it to the parents.
Helen

I would like to renew my subscription to The Mother magazine. I found it invaluable eight and six years ago when I was pregnant with Hartley and Lili, and now with baby three on the way, would love it again.

I used to live in Brighton, and had the pleasure to attend Karen Ironside’s Active Birth, and together with my wonderful midwife, Val Taylor, and husband, Andrew, had two wonderful water home births.

Yesterday, I attended a 20 week obstetrician’s appointment where I was told that now I’m forty I should think about going to hospital! Why? I now feel anxious about my view ~ I need The Mother magazine for reassurance. Thank you. Best wishes and good luck with the continuing success of your magazine.
Sarah

I did get the re-subscriptions that you sent me, but my cat walked all over the first one, then my son decided to cut up the last one and change all the words around!

Your magazine has been wonderful for me. I have been reading it ever since the home birth of my first child, in a caravan down a green lane with no running water or electricity. It really inspired me to believe in myself and what we wanted; so thank you for all the great articles that ring true with our way and family (home schooling and unvaccinated children who are breastfed until they’re ready to give up).

Keep up the great work, and I would love to continue where I left off (TM33) if you don’t mind. Thank you,
Charlotte

I just want to say how much I’m enjoying reading TM. I love the articles, and I get a lot out of them. I’m also reading The Birthkeepers and The Drinks Are On Me, at the moment; I’m finding them both informative and inspirational.
Many thanks,
Helena.

My name is Shilpa, I am a writer. I live in India, and I breastfeed my two year old girl. Your blog, as well as your magazine editorials has been a huge, huge inspiration. I used to read your personal blog regularly, and there still are some days when I go back to the archives to read a particular post. I specially wanted to write and tell you that I came upon Julia Cameron’s book The Artist’s Way in one of your posts, and I decided to read it. I had stopped writing for various reasons over the past three years, and this book helped me get back to writing again. I can’t thank you enough. God bless you and your family. Warm Regards,
Shilpa

What’s going on????? Just seen this (below) on your blog!!!!!
And over here we’re tied up in the campaign to stop home birth becoming illegal as of July next year!!!!! Yes, really :-(
Blessings ~
Emma. Australia.

From the office blog:
Codex Alimentarius
In the early 1960s, two United Nations organisations, the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the World Health Organisation (WHO), established Codex Alimentarius (Codex).
The stated purpose of Codex Alimentarius (Latin for “Food Code”) is to: establish a set of international standards for food quality and safety to protect the health of consumers, and ensure fair practices in the international food trade.
This plan, however, is nothing short of what is described by author Scott Tips as Global Food Imperialism.
If you’ve not heard of it before, you’ll be surprised, and no doubt shocked, to discover why those who value health and freedom in healthy living choices, are so horrified. As with all such things, you have to ask: “who gains from this code once it comes into practice?”
Why haven’t the mainstream media exposed this? How can you look after yourself and your family? This is a petition to gather one million voices against the Codex Alimentarius, a law that will be imposed in December 2009, in Europe, if we don’t do anything about it.
This law states that:
[] all biological food must be irradiated
[] genetically modified products don’t have to be named in ingredient-lists, neither in the ingredient-lists of biological products
[] nearly all of the homeopathic remedies will be taken off the market
[] all healing herbs will be illegal (start saving your seeds, systers, and grow your own natural pharmacy)
[] most of the alternative forms of therapy and healing will be illegal
[] alternative kindergartens and schools (like Waldorf schools...) will be illegal.
The ELIANT campaign, together with other campaigns, is collecting a million signatures in order to file a protest against this law at the European court of justice.
A number of signatures above one million will enable us to do something on a European level. At this moment we still need at least 259.624 signatures to reach our goal... yours could be the One....More information and online signing at http://eliant.eu
Ignorance is NEVER bliss. If you value freedom, informed consent, and conscious family living, this is one campaign you mustn’t ignore.

TM34 arrived yesterday (yipeee!), and I have devoured half of it already! Great cover picture! Oh, and thank you for including a photo of Zofia and Marcin. I’ve got another lovely photo for you that I will attach. I seem to have less and less time on the computer now that Zofia is crawling and climbing around and being outdoors more now that the glorious Spring is here. I have to say that with the Spring, and Zofia’s emerging glowing personality, the turnaround that your book brought for me, and our plan to move back to UK next year (!), I am feeling so refreshed and energised and full of optimism and in renewed awe of the sacredness and wonder and beauty of life. I loved your colourful editorial, it re-tuned me into the colours around me and in me, and reminded me to celebrate the whole spectrum of emotions, moments and messages. I painted a rainbow on our wedding invitations, and lo and behold, one graced the sky above our heads as we cut the cake in my Mum’s garden! 
Love, Amanda. Poland.

Just a quick email to let you know that I ordered a copy of The Birthkeepers last night. Really looking forward to reading it, and feeling really excited about the new babe growing inside me ~ and welcoming him or her Earthside this summer.
My copy of TM arrived on Saturday, and is such an inspiration. Your editorial is wonderful, and I am going to frame the affirmation of motherhood, and hang it up in my house as a reminder.
Hope you are enjoying the weather up there. It has been beautiful here the past two days. Love and best wishes,
Laura

First I want to say thanks for a great mag, and great, inspirational books by you Veronika. You are a woman that I aspire to. I read with interest the article on tooth decay in the latest magazine, as I am sure a lot of readers did...for it unfortunately seems to be a common thing. I, too, have been, and are, going through this with our first born, Grace, who is soon to be three. 

So it was with relief that you too have gone through it (I mean that in a good way!!), and therefore I could draw upon your progress, ideas, frustrations and advice. For me, it had been a surprise when my mother asked me about Grace’s soft teeth. Never in a million years did I expect my vegetarian, non-sugar child to have decay. It was an embarrassing and a crumbling experience to say the least. I was soon to realise that this was just the beginning. A school dental nurse, a dentist and threats of a general anaesthetic left me feeling, to say the least, like a bad parent ~ humiliated, and discouraged. So to the computer I went to seek advice...
Now, about a year later, Grace’s teeth are not the best, but she didn’t have surgery, and we found a holistic natural dentist, and sought his advice. I have to say he still wasn’t pro-breastfeeding at Grace’s age, especially at night, but the treatment we got I was happy with. It was non-invasive, and sought only to extract the decay with sand. However, something inside of my ‘mother spirit’ still didn’t feel happy. How come women have been breastfeeding until the child self-weaned, over the centuries, and around all nations of the world with few cases of tooth decay? I, too, embarked on my own discovery.

Grace is now on homeopathic treatment, and as usual we stick to our vegetarian, leafy green, fresh juice diet. I am happy that I have done everything I can for her.
Two things of interest in your article have given me answers ~ so thank you.
Pushed into a caesarean section by the midwife, and my well-meaning mother (I know better now), maybe this could be part of it? It was something I always questioned within myself. So it was a great relief that I read your article, and found confirmation of what I had been struggling with. Sometimes you just need to know that there are others out there thinking like you!
 Warmly, Sarah and Grace

I would like to add a big thank you for the help and advice you have unknowingly given me! I saw a re-run of Extraordinary Breastfeeding last year when I was pregnant, which inspired me to ask more questions. I bought your book, and devoured it. I was breastfed until 18 months, when I was weaned to make room for my brother. My mum was led to believe that she couldn’t feed two children at the same time. My brother was then breastfed until 12 months, when he started getting eczema and allergies to dairy ~ my mum was told to wean him onto goat’s milk! I have always felt honoured for having been fed for as long as I was, and am now more aware of how misguided a lot of the advice we are given is. Thank you for such an insightful book.
I am now mum to a beautiful three month old baby girl ~ born naturally, at home, during a blizzard! From the support I have received from your book, The Mother, a homebirth group and hypnobirthing classes, I have been able to trust my instincts on things like co-sleeping, baby-wearing, feeding on cue, and letting my baby adapt to the outside world at her own pace. I only know a few people who are doing some of these things, so it’s nice to know that there are others out there!
I have already faced a lot of criticism, luckily not from those closest to me, but I have the best reward: a healthy, happy and contented child.
Best wishes to you and your family,
Lizzie

I am a mother-at-heart only, as I’m trying to conceive at the moment via a donor. I’m hoping to soon be a Birthkeeper myself! I have subscribed to your magazine, and would like to thank you for the inspiration, and making my instinctive feelings and thoughts about motherhood feel valid in a society so far removed from natural parenting.  
Thanks! Mandy

Just received TM34 in the post, and have devoured it. Once again, a fabulous issue! So much to inspire, re-affirm, re-consider and reflect upon...
Your beautiful article on the importance of touch particularly resonated with me today. I have been giving five month old Elias a baby massage with a healing massage oil every night before sleep, and his bliss and pleasure at being touched lovingly in a rhythmic, assuring way are a joy to behold. Love & light,
Katharina

Just wanted to say a huge thank you for your wonderful, inspiring magazine. I came across The Mother after it was mentioned on a green parenting forum that I go on; saw a back issue, and was immediately hooked! I have now taken out a subscription, and am building up my collection of back issues, which I will be lending out to friends and family. I only wish I had found it before I had my first baby last year. I am expecting my second baby in July, and am finding the birth stories and breastfeeding articles particularly inspirational. I had a lovely home waterbirth last time round, but there are some things I would have liked to have done differently, and this time I feel much more prepared, and am actually looking forward to the birth now! I am also really looking forward to breastfeeding again, something I didn’t really enjoy last time ~ I feel I lacked the right kind of support and knowledge, and weaned my son at 9 1/2  months ~ something I now regret very much, and feel extremely guilty about. But the information in your magazine has been fantastic, and I often find myself reading articles out loud to my husband. 
I would also like to add how much I enjoy the beautiful photos throughout. They have inspired me to have some pregnancy photos taken myself, something I never thought I would have the confidence to do, and also to realise how amazing and wonderful my body actually is.
 I feel very proud to be a Woman, and it’s an indescribable uplifting feeling, and I thank you very much for your part in my journey to this point.
With Love and many Blessings to you and your family,
Jane

Many thanks for sending out the back issues so promptly. I did receive them today as you promised ~ three packages arrived on my doorstep, how exciting! I don’t know when I’m going to find the time to read them all, but I am very much looking forward to it. Thanks for providing so many with such a beautiful magazine. I’ve let my subscription to other magazines slip recently, but The Mother is worth every penny.
Lots of Love, Vicky

Hello Veronika, the book arrived, thank you so much! It’s really beautiful and full of love. You will not believe, at the same time I got something like twenty old copies of The Mother magazine and a collection of Birth Stories written by Italian Mothers. I will read the rest with passion and enthusiasm. I wish you all the best, Mara. Italy

Many thanks. I do keep meaning to write in about how great I find the magazine, especially the articles that Dr. Richard House writes. He has given me the inspiration to start going to some Parent Based workshops in York, with Dot Male, at the Steiner School. Before I started reading his articles I was at a lost time. So thank you very much. I do also find the rest of the magazine an inspiration. Warm wishes, Suzanne xx

Veronika, I received The Birthkeepers book a few days before the birth. It was very timely and very encouraging to read the positive stories of others. Thank you once again for such an important work. Many blessings, Michelle. Australia

Thank you so very much for the consultation over the phone today. So good to hear your voice again. I can now clearly see how I can heal the trauma experienced giving birth to my second daughter, and am learning to recognise patterns in my life, release the redundant ‘stuff’, and celebrate the freedom and joy that comes from this healing. I loved the practical tips you suggested. Absolutely spot on! You are brilliant at getting straight to the heart. Thanks for listening and being there.
We have copied Zeitgeist, the movie, for you all, which, for me, reinforces the need for the world to join hands in unity and peace, and to nurture the Earth, and our children’s bodies, minds and spirits in the name of love. Bless you lovely lady for caring about women, children, boobs, milk and wombs. Let’s co-create a world where everyone holds them as sacred as you do! Love, love, love, Name Withheld

I received your books yesterday morning. Thank you for inscribing them for me, what a lovely surprise. I can’t wait to read your books, and I’ve bought them in preparation for the very next read. I’m at the moment reading The Continuum Concept, which is hurting my brain ~ but it’s a very important hurt! It’s causing me to rethink and adjust my views and ingrained concepts for the better of myself and the children I come into contact with ~ hopefully my own one day! I feel so compelled to read and understand them that I consider all these books my ‘set works’ in my female journey through life ~ and some of the most informative works were found when a special person introduced me to The Mother magazine!  I didn’t realise at the time that The Mother mag was going to open so many new doors for me ~ how exciting it’s all been. I’ve loved your comment in one of your books that your birth chart reveals a need to ‘server or suffer’ ~ boy do you serve in the most awesome of ways!  I’m working towards getting me one of those empowered life purposes! Best wishes, Tanith

I have just finished reading your book, The Birthkeepers, page by page. Loved the illustrations; and all your concepts spiritually seem so closely matched to the way I feel about birth being the evolution of a human being into higher consciousness of love.
Since my birth I began to study hypnosis in depth, seeing how the power of the human mind impacts on every perspective of life. You seem to have so much experience in herbs and aromatherapy, too. You are a jack of all trades! I related to all the personal stories; it transported me back to my birth experience, and now I wish I had written more! Thank you so much for the service of providing a ray of enlightenment to all future mothers. Clio, Scotland

Dear Veronika, Just to let you know that I am moving to Australia, and have a new address for my sub for The Mother. Also the positive birth story website which I launched in January, which features quite a few of your readers’ stories, has had an amazing response. Thousands and thousands of hits from all over the world, and lots of positive feedback. Women obviously want and need to hear about birth un-interfered. So thanks to your wonderful readers for their contributions. We welcome more submissions, and also are creating a partner positive birth stories section. I love your magazine, and am afraid to say I devour in one sitting regardless of those peas that need to be cooked, or the washing needing to be put out to dry! Congratulations on filling a big hole!
Warmest regards Josie. New Zealand.
http://www.positivebirthstories.com

Thanks for the issues you sent out almost immediately I contacted you. Ahh!! An old friend is back. I read most of it straight off, and now my fourteen year old daughter… I doubt if I will see it again after that, as I pass it around my friends and contacts!
Thank you for that manifesto of gratitude on the back of The Mother. Those words need to be seared on my soul, I think!
Every blessing, Ruth

I like the idea of The Mother magazine being in health food shops; there seems to be a big space on the shelf that only The Mother magazine could fill. The alternative magazines out there seem more like plastic-wrapped sliced bread, rather than lovingly kneaded home baked bread. I love the fact that every reader can add their own herbs and spices, and take part (letters, stories, pictures, etc.); but you always know it’s going to taste good because the basic dough, before herbs and spices are added, has been prepared in the hands of a wise, inspired baker with the whispers of Mother Earth around her bare feet as she creates and kneads. It’s not rushed, and should be eaten slowly, too: chewed in silent contemplation. It’s never a disappointment. Mmmm.....and opening the envelope is like opening the oven...it’s so exciting. I think I can smell it!!!
Love, Alison (as shared on The Mother’s e-group for current subscribers)

Can I ask any readers who live in Italy, how easy it is to have a home birth, find a sympathetic doctor ~ i.e. no vaccinations, and to home educate! I’m not pregnant at the moment but we are planning on inviting a new spirit to take a stroll with our family!
Take care, Jocelyn.

Mailbag from issue 34

I have just got in and all my back issues have arrived. I'm sooo excited having them all come like this, it ALMOST makes up for not having discovered you earlier. This was my 40th birthday present to myself. Veronika, I know you have probably heard this a million times before, but THANKYOU ~ you are such an inspiring woman. I hope to come to the retreat, and I look forward to meeting you, and giving you a big hug!

Love and Light, Nancy

I have only been a reader of The Mother for a year now, but cannot tell you how much you and your magazine have impacted on my life ~ a shining star and guiding light in a sometimes difficult and dark world.

With kindest regards, Lisa

Thanks for another wonderful issue of The Mother magazine. Being an expectant mother, I am devouring all the information I can at the moment on ethical/natural birth/parenting, and the articles truly inspire me!

Many thanks, Terri

Another amazing issue… How I LOVE The Mother mag ~ it’s my pick me up. Seriously.

I seem to lack in motivation just three to four days before The Mother lands on my mat. I pick it up, and WHAM! ~ I'm me again! I was just thinking yesterday, as I went to bed, “it must be The Mother time again” ~ or rather, hoping it was ~ and bang, this morning, like the bright Sun, The Mother arrives

Much love to you all, Nicola

Can I just take this opportunity to thank you for the inspiration, love and power you, your beautiful family, and everyone involved sends out through your gorgeous magazine and your blog. (I read that today, and Paul's thoughts on responsibility resonated after my upstairs neighbours throwing their rubbish in my yard!!...It really helped me to see the message. Now, must get those bills sorted out!)

Love to you all, Barbara

Hope this finds you happy and enjoying the beautiful springtime! I just turned to the back page of my latest issue of the magazine and leapt up with excitement at the advertisement for the retreat! The synchronicity is buzzing and sparking at this. I’m really excited that this is happening in my neck of the woods up in North Yorkshire! Therefore, I would be very grateful if you could send me further information and a booking form for this glorious event! Well done for tuning in to what Mother Earth is asking of us next: a wonderful opportunity for people to live as this Earth intends! Thanks also for providing such a stunning, stunning magazine. Keep up the good work, and may the angels shine on you forever more for all your enlightened actions!

Yours, Jayne ~ mother of Noah and Erin

Thanks so much, as ever.....Oh how I love your glorious domain of love, joy and courage...so much more than a magazine!  

Love to you all, Shona

We were pleasantly surprised to see a photo of Ollie and I in the latest TM, our favourite magazine EVER! Ollie, seeing himself in the magazine, automatically claimed that it was his and wouldn't let me read it in peace! “It’s MINE Mummy, It’s MINE”. Ah! But he soon forgot about it, and I placed my prized possession in a safe place, to savour after the little one goes to sleep. Funny, a few days ago, and shortly before receiving the latest copy of TM, I was wishing that we could have TM monthly, and surely, I see that one can get back issues ....hurray! This makes my deep desire to read different issues of TM every month very possible. So, here is my order...  

Thank you Veronika and the team for your brilliant work in producing TM magazine.

Lots of love and best wishes,
Grace

Dear Veronika,

I was introduced to you on an airing of the Tyra Banks show. I felt disgraced and horrified at how you were received by Tyra and the audience. Even though the show certainly didn't get the point of child-led weaning or full-term breastfeeding...I do.

I ordered your book, and have felt so supported in reading you and your family’s experiences. Thank you for sharing yourself in this way. We are expecting a second child in July, and I wouldn't dream of anything but nursing both my babies as long as they need it and wish it. Again, many thanks to you and your important work. I am so grateful to have been able to read from you and share in your philosophies.

All the best, Nicole. Canada 

Thank you for another inspirational issue ~ so lovely to receive in the post just after a heart-warming family Christmas!  I was fascinated by the article The age of pervasive anxiety by Dr. Richard House. It really struck a note with me, in particular the bit about how all parents and early years workers should be trained not to intervene in the young child's 'going-on being'.

I am very conscious of the fact that I was a very 'conscientious' first-time mother, wanting to accelerate my daughter's learning experience in every way possible. This involved structuring her day around what I thought she needed: scheduled library visits, busy parent-toddler groups, organised play. This was an approach advocated and encouraged by my parents, although I always found it instinctively wrong, too fast paced for a small child, and exhausting for me!  I used to feel I was being somehow neglectful if I wasn't 'doing' something with my child. Thankfully, when my daughter turned two, I searched and searched for other ways of approaching my parenting journey, and discovered a wonderful local Steiner Waldorf school ~ a ray of light. I actually cried tears of joy and relief when she first visited the nursery there, as it felt so right, like coming home. 

My daughter has thrived there ever since in the calm, harmonious and gentle environment. My partner and I have also been incredibly enriched by this experience and have learnt how to slow everything right down in terms of how we parent (and even live our own lives), and we now smell the roses on the way! I am much happier, more positive/contented, and couldn't now give two hoots about whether my daughter's reached all the right milestones. It's been a struggle at times ~ particularly with other family members who have been very vocal about highlighting things we 'should' still be doing.

As I am now close to welcoming our second child into the fold, I want to ensure I give him/her the respect he/she deserves, in that I want to offer space, comfort and love rather than 'early educational experiences'. One of the major things I've learnt is to keep myself busy and occupied with my own useful activities (writing, painting, household chores, gardening, baking) rather than focusing all of my energies on my child. She happily imitates my activity one minute, and then runs off for hours to play on her own, without any need for me to disturb her. Less is definitely more.

As a mother to a five year old, and pregnant with my much-wished for second baby, I wanted to know if Richard House could suggest ways in which we as parents can 'do less' with our young children.

With warmest wishes and thanks to you and Richard House,
Dominique 

Not only have you created another helpful and informative book, but something deeper and beautiful, that feels like an artwork to me, and a keeper of information ~ women’s information!

Lots of love, Cindy

Hello Veronika, I got my copy of The Birthkeepers in the post this morning. I want to thank you for the personal message in the front; it made me feel loved and supported and empowered.
I was determined not to start reading it yet, as I'm reading The Last Hours Of Ancient Sunlight, and wanted to finish it before starting a new book, but I couldn't help myself; and I've read about a quarter of your wonderful book already. I curled up on the sofa next to Llando’s sleeping warmth, and absorbed every love-filled and inspirational word. My days of pregnancy and birthing are over, but this book will be on my bookshelf to be there for my daughter, and my sons’ partners, in the future.

Thank you....just thank you!
Much love, Donna

I was so thrilled to receive a copy of The Birthkeepers today. Thank you so much. Thank you for the touching inscription, I am so honoured. Cover is gorgeous, love the colours. Andri's illustrations are beautiful. I have only flicked through (N. instantly grabbed it saying 'mine', and she’s probably right!), but what has caught my eye makes me realise there is so much more to learn about birth and my own experience. I've been trying to get my story down in a meaningful way for you, but something holds me back. I guess this could always be the case. Maybe this is why when I hear of someone having a baby I feel a yearning to go through it again and learn some more.

Alex

Started reading The Birthkeepers. Very powerful. Who knows, it might contribute to me stopping being a midwife. So true that what you say on page 25, 'we need to stop looking for what's wrong, and look for what's right'. Keep motivating us like that. Looking forward to receiving The Mother. I read an issue as I was at a woman' s labour and birth, and while she was quietly labouring, I was quietly reading.

Greetings, Monique

I love the book! Thank you so much for writing it, for putting our story in, and for the lovely words you wrote inside for me. I can't describe how pleased we are.

Sending you much love, Julie x

Blessings and appreciation for your beautiful shared syster message inside the book, for yet another beautiful bookmark. They are great.
I love you and respect you Veronika. I am only 40 odd pages in, and still to read, but already have felt the ‘amrit’ ~ the grace of the magick of the book.
I will be ordering some wholesale, so I can gift a few to those I love…

Bless you, may you ever continue to ride your dream. Ruth xxxx

Thank you so much for the copy of The Birthkeepers. It is amazing. I read it cover to cover last night, as I couldn't put it down! It is inspiring, warm and beautiful to hold and look at. I loved it. The cover is really perfect. I keep picking it up and looking at it. Andri is an amazing artist, too.

Love and light, Gina xx

Just wanted to thank you so much for the book ~ it is really beautiful, I couldn't put it down! It has been accompanying me through the long night feeds while Tansy is having her latest growth spurt. (She is a bit of a giant for our family, and she is loving the book, too.) It has such a pure vibration to it: it is on my altar overseeing the lounge. Thank you, thank you.

Hugs, Keeley

With great joy… I received my copy of The Birthkeepers, and wanted to say a big heartfelt thank you for writing such a beautiful, inspiring and uplifting book. A true gift to this world of ours. It has spoken to the truth of my heart (just as many TM articles have, and do), and has made me really remember my truth, and what I have truly wanted for my child all along. And that I really wish I hadn't compromised on any of it. It has brought me back to my true mothering self again. I never did have that unassisted lotus birth that I knew in my heart was so right for my son and I. It is painful to really accept that, but also brings me to make real changes and adjustments now. I realise how lost my true self has been. I want to give my son the mothering that is his birthright: a soulful, peaceful, connected and courageous Goddess Mother. It is time to heal and mother my lost and frightened inner child and have faith that with it, my relationship with my beautiful son can heal too. Through the right action of mothering my son from my heart, I know I can heal myself. Thank you so much for this constant reminder of my own truth. Words really can't express the depth of my gratitude. Thank you for your light, and with it, the remembrance of my son's need for primal mothering.

With love and many blessings,
Julia

Your book arrived today and made my heart sing. It is absolutely stunning ~ just like you ~ the cover is spectacular, and the words within are divine. You are a legend.

Much love beautiful sister, Tish

Just finished The Birthkeepers. Thank you so much. Absolutely fantastic. You are indeed a wise Birthkeeper!!!

Samantha

I wanted to thank you, and offer congratulations on your fantastic work manifested in The Birthkeepers. I was most touched by what you wrote too, thanks. I've been going through one of those dark nights of the soul, seeing certain things about myself clearly for the first time, and recognising how they affect my relationships with my loved ones. I'm coming back to birth, seeing how I cut myself off from this passion, and how it resonates so deeply within me. Dealing with my impossible family has led me to push aside the possible one, but I know now that I must focus on my light and on love, and continue to carry the vision of a home with heart.

Love and spring light to you all,
Samantha

Hello Veronika,

I just have to write to say WELL DONE!!! I am gobbling up the book. I am onto the birth stories section already, and feel utterly overjoyed at all you have written. This book is wonderful ~ truly enlightening and affirming, thank you so very much. I will be buying it for my sisters, too.

I was particularly gratified that you suggest Julia Cameron's Morning Pages. I have been writing these for years, and they have helped me through some very intense emotional journeys as well as being the reason that, as a writer, I never become blocked in my work.

You have encouraged me too to look for belly dancing classes nearby, I do hope I can find something! My pregnancy is very new, but already feels utterly consuming in the best, most sensual and empowering way. I am elated, and yet so deeply grounded in my creative body, in the cradle that carries my baby, my tree. And that's another thing, I love, love, love the illustrations! Before I bought the book, I had been making some birth art most days as part of my dream journal: very primal drawings of my baby and my self, my birthing time and my dreams. In one, my baby is a tree, a bold strong, green tree inside my womb. I related to the drawing of this in the book so much! I also dreamed of a snake before I read the book, so clearly and so memorably, and seeing the snakes in the book and reading your explanation has really helped me gain some clarity and positive energy from that dream. Besides all this, I do hope you are well, and your family too.

Love, Melanie

Issue #33 just arrived in snail mail and I read it cover to cover. You and your team are fab!
I love that publications, like The Mother magazine, exist, which promote my way of life. With children, life is good. Period.

Warmly, Channie

Veronika, I am so happy you published your book! My friend Laura Shanley lent it to me, and I have been reading through. Very wonderful, exciting to me for sure, thank you! If you ever come to the States I would love to get together. Be well Keepers of Birth!!!

With much love & many blessings, Zuki

Thank you for your magazine. As a new mother who is breastfeeding, carrying, e-cing and co-sleeping with my daughter, it has been a great source of comfort and inspiration for what, at times, can feel like a lonely journey. My only 'complaint' is that after reading your magazine I sometimes feel overwhelmed and unsettled. It leaves me wanting to find out more but feeling as though I will never 'know it all' or be able to make the changes I want in my life quickly enough. Your last editorial (Jigsaw puzzles and old coats) summed it all up perfectly for me. I have come to realise that I'm not going to have all the pieces of the jigsaw together at once, and just when I think I've cleared through all of the cultural cobwebs, I turn a corner and there are more. But I am glad of what I now know, and look forward to learning more from my beautiful daughter, the greatest teacher of my life. Thanks also for your book, The Drinks Are On Me, I really enjoyed it ~ it all made so much sense to me.  My daughter is now 10 months and I have no intention of stopping breastfeeding until she is ready, but the longer we carry on the harder I find it to empathise with others around me who decided to stop early, or not even try at all. It makes me sad that despite the increasing awareness of breastfeeding, I am still the 'abnormal' one and the decision to use formula can be made casually. Keep up the good work!

Best wishes, Natalie

In the mailbag of TM33 - 2009

Just a note to say thank you very much for The Mother magazine which arrived yesterday. My husband ordered me a subscription for Christmas. I wanted to read it after my friend lent me The Drinks Are On Me. What a fantastic book, and it was just the support I was looking for, as I often feel isolated with nursing and co-sleeping with my nearly three year old little boy. This issue of your magazine seemed to be written for me too, as I have been wondering about attachment parenting twins. I am just going through a miscarriage after 12 weeks of pregnancy. I’m still bleeding after seven weeks, so it is hard to move on yet. Thank you again.

Best wishes,
Nancy-Ann

I want to thank you for your work in promoting breastfeeding and a more natural approach to mothering. I was recommended to read The Mother magazine, and have read a few articles on the website. It’s a relief to find a publication that is honest and responds to what is best for both mother and child. I have had two home births, and breastfeed; and I can see that there are groups and organisations for support when the going gets tough. I was tandem feeding my two babies (one and three years old), but stopped feeding my eldest when I was feeling unwell and run down. She still looks occasionally for a breastfeed, but I brush it aside. In my heart I know that I have made the wrong decision, and it is so good to come across people like yourself to inspire me to listen to myself, first and foremost.

It’s difficult doing it alone sometimes, and bewildering as to why the most common sense and natural way to raise children should seem so pioneering! Keep up the good work.

Kind regards,
Ness

It really is a beautiful magazine and fills my heart up whenever I am made to feel that I am crazy for carrying, breastfeeding and sleeping with my beautiful two year old daughter. Having said that, I have three sons aged 21, 19 and 17, all of whom were brought up the same way.

Sadly, I never found anyone else doing the same at the time, and really was considered crazy, but I have had the last laugh: my sons are wonderful young men, and absolutely brilliant with their little sister. Attachment parenting really does make for a close and happy relationship, even when the children are all grown up.

Many thanks.
Love,
Ali

Dear Veronika, Like so many of your letters say, I just love receiving TM in the mail every other month, and devour it over the few days after it arrives. It is always thought-provoking, and it raises my awareness of so many interesting and important things in the world. Now I have an eight month old (a fully breastfed and virtually 100% living foods baby girl, Lakota), I am especially interested in education. We are very lucky to have a Steiner Waldorf school near us, where we have enrolled her for the two year old playgroup and kindergarten, and hopefully primary school after that. It is getting beautifully warm here, and I must say that although I love London, I love it here more! We are heading to Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast for three weeks, as that is where I am from. I know you are also a Queenslander by birth. I look forward to another year of TM. I have attached a photo of Lakota, my green baby!

Love,
Meredith
Western Australia

I just wanted to thank you for publishing my essay I think I'm Drowning. I especially loved the layout, and I absolutely loved all the other articles I have read so far. What a thoughtful, powerful magazine! I have to confess that with two young children and one on the way, I have not read the magazine in its entirety, but what I have had a chance to read, I love. 

I was wondering, though, why intactivism (genital integrity) is not a topic your magazine seems to cover. Is this just because it is not common practice in the UK? You know, here in the States, we are still circumcising about 50% of our boys. Of course, this number varies from state to state, but the US is still trying to justify this heinous practice.

I love the magazine regardless, but I was curious. Thanks again. 

Much peace to you and your family,
Amy
USA

Many thanks for all your work and commitment, passion and love ~ and know that it works its wonders in this little village, too.

Samantha
France

Thank you for your bravery, good heart, and good mothering. Your honest view on child-led weaning is beautiful. Your children and family are beautiful as well. 

Warmly, Charlotte
Full time stay at home mother of three lovely children

You have no idea just how grateful I am for your beautiful magazine arriving today. My (LLL) co-leader and I are both nursing our daughters, who are 2.5 years. Both of my sons had weaned during the 5th month of pregnancy, with the next baby at around 2.5 years, and had been slowing up until then ~ probably due to a combination of them being so active and me being very uncomfortable in the nipple during pregnancy! 

Well, Britton, my beautiful girl, is nursing as though she is 2 weeks old! She is nursing constantly, and then some more on top of that! I know that the holidays certainly may have played a part, and the fact that when I am doing my school work for my masters degree I rely heavily on the ease of nursing her to get some work done. I feel grateful that she is my third, and that I know this too shall pass, but the sleep deprivation sure does play a big part in my attitude! So how thrilled am I to open my mail, and find this amazing magazine, to bring me back to centre, and to focus on this short window of time that is her life. I am in tears reading Letting Go, and then again at the reality that YOUR little baby is submitting recipes, wonderful recipes, for the magazine her mother has gifted to the world. Please tell Eliza, by the way, that I am so glad to have her version of Green Goddess Dressing ~ one of my all time favourites! I feel so blessed by you in my life, and although our connection is based on one afternoon, I feel as though you have been a part of who I am for so much longer. Thank you for that treasure in my heart. 

You will laugh to know that Scott and I do not get our children gifts from us, unless it is something really special. I found the most fantastic bright pink tutu that I knew my girl would love, and tucked it away in my closet. Don't you know that the week before Christmas, she came bounding down the hallway thrilled to show me her ensemble ~ her clothes topped with the tutu. While she does not get the idea that she found something hidden, her delight was better than I could have asked for. The fact that she found it, put it on, and was so happy at that moment, meant the world, and was her focus ~ adorable!

With much love,
Kim
USA

Just read The Mother and feel in a position to get to the end of the Winter!
S.

I am finally renewing my subscription. I would like to continue from the last wonderful issue that I received, which was TM30.

Thank you so much for your delicious publication. I am a newly beginning homebirth midwife and family health advocate in Australia, as well as being woman, sister, daughter, partner and future mother. It is well known that times have become financially lean, and one of the blessings of such times is the clarity that is realised regarding what really matters in life. I hold many wonderful subscriptions supportive of my life's work and passion, yet it is TM that nourishes my wholeness in its entirety. It is TM that will be renewed again and again. TM is a wise friend, a clear true voice, warm and knowing: a welcome reminder of what is real and what truly matters in this world.

Many blessings and thanks to Veronika and all who make it happen.
Love,
Melody Bourne
Australia

I LOVE your beautiful magazine! I have eagerly devoured my first year's worth (I can't imagine not knowing what I know now as a result!!), and I am looking forward to the next year, especially as I am hoping to become a mother very soon.
I really feel like The Mother magazine has been like a guardian angel in my journey into conscious conception. Thank you so much for all that you do, and to all your writers.

Blessings and love, Laura

Like all those other readers, I always look forward to The Mother dropping through the letter box, and I have to hide it, to prevent myself from reading it cover to cover!

Peace,
Suzanne

Thank you so much for helping me with raising my child.

Thank you,
Kate.
Poland

Dear Veronika,

We arrived back to snowy and chilly Poland (-21 degrees Celsius!!) to be greeted warmly by TM32!

Again, articles in this issue touched me deeply, and stirred great waves of gratitude in me to be a mother. I feel so blessed.

Our time in England was full ~ too full, and many people were missed in our whistle-stop visit. We started the new year in the most perfect way with a walk up Blencathra to watch the sunrise. (I even sleep more beautifully in the Lakes). Oh I miss living in Penrith! It was great to be back.

Well, the wee one is blissfully snoozing with her Daddy, and I am itching to join them, so I write no more for now other than to share with you how deeply I am enjoying motherhood, and how thankful I am that there is a community of mothers and fathers who share this joy (with all its challenges) through The Mother and its related online forum. As I said, I feel truly blessed!

With thanks for TM32 (love the Mothers Rock!).
All the love
Amanda
Poland

To Whom It May Concern,

I have seen that clip on YouTube of the mum with the two children who drew pictures of breastfeeding, and who breastfed until 7 (almost 8). I've seen it many times.

The first time I saw it, I was shocked. Even a little uncomfortable. It made me question WHY I was uncomfortable. There was a time when I thought any child who could ask for it was too old. I know ~ an arbitrary idea. I have questioned that, and since discarded it. So going from a comfort level of six months, to finally 2 1/2 years (that's when we stopped breastfeeding), was a long way. I saw this clip, and it challenged me again. It made me think. It made me research. It made me sad I'd not breastfed longer.

I was recently given this page to look at: http://www.themothermagazine.co.uk/mail.html

I was so sad that the mother had to endure such treatment at the hands of the media, so that is why I am writing. I saw the clip ~ with all the flaws ~ with all the cuts that tried to make it look weird. And I saw a happy mum, well-adjusted kids and a happy dad. I saw a biased media (although I had no idea HOW biased), and regardless, it was inspiring. For all the flaws they made, the beauty and strength shone through, and it was wonderful.

I remember thinking how gutsy it was for her to be shown on tv, and let her kids be shown. I imagine she's received much negative attention. So I am writing this to say thank you to that mom. Thank you for showing it. It helped me open my mind and my views. I hope that maybe your magazine can forward this to the mum in the story, so she knows she was appreciated.

Sincerely,

Debra Scott
Director greenmom www.greenmom.ca
communications director active kids club www.activekidsclub.com
Canada

Ed’s note: Thank you Debra. The family in question is mine.

Please could you thank Bethany and Eliza for their artwork and recipes in TM. I love Bethany's pictures, she is so talented, and Eliza's recipes are being copied out into a hand-made cookbook for me to keep in the kitchen :) 

Love, Gina

Really enjoyed the latest Mother magazine ~ especially Liz Pilley’s article. Lovely start to January. I wondered if you’d mind publishing my email address in The Mother? I would like to find other like-minded families nearby (St. Albans, Herts), especially those interested in non-vax, homeopathy, home school, Elimination Communication, and the like. Thanks very much! Any chance of a Mother camp this year?

Much love and light,
Emma

Ed: We have been on the lookout for the perfect piece of land on which to have a Mother magazine camp. Please see our back page for details of this year’s camp.

I am absolutely loving the magazine ~ it's full of inspirational, and indeed, motivational stuff. I never thought I would be breastfeeding my 15 month son at this age, but am fully loving it, and have no plans to stop anytime soon.
Fran 

You have an interesting magazine with a lot of thoughtful writers! I have enjoyed reading it.  

Best of luck, Henry. USA

Thank you for your ongoing support and encouragement on this most amazing path of parenting.

In gratitude, Heidi

Hi, Veronika.

Wow! You made my heart so warm and happy this morning! Received the two packages with so many thanks! I normally drink a lot of Japanese Tea (me being a Japanese girl!) and herb tea, and saw your starflower tea and have been meaning to try it out for a long time, and it did not disappoint me at all. The tea was excellent and so was the essence. Also thank you for the message to my friend, I am sure she will enjoy the gift pack.

Best regards
Lots of happiness & love from
Mari & Phoenie

I really enjoy and am inspired by your magazine.

Hope,
Australia

I just wanted to let your Cumbria, UK, readers know about a new holistic service I’m running in Carlisle, providing a homeopathic approach to fertility, pregnancy, childbirth and early years health care. It offers individually tailored treatment for pre-conception health and fertility, pregnancy support consultations and programmes, homeopathic remedy kits for home use in pregnancy, labour and early years, and post-natal consultations for parents and children.

Advice is also available on diet and nutritional supplements, books and further information, visualisation and relaxation, using other complementary therapies alongside, and birthing choices. The aim of the service is to make sure parents have the best possible chances of conceiving, maintaining a healthy pregnancy, having a positive, natural birthing experience, and supporting themselves and their baby as they grow. More information is available at http://www.newpathhomeopathy.com

Many thanks and all best wishes,
Janine Whitfield, Registered Homeopath
Carlisle

In the mailbag of TM32 - 2009

Just a short note to thank you both for the wonderful presentation that you gave in Appleton recently. I missed most of the questions at the end, as my cousin and I had to get back for small people ~ sorry, would have loved to have stayed.

I feel totally in debt for the wonderful work you are doing, especially as you are no longer breastfeeding ~ thank you once again. I also went away (having shed some tears during the initial part of the presentation) feeling that those images and captions should be on constant play/view in maternity waiting rooms; they were amazingly honest, to the point, and thought provoking ~ just perfect! I know you said you may not do such presentations again, but if you change your mind, please let me know.

With much love, Kim

-

It was great meeting you and your family at the talk in Oxford. I love getting The Mother magazine every other month, so thank you. Keep up the good work! Love and best wishes, Kathryn

Just received TM31 ~ looks great. Sitting down for 'chair booba', and a good old read as it howls outside. Perfect, thank you!
Love,

Hils xxx

-

The Mother magazine is just oozing with the potential of empowered choice and joy. I love that it’s about so much more than what is just written! The very resonance of the magazine vibrates with passion, love, dream and intention. Ruth xxx

-

We love your family, and thank you for sharing so much and so passionately in the public sphere ~ it's so courageous, generous and inspiring.

The YouTube clips of Extraordinary Breastfeeding seemed to have been put up, initially, by detractors ~ but I thank them, too, because it led our family to search for more information, and to seek out your perspective on life and living well and ethically in this world. We are very grateful.

And just when I thought I could not possibly discover any new avenues of spirituality, the prayer in the clip led me to find out more.

Thank you again from your fans, currently breastfeeding a 17 month old baby ~ oh, and our baby loves watching the Extraordinary Breastfeeding clips. He stays captivated for the whole eight minutes of it! : -) Angie

-

I couldn't do without my subscription and back issues of The Mother. When I'm having a really bad parenting day, and feel like the worst mother in existence, reading The Mother does seem to help. One of these days I'll get around to sending in some photos and writing about our nightmare start to breastfeeding. Luckily I had the support of a fantastic husband and the brilliant breastfeeding co-ordinator at our local hospital, so at three, (my son) is in no hurry to stop.

Best wishes, and thanks for producing such a fantastic magazine.
Michelle

-

I wanted to say "please keep the articles about vaccines". Yes, it is grim and depressing, but it is better to be informed than sorry. I was never vaccinated in my whole life (thank you, mum!), and I chose to come and live in the UK because in my country (France) your child can end up in Social Services if it is discovered s/he is not vaccinated. So thank you, and keep up the good work!
Lots of love,
Fanny

-

Hi Veronika,

Thanks for another great Mother mag this week ~ treasured in those late night moments, when I know I can stay up just another half hour while everyone's asleep, and lean with it into my dimly-lit lamp at the side of the bed.

Starflower tea is going down a treat with me and the little 'un. She is still saying no to solids (phew), but waits for her tea every morning. I particularly like giving it to her because she's called Savannah Star! And I like the fact that her first 'non-breastmilk' food has come from you, too.

Sending lots of love to you and your lovely family. I loved Paul's piece (Enneagram of Parenting).

Nikki

-

I would like to thank you for a wonderful magazine, especially your article on Insufficient Milk Syndrome, which was just brilliant!

With warmest regards,

Blanka

-

I was absolutely delighted to receive the extra copies of The Mother. It is a real honour to be on the cover of my favourite magazine, and how fitting that it snowed within a few days of it
arriving! Many thanks. Love from,
Charlotte x

-

We now live nearer to our sheep field, and have a bigger garden for veggies, chickens and kids. Woodburner coming soon... Very happy with 1920s smaller house, now we are out of our modern, overlooked housing estate.

Thanks for the magazine. I find myself carrying it around to show people ~ especially the Becoming a mother article. It’s so positive, and true as well ~ same old thing: 'I wish I had known' before I had the children! I was expecting things to get 'back to normal' after I had Emily, and I'm glad it never did, but it was a struggle at the time.

I have had some great conversations with my friends about the shock of becoming a mother, and the positive changes wrought ~ especially a shift from being self-centred! I think the women who have opened up to their children also open up to the world, and can't help becoming environmentally aware as well.

I think we women are brought up (in school) expecting to 'have it all', and if you work hard and get qualified you can have a man's career, and that is what we should want ~ with kids a shared 'project' on the sidelines. This totally ignores and undervalues being a woman and mother and child. I tried to explain it to my sister when she was pregnant ~ but I don't think I succeeded, as she still found new motherhood something she was completely unprepared for emotionally. I wonder if I can photocopy this article for a friend who teaches NCT antenatal classes? Maybe it would get more women finding your magazine and opening up to the non-mainstream? Thanks again for all the encouragement to follow a less popular path. The Home Ed is going well, and my twin boys are still breastfeeding twice a day, age 4.5.

Love,

Caroline x

Ed’s note: Articles can be freely photocopied if they include the magazine’s contact details and publication date/issue no. at the bottom of the page.

-

I'm really enjoying the latest Mother magazine, and have posted a copy of the article on miscarriage to my sister, who has recently been through this. I also loved the article on Becoming a mother. I know it's my third time, but it helps to focus again on the all-important first year.

Much love,
Julia

-

I just want you to know that you are truly an inspiration to me! I started reading your magazine when I lived in New Zealand, where my daughter, Kayla, was born almost five years ago. I was new to parenting then, and actually found it hard to "digest" what I was reading ~ it was all so foreign to me. But as the years have progressed, I've found my life and values paralleling yours/your magazine almost completely. I founded an attachment parenting group when I lived in the Los Angeles area, which is now almost up to 250 moms, and I now have a blog where I write about my day-to-day family adventures. In fact, I just posted a piece where I shared something from TM24.

I want to share with you that over the years you have inspired me and given me strength. There have been times where I thought I was going bonkers, because I was so far off the spectrum of what I witnessed as "normal" that I started questioning myself. But then, without fail, I would get your magazine, and there would be an article, or an editorial from you, that knocked some sense back into me and helped me realise that I'm not crazy; but rather, I'm doing what's best for my daughter and I'm being guided by a perfectly innate sense of mothering. Just knowing that I wasn't the only one doing things the way I do things, helped me forge ahead with confidence and grace. So thank you from the bottom of my heart.

If you're interested, you can check out what I just posted on my blog: http://www.soulflites.blogspot.com/

Blessings,
Kristen

-

I loved your Wooden Pegs editorial in the last TM issue! Just to let you know we have moved. We are in Maraetai, a beautiful little paradise on the other side of Auckland.

Do you have any recommendations for teaching discipline, especially at the dinner table? I'm already having trouble and my daughter is not even one yet (although she will be next week).

Thank you again for your amazing, inspiring magazine!

Kindest regards,

Stacey

Ed’s note: As with any expectation we have for our children’s manners and/or behaviour, it begins with how we model behaviour ourselves. A one year old has no concept of what is expected of her at the dinner table. Over the next few years, she will learn what is expected in your family. Let her learn it in a space and place of love, rather than fear.

-

I am in the middle of reading the latest issue of The Mother, and I loved reading about the benefits of breastfeeding in the Insufficient Milk Syndrome article. I was also intrigued by your mention of sexual energy being beautiful, deeply inspiring and creative, rather than it being shameful. I would be keen to read more about this, and whether there is anything I can do to promote this to my daughters.

Thank you for my Starflower tea and essence, which I received a few days ago. I felt offended by a comment made a few weeks ago, and lo and behold, upon taking the essence, after the first night and first morning, I suddenly saw that the comment was nothing personal. Credit to the essence?

I was very interested in the Omega 3 article. I've been keen to find out for some time if heated/processed omega 6 essential fatty acids still need to be balanced with omega 3 essential fatty acids, since heating/processing will cause damage to the fatty acid. Does it have any essential fatty acid value? Thanks again,

Linda

PS. It was also your daughter’s beautiful and amazing drawings in The Mother which had inspired me to ask for more info on how to promote sexuality to my daughters in positive terms.

Ed’s note: There are many resources on sacred sexuality. You might enjoy books on the Tao of women’s sexuality.

Sexuality is as innate and natural to humans as is breathing, eating and sleeping. For some reason, many of us in this culture have been taught to be afraid of sex and sexual energy, and we pass this phobia on to our children. This usually begins quite young, when children naturally start exploring their bodies. Refrain from insisting that they don’t touch themselves, or from saying things such as ‘Don’t touch yourself there, it’s dirty.’ The shame we inflict on toddlers when they freely play with their own genitals stays with them for life.

****

All essential fatty acids are destroyed by heat.

-

Dear Veronika,

I'm happy to share with you that by now the consensus has emerged at my wife's place (her parents and grandma), that we shall not have any jabs for this baby. Earlier, with some difficulty, I managed to get hold of a small book (in Kannada, the local language), explaining this whole truth about vaccines. This booklet has not just generated a lot of amazement at my wife's place, but even created a sensation in her home town. Some people even told my mother-in-law that they will visit my wife to discuss some of these things for further clarification.

During this process, some more things came to light: at least three of my wife's relatives, who were medical doctors themselves, knew this truth about the futility of vaccines, and decided not to jab their kids. This was some 20-30 years ago.

Somehow, the campaign against vaccines never picked up here in India.

I'd been pressing my wife even before she got pregnant that we should not go for jabs; I'm now relieved that it will be so. There was so much help and support from all the literature, including your blog.

As for breastfeeding, that’s the culture here in my country. Those who are unable to breastfeed, for whatever reason, are considered the less fortunate ones.

Best regards,
Deepak

-

As of yesterday, I am the very happy owner of your 31st issue of The Mother. I home-birthed, I nursed toddlers, I still am an "attached" parent (though my almost sixteen year-old son sometimes denies such "charges"; his siblings merely ignore me), I supported community based agriculture, and I studied herbal medicine under Susun Weed. In short, a publication like yours is ever so yummy to me (amazing that a "word person" is reduced to simple communications when moved). I can't wait to read it cover to cover. Thank-you sooooo much for letting me be one of your writers!

Love, Channie (Israel)

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Have just finished reading the magazine ~ it’s fantastic! Especially enjoyed the articles on breastfeeding (the Breastfeeding Bill thoughts, the milk let-down), Hypnobirthing and the personality types. That article reminded me of the book The Instruction by Ainslie McLeod. It was discussed on Oprah’s Soul Series recently, and talks about personality types in a very similar way. With love,

Katharina

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I have written to say a huge thank you for publishing Sara Simon's moving piece on miscarriage. Never before (and I have read a huge amount of material) have I come across an article which so accurately reflects how I feel about my baby who died at not much older than Sara's.

What a beautiful place for Eve to be buried. With best wishes,
Vicki William

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