In case you missed it on Monday, click here to read part one of the review of the book Raising Baby Green: The Earth-Friendly Guide to Pregnancy, Childbirth, and Baby Care. This book gave me so much material to rant about, I broke it up into two parts. If you’re ready for another dose, here’s part two.
What’s next? Oh, yes. Fucking bottled water. I’m still in the 1st chapter of the book here – the one on pregnancy. You’re “Drinking for Two”, so the book recommends that you check the labels on your bottled water or filter your tap water. Wait, bottled water? What? Isn’t this supposed to be a book about being “green”? Why is it recommending bottled water at all? I quickly turned the page, hoping to see a condemnation of bottled water…and I found one. Apparently, you might want to avoid plastic bottles with BPAs. Choose bottles with these recycling codes rather than those recycling codes. No mention anywhere of bottled water as a wasteful disposable product, the corporatization of a local resource (sometimes to really creepy ends), all the other reasons not to drink bottled water, or that it’s just stupid. This is a huge fail that basically says to me that this book isn’t green at all. Period.
Chapter Two was all about giving birth, so I mostly skipped it. I won’t be in a hospital for my birth (probably), so almost none of this chapter would directly apply to me. Besides, this book was already getting tedious.
I hopped over to Chapter Three, which is simply called “The Nursery”, at which point I burst out laughing. And this “review” is almost done, because that’s about as far as I could manage to read.
There are two problems with a chapter called “The Nursery” in a book about greening your baby. First, having a nursery is inherently consumer-driven and is inherently un-green. In order to have what’s called a nursery, you need an entirely separate room in your house. You need “room things” like a chair, a dresser, lighting. You’ll probably get window treatments. You might hang art on the walls. You’re going to put a baby in there, so you buy a special “baby bed” when you’ve got perfectly functional beds elsewhere in the house that would easily fit a baby. The baby’s going to be alone, so you need music-players and heart-beat-sound-makers and monitors and snuggly toys. It’s a ridiculously expensive, anti-green endeavor.
The second problem is the whole concept of a place you leave your baby alone is alien to the philosophy in which “being green” exists for me. I know that there are people out there who want to be environmentally conscious who are otherwise “normal” (the targets of this book, apparently). I’m just not one of them, and so at this chapter, I put the book away.
There’s one more thing I want to bitch about first, though. I left this for last because it’s not just one sentence or section. Something that permeated all of the advice in this book was it’s ignorance (or avoidance) of the fact that people exist at different economic statuses. This book seemed to assume that money isn’t a factor for anyone. And this, more than anything else, highlights that this book is only for a very narrow set of readers.
When talking about lactation consultants, the book says they are sometimes provided by the center or hospital where you give birth, but if not, “you can hire a private one.” There’s no mention that the price of a lactation consultant can run you $50-$100 an hour. And no suggestion to check with your local WIC office or La Leche League for cheaper (or free) assistance.
The book recommends organic cloth diapers, organic linens and blankets, and organic clothing for baby with no mention of the fact that all of these items can be significantly more expensive than non-organics. No mention of alternate buying options, like thrift stores or used cloth diaper websites.
And the most grievous omission of personal finances comes when talking about organic foods. The book says, “Let’s all pull together,” to buy organic foods. All? I don’t think it means all, when there’s not even a passing mention of the increased cost of organic foods. And unlike a one- or two-time lactation consultant or the clothes and diapers you could find used, organic foods are hard to save on and buying food happens over and over forever.
Anyone who’s looked at conventional and organic foods in a grocery store knows that organics are more expensive. And plenty of articles and books on organics make room to discuss the price and the struggles people have to buy organic. So why doesn’t this book bother? My guess is just that this book isn’t written for those people. This book assumes that “green” means you can buy your way into greener choices. And that’s not very green.
In order for a movement to succeed, it needs to be accessible to as many people as possible. In order for a message to resonate with a population, it needs to focus on the different people in that population. Also, have a little faith that your movement can be accessible to everyone. If you think your philosophy can only be attained by a few, you’re not putting a lot of stock in your own ideas are you?
And at the very least, “green” needs to mean something other than “money”. Ideologically, money means more, faster, higher, farther, better, and all of these things are the antithesis of sustainability and environmental awareness.
I’m really glad I didn’t buy this book, but I am glad to have gotten some green ranting off my chest. I hesitate to give this book just one star, because some people out there are in a position to put in new expensive, organic flooring just because they’re having a baby. If you’re one of those people, great, buy this book.
But, in short, I think this book sucked. I don’t think it has anything to do with benefiting ourselves and our environment. I think it is just about trendy stuff to buy.
TWO STARS – Raising Baby Green: The Earth-Friendly Guide to Pregnancy, Childbirth, and Baby Care by Alan Green, M.D. with Jeanette Pavini & Theresa Foy DiGeronimo
Read Issa’s Reviews: Raising Baby Green Part Two on LoveLiveGrow and leave your comments.