Hey friends! I’ve had so many questions after my second zero waste pregnancy, that I thought I’d round them all up by category. I’ve also had questions for our home birth story and natural birth tips which will be coming soon. In the meantime, let’s start from the beginning…
Prenatal Supplements
I have an entire post here about what I look for in a prenatal supplement as well as my recipe for a multi-vitamin tincture that’s nourishing during any stage of life.
Pregnancy Test
Have you ever seen those memes or commercials where they compare baby #1 and baby #2? It starts from the first second you suspect that you are pregnant. You’ll want to confirm, and while you may be patient enough to try one of the old school real plastic-free methods listed here, chances are you’d rather take a modern test, and I did too. This is where the difference between baby #1 and every baby after starts, the number of pregnancy tests that you take. With baby #1 I took 3 total. The first (the day of my missed period) was a faint second line and needed additional confirmation, which I got with the second test the next morning. The third was because I couldn’t believe it, lol. With baby #2 I was one week late and took one pregnancy test. My advice would be that until this biodegradable and flushable test is available, either wait a few days after your missed period to avoid a faint line situation, or buy the digital test to avoid taking more than one.
Snacks
This might seem like an odd thing to add but if you suffer from morning sickness or nausea during pregnancy like I do, then having little snacks to settle your stomach will be vital to your survival. I tried to look for things that were easy to find in my bulk section or to make at home like: candied ginger or citrus peel, trail mix, or homemade crackers. I kept these close by, especially on my night stand for first thing in the morning.
Another thing that was really helpful was drinking something carbonated. I really like making ginger beer (you can buy it in glass too), kombucha, or just mineral water with some lemon juice. Something with a little fizz and flavor helped settle my stomach and get rid of that weird taste in my mouth (thanks baby #2).
Toothpaste
Strange as it may be, some women have a hard time brushing their teeth while pregnant. It’s different for everyone but I found that flavor and texture was something that made me gag. A tooth powder like this one was an easy solution. You can also find many DIY recipes for tooth powders too.
Stretch Marks
If you’ve ever been pregnant, you know the dread of feeling that first prickly itch. The only thing you want to do is scratch. “DON’T DO IT!”, you think to yourself. Before you know it, you’re frantically tapping, rubbing, and swirling your hand over the skin on your side belly trying to get some relief without actually scratching. Because scratching dry skin only makes it worse by causing more irritation and damage like stretch marks.
Staying hydrated internally, by drinking water and eating lots of fruits and veggies can have surprising benefits for our skin’s appearance and health. Other preventative measures like using a calming and hydrating cream or body butter daily can help dry skin stay moisturized.Try my DIY Belly and Body Butter Recipe
Maternity Clothing
This is so hard!! There are few affordable brands out there for maternity clothing that are ethically and sustainably made. I had good luck with a few non maternity clothing options for bras and underwear from Boody and Pact, but my best luck came from secondhand shopping. I made sure to pick up a Guppy Friend bag, since I was looking for stretchy clothing and I knew it was likely that I would pick up a synthetic fiber blend to achieve the comfort that I needed. I would say to keep clothing options to a minimum and stick to the basics since you won’t wear them for long anyway. Remember to be kind to yourself too, if you need to buy a new pair of maternity jeans then that’s ok, buy them well made, love them, and make them last.
Check out this post by Eco Worrier Princess for clothing brands that you might like.
And I used this tutorial to convert secondhand jeans into maternity jeans.
And while we’re on the topic of clothing and underthings, you may find yourself in need of a panty liner at some point during pregnancy, I used my regular cloth pads, but you can also find cloth liners if you want something thinner.
Health Care
With two pregnancies and births behind me, I’ve been blessed with beautiful babies who entered the world in two very different ways. Though I saw midwives as part of my natural birth plan with my firstborn, they delivered at the hospital and worked out of an OB practice. He was born via c-section due to malposition (transverse breech). With my second, we had a VBAC home birth with two midwives present.
The amount of trash created was very different. At regular checkup with my home birth midwife, the only trash created was the occasional cup from a urine sample and the alcohol swab used to clean the doppler to check for the heartbeat. I even started bringing my own napkin to clean the jelly from my belly and avoid a tissue. So much more trash was created at the OB/Midwife visits, mostly because of the office sanitation and disinfection polices since they saw many, many patients daily, performed many standard tests for every patients, and had different policies in general.
Birth was very different as you can imagine.
With our home birth I was providing most of what was needed, we used old or secondhand sheets and towels, reusable chucks pads, a washable shower curtain that could be reused instead of thrown away, even meals were planned out in advance with low waste in in mind. As far I as I can remember, we only took out 1 bag of trash. I’ m sure there were single-use only items that were needed and disposed of, but I was happy with the amount of trash we reduced.
With my c-section, of course much more trash was created, and that’s ok. What ever birth you have, the trash does not matter as long as everyone is happy and healthy. This is a time to be gentle to yourself, so do what is best for you and your baby’s health and well-being. If you are staying at a hospital or birth center, there are a few requests that you can make if you are feeling up to it:
- No meals please – Hopefully you will have a short stay. So, consider asking friends or family to bring you meals instead of eating hospital food. You can even have some made up in the freezer, but make sure you have some stocked for once you get home. You may even be able to have some one pick up take out with your own containers.
- No bath please – Babies don’t need a bath right away, in fact the vernix is great for their skin. Skipping a bath means skipping the hotel sized shampoo bottles that the hospital provides.
- Cloth diapers – If your having a short stay, you might be able to swing cloth diapers. Don’t feel bad if you use the disposables while there, again be gentle to yourself.
Looking for more Zero Waste pregnancy resources? Check out my other blog posts:
Wondering what you need for baby? Watch my Zero Waste Newborn Essentials video too.
I’d love to hear your own zero waste pregnancy tips, experiences, advice, and questions. And if you’re expecting, what’s your due date?
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