How to Be An Eco-Conscious Parent Before Your Baby Arrives

Every piece of baby gear I received in preparation for my baby came in boxes within boxes, SO MUCH TAPE, plastic sheaths, and endless amounts of that foam stuff that breaks into a million pieces if you accidentally step on it. After my baby shower and getting home with the gifts that I was grateful for and definitely thought I needed, I was immediately overwhelmed with the amount of clean-up that was required after assembling the swings, chairs, bouncers, and baby toys. I stacked the flattened cardboard boxes in one pile, and filled another two garbage bags with the plastic wrappings and foamy bits, and I remember thinking to myself “THIS IS SO MUCH TRASH”... because it was.

And that’s just from boxing and shipping the baby gear to my house. It doesn’t even include the actual materials used to make the baby gear. Sure, there are companies out there who create baby gear with sustainable and recycled materials– and that’s wonderful. But typically the materials in the products and packaging of big box store baby gear will end up in a landfill. These are the same box stores that are putting out lists of hundreds of “essential” or “necessary” items for a newborn baby. Hundreds of items, hundreds of boxes, and hundreds of millions of broken foam pieces. 

With the Be Her Village Registry, parents are registering for support services– doulas, lactation consultants, prenatal massages, pelvic floor therapy, maternal mental health support and anything else they want. So not only will new parents have the support they need as they head into newborn land, they’ll also save themselves and the Earth from the mountain of boxes and plastic because it would be unethical to wrap up a doula and ship her across the country.

We want to change the way parents get ready for their babies. For the parents, for their babies, and for the Earth.

If you’re expecting, and you want to create a registry that will be both beneficial to you and the Earth, head to BeHerVillage.com.