Thursday, May 24, 2012

Embracing Fertility

My much-anticipated package of toothpaste ingredients arrived the other day, but the most interesting thing in it had nothing to do with homemade toothpaste.  It was a catalog with a gorgeous photo of an adorable baby, cunningly dressed, with the headline "Making Babies".

"Whew!" I thought.  "Now that's one way to get consumers to open your catalog!"

Of course, "Making Babies" is not about sex.  From what I could discern from quickly reading the sales blurb and watching the YouTube commercial, it teaches women how to eat and take care of themselves in a way that is optimal for having a baby with lifelong health.  This is the hard core approach, the traditional foods method, eating densely nutritious food like grassfed beef liver, fermented cod liver oil and pastured butter.  It is definitely not What to Expect When You're Expecting.  I'm sure it probably covers what the man needs to do as well.   Eating for fertility seems to be the latest hot topic in the health world.  I've seen several health gurus marketing such products.  Another one that comes to mind is Chris Kresser's "Healthy Baby Code".   I think it's great but also a little sad.  Clearly, our culture no longer knows how to "make babies" and needs remedial coursework.  For a long time we have denigrated the role of the nurturing mother.  We protect by law those who kill babies in the womb.  So these new educational products make an important statement.  A small segment of our culture is beginning to value procreation.  This is not to say that they are embracing having large families, but I believe that once a husband and wife make the commitment and the sacrifice necessary to have a truly healthy baby, their whole value system will be righted.  They will be awed by God's plan, whether they believe in it or not.  They will be so blessed by this new life, they will want to do it all over again.  Maybe they will even come to the conclusion that Emma did when she gazed rapturously at the photo of the baby on the catalog:


"Making babies is my favorite thing!"