Natural Mothering

Kimberly McGee's attractive and well-organized site covers many facets of attachment parenting, including natural childbirth, breastfeeding, cloth diapering, co-sleeping, gentle discipline, natural health, and homeschooling. Each of these sections offers warm and sensible personal essays, carefully selected book recommendations, and related links.

The site started as a breastfeeding page, and this section is especially thorough, covering breastfeeding advantages, "getting started", thrush, and extended nursing. A page on tandem nursing is planned.

Sharing her own story in the "Family Bed" section, Kimberly offers a compassionate and persuasive argument for responding to our children's needs in the night as well as the day.

The "Cherry Tree Academy" pages, accessed from the homeschooling section, are a special delight. Son Alexander's pictures are a must-see.

Kimberly offers an eloquent description of attachment parenting:

"Attachment parenting is being attached to your child mentally, physically, emotionally. Attached parents bond with their child early. They get to really know their child, they learn to read their child's cues and they respond to them with empathy. They don't leave their child to cry. They breastfeed their child on demand and practice child-led weaning. They wear their child in slings, infant carriers, hip carriers, or backpacks. They give their child all the closeness he needs to feel secure and loved. They share sleep. They believe in gentle guidance and loving discipline. Finally, they believe in their child's basic and intense need for a full time mother in the first few years of life."

"Natural Mothering" is an excellent site for those new to attachment parenting as as well as for parents wanting a "refresher course".