Have you ever wanted to learn how to wrap your babe’s bottom in an organic cloth diaper? Roll in style with a freshly detailed stroller? Or find out what Clueless mama Alicia Silverstone has to say about taking charge of your motherhood?
All this (including free stroller detailing for the first 100 pre-sale ticket purchasers) can be answered right here in our breastfeeding-friendly city of Long Beach by way of the 2nd Annual Natural and Holistic Baby Expo on September 20, bringing together families and expectant parents who want to learn all they can from natural and holistic practitioners.
Guest speakers will include Dr. Harvey Karp, a nationally-renowned pediatrician and author of The Happiest Baby on the Block and The Happiest Toddler on the Block, and Alicia Silverstone, bestselling author of The Kind Diet and founder of TheKindLife.com.
Although you may know Silverstone from her standout role in Clueless (or, for the more hardcore Silverstone fans, creating the epitome of crazy in The Crush), she is an advocate for empowering women to take charge of their fertility and pregnancy. She will be speaking about her second book, The Kind Mama, and sharing her experience with vegan pregnancy, raising a vegan child and living a kind life.
There will be a book signing for both Karp and Silverstone afterwards.
Perhaps the biggest draw of the expo is the screening of The Milky Way, a documentary expose about breastfeeding in the U.S. with a panel discussion afterward. The movie’s producers, Chantal Molnar and Jennifer Davidson, and breastfeeding advocates and experts including Latch and Link Long Beach’s Christine Gibson and Ashley Wright, a breastfeeding and attachment parenting expert, will be present on the panel.
The Milky Way confronts how the biological phenomenon of the nursing mother has all but disappeared in lieu of the over-sexualized breast. Seeing a mother nursing her baby in public elicits a series of mixed reactions as if a mother feeding her newborn could possibly be an act of social defiance. The Milky Way, according to the film description, counters “nearly a century of medical procedures that separated babies from their mothers and medical advice that informed women that their milk was not good enough, The Milky Way captures how mothers can access their inner knowledge and trust their own body’s wisdom, and why they should.”
A Nursing Lounge, Cloth Diaper and Babywearing Learning Centers, Eco Kids Area with Music and Entertainment, Free Massages for Mamas, Babywearing Ballet and Yoga mini classes and an Attachment Parent bookstore will be present for expo goers throughout the day. NAHBE will also handing out gift bags to the first 500 attendees that are filled with products and coupons from Whole Foods, Weleda, Motherlove, Fairhaven Health, Traditional Medicinals, Anna’s Naturals, Rockin Green, Happy Family Organic Superfoods, Three Lollies, Water Wipes and Belly Bandit to name just a few.
The Natural and Holistic Baby Expo will take place at the Renaissance Hotel in Downtown Long Beach, located at 111 E. Ocean Blvd., on September 20 from 9:00AM to 5:00PM. For more information and to purchase tickets for the expo click here. Tickets purchased in advance will include a free raffle ticket.