Made (proudly) in China: Earth, Mom, and Baby launches from Edmonton
In the wake of product recalls and the local shopping movement, discerning parents are increasingly avoiding baby items that were made in China. Are you among them? We were, too, until we learned about Earth, Mom, and Baby. Launched by renowned Edmonton midwife Noreen Walker and her daughter Katherine, this company has not only found new ways to address cloth diapering, breastfeeding, and babywearing, but it has done so with an overseas manufacturer that will have you reconsidering what it means when a label says, Made in China.
First up, the products. If you’re at all like Katherine was as a new mom, you’ve been frustrated by the presence of polyester in your cloth diapers. It’s there for a reason, of course: polyester offers strength against repeated washings, which is crucial for any cloth-diapering system. But Katherine knew there had to be a natural alternative, and she says the idea of silk came to her “like an epiphany.” Mixing silk with bamboo has resulted in the Bumboo, or what might just be the perfect cloth diaper: absorbent, trim, soft, strong, renewable, biodegradable, and stock-your-drawers affordable.
Diapers, however, are just the beginning. Need a nursing top that doesn’t look like a nursing top? That will let you breastfeed discreetly without a nursing cover? That will fit and flatter both immediately postpartum and in the years that follow? That is, above all, ecologically sound? The Pika Bubi is it. We love this shirt for so many reasons, not the least of which being that its popularity expands beyond breastfeeding mothers; you can and will wear this shirt before, during, and after pregnancy. We don’t know of any other nursing shirts that can claim all that.
Earth, Mom, and Baby’s third offering is the Panda Pocket Baby Carrier, a wrap-style carrier that, when not in use, folds completely into itself for easy storage. Not that it’ll ever be not in use, since it’s so comfortable (made, again, with bamboo) for both you and Baby that you’ll be hard pressed to take it off.
But back to the “made in China” bit. Nursing daughter in tow, Katherine made the trip overseas to find a manufacturer that fit with her values; ecologically sound, fairly run, and competitively priced. She got all that and more. Earth, Mom, and Baby’s manufacturer is run by a woman, a single mother and environmentalist whose employees specialize in new and organic fabrics. Free housing is provided for female employees, free daycare is available for their children, and there are solar panels on the roof that run the sewing machines. This manufacturer is at the forefront of what Katherine calls China’s “green movement, [which] is developing with more urgency than I have ever seen before, even in Canada.
These days, Katherine splits her time between Canada and China, both to ensure constant contact with her manufacturer and to expose her daughter to both of her native cultures. And while the little one was the engine that fuelled Katherine’s need for a new diaper, nursing top, and carrier, it was Noreen’s creativity that launched the company in the first place. “She designed the nursing top for me, she sewed my first carrier; and she was constantly making diapers for her granddaughter,” Katherine says. “I loved and needed these things, and other mothers wanted these things. I bring business experience, computer and math skills to the table, [but] my mother's creativity, passion, and talent for design are really the heart of our business. I think we are a really good match.”
We think so, too.
From the January 2010 issue of The Source
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