Natural Parenting in the Digital Age. At the Confluence of Mothering, Religion, Environmentalism and Technology
Postdoctoral research project funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (2012-2017)
The Department for the Study of Religion at the University of Toronto was my main host institution during the completion of this research (2012-2016; with further collaborations), continued at the Université de Fribourg (2016-2017; Sciences des sociétés, des cultures et des religions).
Building on my previous research in the field of gender and religion, I undertook an interdisciplinary investigation into the phenomenon of “natural parenting,” emphasizing its contemporary manifestations in material and digital realms. I engaged with multiple theoretical and methodological frameworks, including religious studies, anthropology, discourse analysis, media studies, motherhood studies, gender studies, and food studies. This interdisciplinary approach facilitated a comprehensive analysis, enhancing our understanding of a parenting philosophy that has gained increasing popularity and media attention in recent years.
For the purposes of this study, I defined natural parenting as a complex set of representations, discourses, and practices that encompass fertility, contraception, pregnancy, childbirth, breastfeeding, parenting, education, nutrition, health, ethics, and related subjects at the intersection of motherhood and LOHAS (lifestyles of health and sustainability) or LOVOS (lifestyles of voluntary simplicity).
Notably distinct from the closely related concept of “attachment parenting” (often constitutive of the work of “mamans nature“), natural parenting is characterized by a persistent discourse valuing “Nature” in its various forms, including the environment, the planet, and the maternal body.
In this context, my research also contributed to the field of “dark green religion” by highlighting how many parents view certain environmentalist discourses and practices as a worldview and, at times, even as a form of spirituality. The study also documented how mothers and fathers who practice natural parenting engage with medical technologies (genetic testing, ultrasound, epidural, immunization), communication technologies (websites, blogs, forums, social media), and food technologies (production and consumption of GMO vs organic food, etc.).
By focusing on francophone informants (mostly from France, Switzerland, Belgium and Canada), my work introduced a unique comparative dimension to the field of motherhood studies. Natural parenting has evolved differently in francophone European contexts compared to its predominantly North American context of emergence. Parents articulate their choices in culturally specific ways, often under the pressure of marginalization or caricature by mainstream media, particularly in the case of practices like planned homebirths.
Leveraging my expertise as a scholar of religions, I delved explicitly into the ritual and spiritual aspects of natural mothering and of parenting, with a strong interest in comparing historical and emerging forms of ritualization that center on women’s bodies. I documented and analyzed traditional and contemporary rituals associated with pregnancy, childbirth, and the postpartum period, often outside of conventional medical contexts. Examples of these rituals include baby showers, blessing ways, mother raising ceremonies, gender-reveal party, pregnancy pregnancy and breastfeeding photography, placentophagy, placenta planting or printing, as well as various pregnancy-related objects examined through the lens of material religion, such as belly casts, belly paintings, pregnancy jewelry, bolas, birthing necklaces, push gifts, gender-reveal items, breastfeeding bracelets, and more.
This research project has resulted in multiple publications in peer-reviewed journals and edited volumes, with some of them available in open-access formats.