Sustainable Ethical Maternity & Baby Gear 2023.

Posted byElaine ButlerPosted inKidsTags:, , , , ,
baby grabbing it's feet

If you’re pregnant or have just had your first baby, congratulations. It is a very exciting time in the life of new parents and their families. It’s also a very confusing time and often there seems to be far too much advice and very little practical help. For this reason I decided only take advice from someone who offered to babysit, clean, or cook for us. If someone wasn’t willing to do this I turned a deaf ear.

Nothing mentioned in this article has been sponsored. It’s all just my own personal opinion. If you like your sources to remain independent then please;
share this article, or
buy me a coffee on Ko-fi, or
make a one-time donation via Paypal

I hated being a parent to young children, hated it beyond any expectation. I’m mentioning this so that if you’re not full of a warm fuzzy glow in the early years you know it’s not you’re not alone. Parenting doesn’t really suit my personality. I’m an A type. I like order, getting things done, doing things to extremely high standard. This doesn’t suit parenting at all. I have learned the hard way that seeking order and having parenting goals is a recipe for mental illness. Kids have their own little personalities and will march to their own beat. I have very little influence over this. All I can do is try and keep them clean and fed on their march and steer them clear of any life-threatening dangers. The term ‘herding cats’ comes to mind.

Anyway enough of the parenting advice, after all I haven’t even offered to babysit, clean or cook. This article is really about where to get maternity and baby bits and pieces. Given the busy-ness of being a new parent, I thought it wise to collate all this information into one article. I’ve previously published about Sustainable Ethical clothing Kids Clothing so check that out too, and if you haven’t already done so read my article on What you don’t need to buy for Baby.  You may also like this article by The Green Canuck on Minimalist Baby Prep. Honestly your baby will be much more grateful if you invest your money in well-being activities instead of accumulating a huge collection of shop-bought baby paraphernalia, that you’ll be constantly tripping over, only to re-home it in the near future. On the Zero Waste Ireland group I saw a great suggestion on an alternative to physical gifts; vouchers for food, or a cleaner, or even a doula! A god send when you’re exhausted from parenting.

Alternatively they could get you a voucher for rental stores / sites (see below) where you can hire a buggy or smart sleeper, or buy lots of items second-hand.

Nappies and Wipes
I’m giving a special mention to these bad boys because they’re the one area of parenting where you really can make a huge impact environmentally. I don’t want to guilt anyone away from disposables, especially if you’re feeling overwhelmed as it is. Just do a bit of reading, do a bit of thinking and then make a decision that you think will work for you and your family.

Wipes
Most wipes, even Water Wipes, are made from plastic and cellulose and so are not biodegradable or compostable and will end up in landfill or incineration. I haven’t been able to source compostable wipes but have seen biodegradable baby wipes on the market. I have huge reservations about biodegradable plastic and don’t trust the instruction to put these wipes in the compost bin. Even if they are compostable, which I doubt, I’m not sure the waste collection companies would be happy to have human excrement in the brown bins. The most sustainable option is to reuse cloths that you wash with cloth nappies. You can buy resuable wipes that you come with waterproof storage containers. Alternatively use toilet paper that you flush down the toilet.

Nappies
Disposable – I have to admit to using disposable nappies when my kids were babies. I did use biodegradable nappies for a while but pay cuts during the recession put an end to them. I now know that reusable is far more sustainable than disposable, even if the disposable is biodegradable, but when my kids were babies I had no notion that reusable cloth nappies existed so I missed the boat on that one. Irish company Eco Nappies says that their nappies can go into commercial composting systems in Ireland but that you’ll need to check with your waste collection company if you’re allowed to put them in your brown bin.

If you’re unsure about cloth nappies you can give them a trial and borrow a set from The Cloth Nappy Library and if you do decide to take the plunge you can get cloth nappies second-hand at

You can also learn all about cloth nappies on the Cloth Libraries website or in the Cloth Nappy Chat Facebook Group

You can also borrow babyslings in the group Babywearing FSOT Facebook group

Other great sources of second-hand maternity & baby gear include;

For any bits that you can’t borrow or source pre-loved. Here are some e-tailers of sustainable ethical maternity and baby goods.

And some e-tailers specialise in reusable cloth nappies and the hire of fabric slings.

In addition to these companies some kids clothing brands also sell a few baby related items like bibs and blankets, including.

There are also a few general eco e-tailers selling some maternity and baby related items, including.

You might be also interested in these two eco maternity clothing brands

Swedish maternity clothing company Boob is certified as organic by the label GOTS. They use organic cotton and wool, close-loop rayon like Tencel or Modal, and GRS certified recycled polyester, recycled polyamide and recycled elastane. They also make a point of designing offcuts into new garments. They offer a rental service and a recycling service for clothes at the end of their life. Information on all the factories they use is available on their website.

Isabella Oliver is a UK based B-corp and a living wage employer making maternity clothing from organic cotton and close-loop rayon like Lenzing™ EcoVero™ and Tencel. They have a rental service and sell preloved clothing on their website and use biodegradable packaging. They’re members of The Fashion Pact, United Nations Fashion Charter, The Sustainable Apparel Coalition and the Carbon Disclosure Project, and they donate a portion of their sales to profit. Also they don’t photoshop their ads!

E

PS – This time in previous years I’ve published on Paper Hallowe’en Masks for Adults and How to Choose the Best Reusable Coffee Cup

Published by Elaine Butler

I am a circular design consultant helping manfacturers prepare for the circular economy

2 thoughts on “Sustainable Ethical Maternity & Baby Gear 2023.”

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

%d bloggers like this: