Lunapads

Hi! I’m a 23 year old Canadian living in Southern Indiana with my husband (married Jan. of 2007), and our two puppies. My husband is a Youth Pastor, and I aspire to be a teacher. Hopefully I will be able to finish my schooling and start teaching when we move back to Canada. We are actually praying about moving to Vancouver in the near future! I honestly took finding Lunapads (and the fact that they were based in Vancouver) as a sign that maybe we are supposed to move to Vancouver!

I discovered Lunapads on a fluke, which I also consider a true blessing! My husband and I have been doing our best to go all natural/organic in our life. This included our soap, facial cleaners, lotions, toothpaste, and even deodorant. I do most of my shopping for these things on drugstore.com in the “Natural” section. I frequently surf the site to find new products and read reviews, and I stumbled upon the DivaCup and Lunapads. I had never even heard of reusable ‘feminine’ products, and the thought grossed me out to no end!

However, as I am looking into cloth diapering for the family my husband and I plan to have in the near future, I knew enough to know how good reusable products are for me and for the environment. I was also raised by a mother who is very into alternative, homeopathic/naturopathic living, so I tend to have an open mind when it comes to things other people might think weird. So after some thought and discussion with my husband, I decided I would try the DivaCup Kit with Mini Pantyliners in Cocoa Kaleidoscope. I also decided to order through the Lunapads website (instead of drugstore.com), because the customer service was amazing, because of the $5 off for new customers, and because I got to select my own fabric.

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We came across this video the other day on the BUST magazine site and thought that it was hysterical.  I must say that I love a good pad/tampon ad parody.  Now we just need to be able to offer “vaginal firewall protection” for Lunapads!

We have been blown away by the response to our “Goods4Girls” campaign that we blogged about earlier. Launched less than 2 weeks ago on March 5th, customers have already donated 45 kits (37 pad kits, 8 lunapanties kits) and they keep coming. A number of women donated several kits, including a customer who donated 4 kits and purchased nothing else! We will be sending our monthly donation, along with these 45 kits to Goods4Girls this week.

The campaign recently received some local press here in Vancouver. Our local indie paper “The Georgia Straight” intereviewed Deanna Duke of Goods4Girls and Madeleine for the story (and me in the sidebar commentary). We are so pleased this story is getting some well deserved attention in the media.

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Hey, look! We’ve got a beautiful new blog to match our main website – thanks Lauren!

We had a great time celebrating International Women’s Day at Birthfest here in Vancouver. For me setting up the table was reminiscent of the old days when we used to attend all the local eco and women’s events. Having not attended one in years (our young children keep us busy!) the buzz of getting ready and chatting with other women who we haven’t seen for a while was fun and inspiring. Sandra came later in the day to staff the table so that Madeleine and I could circulate and enjoy the event. It felt like we knew half the people in the room! We feel fortunate to be surrounded by so many entrepreneurial/green/progressive/feminist/family-friendly folks, and would like to tell you about a few of them.

Pomegranate Community Midwives: Not only did these women help me bring Garret into this world, but the women of Pomegranate have been making a powerful impact in the Vancouver birthing community, opening their clinic to a host of wonderful classes and events.

Mama Renew/Dancing Star Birth: Sarah Juliusson, along with Jennifer-Lee Koble are true pioneers in the birthing and mothering community, bringing creative new ways for women to reconnect and empower themselves for birth and beyond. Madeleine and I are looking forward to being part of her Mama Renew sessions next month.

Sandra Vander Schaaf: Sandra is a professional photographer and did pregnancy portraits of Suzanne. Gorgeous work!

Emerging families: Mia Kalef does fabulous healing and educational work around birth.

Mama Goddess Birth Shop: is owned by our friend and supplier Nikiah Seeds. She also now has a wholesale Midwifery supply store online.

Natural Pod: Not only does Natural Pod carry some the most coveted collection of natural and Waldorf inspired toys and items for daily living, but Bridgette, the owner and founder, is an amazing business woman who is creating her own new model of success in the area of eco-business.

Metropolitan Aromatherapy: Deborah Drummond is a dynamic entrepreneur, longtime friend, and creator of Lunablend and Lunabalm.

Baby Buddha: Paula Violi is co-owner of Baby Buddha slings - now available in bamboo!

We look forward to connecting with this vibrant group of women (and more) again next year!

If you haven’t read about the issue (or seen the recent Always commercials) there is an immense problem with girls in developing countries who miss school due to being unable to cope with their menses in a clean and comfortable manner, often resorting to using twigs, tree bark, grass and rags. Always’ answer to this is the Protecting Futures campaign. As discussed in the previous entry, disposables are not a real or sustainable solution to this problem.

Goods 4 Girls is the brainchild of Deanna Duke (known online as eco-blogger Crunchy Chicken), who has taken matters into her own hands by connecting washable pad manufacturers, like us, and their customers, with groups working directly with girls in African nations. Read her original blog post about the disposables donations issue here.

The issue of school girls in Africa has been on our radar for some time. Over the past 5 years, we have been contacted by many amazing women about girls in all parts of the world who need our help. Because we’ve never been able to come up with a practical and reliable solution to connect our efforts with our customers, we have simply been donating pads as requested. To date, we have sent pads to Zimbabwe (on numerous occasions), Kenya, Swaziland, Uganda, Mali, Ecuador and Mexico. We also have a good friend working in several local communities in Africa teaching them how to sew their own Lunapads. So, we know first hand how real this problem is.

Thanks to Deanna, we are supporting Goods 4 Girls in two ways: by sending an initial shipment of Lunapads, nylon purses and Lunapanties to girls Africa and by creating our new Goods 4 Girls Lunapads Kit and Goods 4 Girls Lunapanties Kit so that customers can purchase them for donation.

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ProtectingFutures.com

This is one of two entries about the issue of girls in Africa missing school due to not having menstrual products, including the current Always and Tampax campaign to “donate” disposable pads to girls in Africa. Below is a guest post from Christina Vogel, a customer in Des Moines IA, who eloquently articulates what many of us at Lunapads, as well as our colleagues and customers, have expressed about the campaign. The second entry is about a new organization, Goods 4 Girls, that is working to address this issue in a sustainable way, as well as a new Lunapads Good 4 Girls Kit that customers can donate.

“I also wanted to tell you about a conversation I had over an Always commercial. They showed a young girl in Africa that could not go to school because of her period. They stated that their company sends their products so that girls like her don’t miss out on an education. As I watched this commercial I realized that giving them disposable pads and tampons in an area that does not have sanitation set up is not truly helping their situation. Nor does it truly help empower women by holding them down to a company that they will have to use for the majority of their life. I started to think about your products and how truly helpful they are. They are made with a woman’s needs in mind and are not a continuous buying process. Last but not least they do not require the a sanitation process after use. You can simply wash and reuse. I am currently looking into setting up funding to buy your products and send them to women across the world that need these products to go to school, work, or complete their daily lives, without harming their environment. I once again would like to thank you for your products not only for the ease that they have brought to my life, but the ease that I hope they bring to women all across the world!”

Once again, the local birthing community is gathering for it’s annual celebration of all things related to pregnancy, birthing, babies and parenting. Last year we attended this jam packed event and we’ll be there again with our own table.

Birthfest, organized by our good friend and colleague Sarah Juliusson and my midwives, is a fantastic FREE community festival bringing together local maternity care providers, family-focused businesses and entrepreneurs, and non-profit organizations. Bring the whole family, as there will be entertainment and performers, as well as great items for give away and raffle.

When: Saturday, March 8, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Where: Brittania Community Centre, Gym D

Come early and check it out if you live the in the lower mainland of Vancouver (and don’t forget to stop by to say hello!) I am personally looking forward to spending the day reconnecting with dear friends, colleagues and customers and discussing the film The Business of Being Born (which we LOVED! A must see.)