I was happily surprised to read the requirements necessary to become a Naturopathic Doctor and Naturopathic Midwife. I was also surprised to hear how few naturopathic midwives there are in Ontario.

Ideally, its wonderful if want-to-be mothers have the opportunity to create ideal preconception and conception conditions. Although I have my doubts about the ability to detoxify the body by cleansing your colon, especially after having heard how things my mother was exposed to could effect my child (or even my child's child).

I also found it hard to accept the line "When both parents are working hard to pay attention to achieving optimal health before conception, the health of both parents is reflected in healthy pregnancies and healthy babies". Yes, I agree that parents have a responsibility to avoid any substance or life style that can be detrimental to the health of the baby, but that line almost blames parents when things go wrong. And things do sometimes go wrong, no matter how hard you work to achieve optimal health, or how healthy you are. Unfortunately, comments like that lead people to believe that all miscarriages, birth defects and any health issues in the baby are directly linked to behavior of the parents. Sometimes the egg just doesn't develop properly and sometimes genetic issues are present that can not be changed prior to conception. Sometimes things just happen and when they do, the parents have enough to deal with, without adding to the problem with guilt for being at fault.