Paper short abstract:

This paper examines the articulation between "natural parenting" and religion in francophone contexts where choices –especially those of women– motivated by religious convictions are subjected to intense scrutiny and criticism by the mainstream of secular society.

Paper long abstract:

Non-hormonal and non-mechanical family planning, home birth, vaccine hesitancy and home schooling are some of the practices that parents who engage in "natural parenting" sometimes share with religious groups that are often perceived as going against the grain of mainstream parenting, feminist progress, and gender equality in the 21st century. This contribution will examine how mothers who combine "attachment parenting" with a strong environmental awareness while engaging in lifestyles of health and sustainability account for such practices. I will present material gathered through semi-structured interviews conducted between 2012 and 2014 with francophone parents and through several years of cyber-ethnography on a variety of online platforms and social media that allow access to authentic maternal perspectives about natural parenting, its representations, discourses and practices. I will analyze the discursive strategies through which "les mamans nature," with few exceptions, distance themselves from both traditional religious institutions and contemporary movements that have been labeled as "spiritual." In a North American context, some of the practices of natural parenting clearly find their origins in religious/spiritual movements or ideologies, both conservative or progressive. I will show how the articulation between "natural parenting" and religion proves to be a complex one, especially in the context of France where choices -especially those of women- motivated by religious convictions are subjected to intense scrutiny.