New Holistic Moms Network Chapter Forms in Riverhead

When Baiting Hollow resident Dawn Betke gave birth to her daughter, Alexa, at 19, she was a young mother who felt compelled to breastfeed.

She also found herself called to co-sleeping, or letting her baby sleep close to her, as opposed to in a separate room, and baby-wearing -- carrying her child in a sling or carrier rather than pushing her in a stroller.

“I don’t consider myself a mainstream mom,” Betke said. “I wasn’t breastfed, and I had never seen it before, but I did it because I felt it was the right thing to do. I was practicing attachment parenting before I knew what attachment parenting was.” Attachment parenting advocates create strong connections with their children to foster security, experts say.

But having her baby at 19, Betke did not know there were other parents who shared her principles and deep beliefs.

That’s why she was thrilled to find the Holistic Moms Network, a non-profit organization that connects parents interested in holistic health and green living.

“When I was 19, I would have loved to find other moms who were breastfeeding and baby wearing,” Betke said. “I didn’t have that support network.”

After learning about the group, Betke called, only to find the closest chapter was in Lake Grove; she decided to begin her own chapter. The first meeting will be held on May 30 at 6 p.m. at the Riverhead Free Library.

The group will focus on issues such as breastfeeding and positiive discipline, which does not call for time outs. “We don’t believe in time outs,” Betke said. “It’s isolation and it teaches children that our love is conditional, which is not the message we want.”

Betke, a single mom whose daughter Alexa Wilson, 13 and son, Cristian Wilson, is 3, said the new group will also focus on green and sustainable living.

Along with planting a vegetable patch in Riverhead’s community garden, Betke also grocery shops with reusable bags, a practice she hopes takes off in Riverhead as it has in Southampton. “The last year or so, I didn’t feel I was getting stared at when I went grocery shopping with my reusable bags. Maybe people have become a little more aware," she said.

The cornerstones of the Holistic Moms Network, Betke said, are support, education, and community. “They want us to have the power to make a positive difference not only in our children’s lives, but in the community,” she said.

The group will show children, Betke said, that there are other families living similarly and embracing the same principles of holistic and green living. The focus, Betke said, should be on preserving the earth's valuable resources; her son’s toys are made of wood, not plastic, and don’t use batteries.

Word is spreading about the new Holstic Moms Network chapter via a Facebook page. After the May kickoff event, Betke hopes to host a family barbecue and speakers at future meetings.

“I hope by opening this chapter I’ll be able to provide an avenue for people to get together with other like minded parents -- that’s my goal,” Betke said, adding that the chapter will be run with member input. “I have high hopes,” she said. “I really hope the mothers in our community who are living and parenting this way rally, and that we are able to represent something that isn’t mainstream -- but that’s okay. Because it’s definitely a good way of living.”