Wow, mama, is it hot enough for you? We're in the middle of a rare heat wave here at EMAB HQ, and the place looks like a butterfly sanctuary, what with all the warehouse mamas flapping colorful fans and sipping nectar, or in this case iced Organic Peaceful Mama Tea! We're keeping our cool, and keeping on with our beautiful, comforting business. We've got some special summer deals to help breastfeeding mamas, the winners of our What's Your Score Challenge, and a great new resource to help women avoid the Booby Traps of breastfeeding!

The First Zero Pregnancy and Baby Care Line!
Every Earth Mama Angel Baby products rates a 0 for toxins on the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics’ Skin Deep database; the best rating a product can receive. We are the first, and so far only, entire pregnancy and baby care product line with a 0 rating. We work hard to create the purest, most effective natural and toxin-free products for mamas and babies, so this is truly a standing we take seriously.

World Breastfeeding Week
World Breastfeeding Week (August 1-7) reminds us about how vital breastfeeding is to healthy babies across the globe. Every step we take to protect and support a mother’s right to breastfeed keeps the issue active and supports women worldwide. For more information about World Breastfeeding Week, and how you can get involved, check out the WABA website.

Best for Babes Helps You Avoid the Booby Traps™
Speaking of breastfeeding, we’re proud to announce that Earth Mama Angel Baby is a platinum sponsor of the Best for Babes Foundation. All the mamas here at EMAB fell in love with Best for Babes’ clever ads and positive messaging about breastfeeding. Take a look at the Best for Babes site and learn how to be a Bosom Buddy to a friend who is breastfeeding, and how to avoid the Booby Traps™ if you’re contemplating breastfeeding yourself. There are also tips on finding breast-friendly healthcare providers and a handy checklist that you can use during your pregnancy.

Keeping with the Breast is Best theme; we’ve got three natural, nurturing breastfeeding products on sale for August. Clinically tested, non-irritating, lanolin-free Natural Nipple Butter is a rich, plant-based balm made with naturally healing organic calendula, cocoa butter, shea butter and mango butter. Safe for both nursing mamas and babies - no need to wash it off before nursing - and it’s hospital recommended! Organic Milkmaid Tea is a USDA Certified 100% Organic & Certified Kosher blend of organic herbs traditionally used to help support healthy breast milk production. And Booby Tubes™ are natural, safe, gel-free breast packs made with 100% organic cotton shells and filled with all-natural flax seed that can be used warm or cold.

Use code BoobyTubes01 at check out to receive 15% off Natural Nipple Butter, Milkmaid Tea and Booby Tubes™ for the month of August.

What’s Your Score Challenge
Last month’s contest was the Earth Mama Angel Baby What’s Your Score? Challenge, and boy did it get a lot of mamas “surprised,” “shocked,” “floored,” and “totally surprised and shocked and not in a good way.” We asked mamas to gather some of the products they use on their babies or on their pregnant bodies, and then go to the Skin Deep database and add up the toxicity score. We got so many stunned mamas, and comments ranging from, “I had NO IDEA that just my face cleanser was a 10 - SHOCKING!!” to “I am typically an avid label reader and aware of what I am typically buying but still shocked at some of the toxicity levels that these items received. Not to mention when you add them all up!”

The What’s Your Score? Challenge is a useful way to check the products you use daily to make sure you are comfortable with the toxicity levels. Because we got such a huge response, we are leaving the Challenge (without the contest part!) on our web site so mamas can refer to it, and send their friends. We know we are all better off knowing what we are putting on our bodies, and our babies’ bodies, so we believe in full disclosure and, of course, using only pure, toxin-free ingredients. Do all of the products you use stand up to the challenge?

Congratulations to the lucky mamas who won last month’s contest!

Grand Prize (I Love My Mama & A Little Something for Baby) to Dana Z.
WOW did this spark an all evening event of cataloging everything contained within my vanity, shower and medicine cabinet that I use on my body (or plan to use on my baby's body) from day to day.

I could not help myself and therefore compiled three lists of EVERYTHING (well most everything I guess) that I use.

• The products whose levels did not surprise me were the Cetaphil soap, Dove deodorant and Aveda hair products.
• Alba products surprised me at being 5.
• And my total daily score does concern me.

I am typically an avid label reader and aware of what I am typically buying but still shocked at some of the toxicity levels that this items received.
Not to mention when you add them all up!

I would love to get my daily score down at least into the single digits.
I am going to start by doing my best to limit the quantity of products I use daily, thinking twice before application.
And trying to just avoid using some of the items on the periodic list all together . . . remembering to ask myself, do I really need this?

Thank you for instigating the exercise. It is the kind of thing I like to be aware of especially prior to our baby's arrival.

First Prize (A Little Something for Baby) to Sarah B.:
Oh. My. God. I had NO IDEA that just my face cleanser was a 10 - SHOCKING!! My Skin Deep toxicity rating score was 57. Surprised doesn’t cut it (in response to Question #2 – Were you surprised with the score and/or ingredients?) Shocked, stunned, floored - it knocked my socks off! I can not believe that just my hand soap is at a high risk - unbelievable!! I would realistically love my score to be around 3-6. Ideally I'd love it to be 0-3.

Second Prize (Angel Baby Shampoo & Body Wash) to Julie A.:
This is such a great giveaway! Thank you for this opportunity to possibly win some of your products as I love the samples that I have tried. Wish I had more money to buy everything, but hopefully I get some fun products at my baby shower in a few weeks:)

1. Skin Deep toxicity rating score: 4
2. I actually was not surprised with my score as I figured it would be pretty low since I have received recommendations on my products from women I highly value that have been living a green lifestyle for a while. Not to mention I do not use many products on my body.
3. I am okay with my score, but I guess having a score of 0 would be even that much better, so I know I could make some improvements. If only I had the entire Earth Mama Angel Baby Pregnancy line then I would get my zero, but for now, I am making due and so thankful that I am not in the danger red zone on the data base. Now that would be scary, especially being pregnant.

Thank you again and I hope all you mamas have a wonderful rest of the week.

Greenwashing Scavenger Hunt
Last month, we asked you to use Skin Deep to add up the score of all your personal care products. We were flooded with great replies, but also more than a few questions about why some products are not listed in the database. So, this month, we wanted to show you another way to use Skin Deep – by working down to the ingredient level. Take for instance, Cocoamidopropyl betaine. It’s rated a “5” for toxins on Skin Deep, and is a known human immune system toxin, according to the National Library of Medicine. Yet, it’s found in many sudsy products like baby shampoo or bubble bath that are misleadingly labeled “Organic” or “Natural”. ACK!

This month’s contest is about cocomidopropyl betaine. You have several ways to enter: (feel free to enter more than once if you wish)

1. Send us a list of baby shampoos, body washes, soaps or bubble bath products that you found that contain cocomidopropyl betaine. You’ll probably be surprised how many “organic” or “green” products use this surfactant. You can also post the list to your blog or web site and send us the link.
2. Can’t find your baby shampoo or bubble bath listed?? Send us the name of the product that you searched for on Skin Deep but couldn’t find. Search for the ingredients of the unlisted product and send us the total score. (Hm. Wonder why it’s not listed??)

You may enter as many separate baby bath products as you wish. Winners will be chosen randomly on August 26th and will receive one of these three prizes. 1) Angel Baby Shampoo & Body Wash, 2) A Little Something For Baby, or 3) Angel Baby Shampoo & Body Wash PLUS a 1 liter refill!!

You want MORE Mama? You can find her blogging in Mama’s Herb Garden, and tweeting all things mama-related, from herbs to product safety to getting down and dirty about good, clean fun. And you can sign up for her RSS feed to make sure you never miss a Mama missive!

Join Our Twitter Party
We asked you a few months ago what you wanted more of in our newsletters, and the overwhelming response was, “Mama!” So, we’re taking our favorite topic – why toxins and babies don’t belong in the same bathtub – and doing a Twitter Party. We’ve teamed up with our favorite green mamas, Jennifer Taggert (@thesmartmama) and Sommer Poquette (@greenmom), for a Twitter Party on August 12th, from 10-11 PM EST.

Stacy Malkan, cofounder of the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics and author of Not Just a Pretty Face will be our panelist for the party. Tune in and use #ecowed to chat with Melinda Olson (@mamamelinda), founder of Earth Mama Angel Baby, Sheri Wallace (@PRMama_EMAB), our PR mama, and Liz House (@BlogsMama_EMAB), our blogs mama. We’ll be focusing on cocamidopropyl betaine, so do your research and bring your questions. Here’s where you ask about anything from surfactants to the herbs and the bees. We’re looking forward to seeing you all there!