In Trust Your Intuition, Master Herbalist and founder of NaturalMedicineMom.com Jenni Wilson brings a balanced, Christian approach to natural parenting and the study of natural remedies.
The book provides a compilation of curated essays from women who have learned to trust their instincts when it comes to their family’s health. In the first entry, Wilson discusses her personal journey into alternatives after suffering for years from mood swings, anxiety, food allergies and other ailments, noting that she slowly convinced her physician husband of the benefits of natural medicine. (Wilson’s husband, an emergency room M.D., provides a short but riveting foreword.)
Wilson’s essay is followed by 24 others from mothers who discuss their most passionate and intuitive experiences while acting as the family doctor. Readers will appreciate learning about the remedies they discovered, as well as social pressures that sometimes obstruct other mothers from seeking natural solutions.
A wide variety of experiences are represented–from confidently “crunchy mamas” who shun allopathic medicine wholesale, to women who continue to rely on Western medicine for themselves and their families. Wilson includes essays from several mothers who have had seriously ill children; most of these moms feel that complex health challenges require varied approaches. Some share straightforward herbal remedies, while others simply tell stories of personal growth. While many of the writings are informed, powerful, and useful, some seem to have been included in haste. (The essay about natural ways to treat ADHD is particularly flat, for example.)
This is not the book to convince skeptics. The collection offers some fairly radical perspectives justified solely by what a mother “feels” is right, with little, if any, scientific support. But mothers who experience challenges raising children outside of conventional paradigms will certainly appreciate the distinct voices, many of which brim with indignation at Western approaches. For those looking for commiseration with an already-formed alternative health perspective, this book won’t disappoint.
Also available in hardcover and ebook.
