Beauty and Birth: Founder Christian Toscano talks with Fashionista
Are you familiar with the writing of Jessica DeFino? If not, you should be. She is producing insightful and trailblazing journalism demystifying the beauty and wellness industry. Thus, we were very excited to be featured in one of her most recent think pieces for Fashionista on the rise of natural beauty companies, specifically those founded by birth workers, i.e. doulas and midwives.
As you may or may not know, our founder Christian Toscano is a practicing Midwife with her own practice Fertile Moon Midwifery which she has been running for several years now in addition to Roots Rose Radish. She spoke in-depth with DeFino about the reasons women are more consistently choosing to veer from corporate cosmetics and the correlation to the increased popularity of natural birth.
In the article DeFino points out that “There are lots of ways to make money off of women, but the big ones are fairly straightforward: birth and beauty.” Additionally that “the business of birth and the business of beauty are more alike than they may seem: They're run by men, they profit off women and they're worth billions.... In the United States alone, 4 million births a year generate over $50 billion. The cosmetics and personal care market is worth almost twice that, around $94 billion.”.
With the windfall in profits, neither industry has been able to make major advances in safety, nor in humanity. DeFino goes on to write that “The U.S. is considered one of the most costly and deadly of the developed countries when it comes to giving birth. It has higher than average infant and maternal mortality rates, particularly for families of color. For all of its safety measures, hospital delivery has been described as "disempowering" and medical interventions — labor induction, vacuum extractions, C-sections — are reportedly enacted too early and too often, for the convenience of the doctor rather than the mother”.
When asked about the shift towards natural options, Toscanoreplied "women [are] seeking out the support of doulas or seeking out natural skin care, there's an overall questioning of the greater systems that were put in place over hundreds of years…. What I see is women questioning how that system supports them. The reason [these markets] have exploded is that women are saying, “We don't want garbage on our bodies and in our environment. We don't want to be treated like cattle when we go into hospitals to have this sacred moment of human creation.”.
“We don’t want garbage on our bodies and in our environment. We don’t want to be treated like cattle when we go into hospitals to have this sacred moment of human creation.”
The article delves further into the current state of affairs. While Jessica concludes that the problems with both industries are systematic and will not change anytime soon, she also presents an intriguing question; “Could doulas and midwives — already primed to empower women in a system stacked against them — assist in the birth of safer beauty, too? The under-the-radar success of birth worker beauty suggests they could.” In which Toscano counters, “My business is thriving because women want it. As people choose what they want, they’re changing the industry.”.
“My business is thriving because women want it. As people choose what they want, they’re changing the industry.”
We highly recommend that you read the entire piece over at Fashionista and that you take the time to seek out Jessica DeFino’s other works as her writing is most relevant and insightful to anyone with skin. At Roots Rose Radish we have always preached only put on your skin what you would eat. As more disconcerting information becomes available about the products we use in our daily lives these truths become increasingly self-evident.