Motherhood Identity Series with Natracare Founder Susie Hewson

'Clean' is now a full-fledged marketing category. But before ingredient transparency was a wellness buzzword, before microplastics, endocrine disruptors and chlorine-free period care were part of the mainstream conversation, Susie Hewson was already asking the questions women had been conditioned not to ask. What are we putting in and on our bodies? Who decided those products were safe enough? What happens to them after we throw them away? And why were women expected to trust systems that had so rarely been built with their health, comfort or dignity at the center? When Hewson foundedNatracaremore than 37 years ago, she was not trying to create a prettier version of period care—she was trying to challenge an industry that had long treated women's bodies, disposable products and environmental impact as separate conversations, when in reality they were deeply connected. A graphic designer, environmental campaigner, former teacher and mother of two very young boys, Hewson had seen the links between chlorine bleaching, dioxin pollution, disposable products and environmental harm—and once she saw them, she could not look away. Motherhood only made that urgency sharper. With a baby and toddler at home, Hewson was not thinking about sustainability as a brand position. She was thinking about the products she was using, the diapers her children were wearing, the water and soil being contaminated, and the world her sons—and generations of children after them—would inherit. What followed was not an easy founder story polished into hindsight. Hewson spent decades pushing against corporate resistance, public dismissal, greenwashing and a market that had not yet caught up to the questions she was asking. She builtNatracareas a practical answer to a much bigger refusal: the refusal to accept that products used in and on women's bodies should come with hidden costs to their health, their dignity or the planet. For ourMotherhood Identity series, Hewson reflects on the responsibility that shaped her work, the cost of refusing to compromise, the guilt and ingenuity of building a company while raising children, and what she hopes the next generation of women and mothers never has to fight for again. A graphic designer, high school teacher and a new mum. Since Art College, I was actively involved in conservation work and environmental campaigning, so you could say that I was seeing in real time from the mid 70's onwards, how our air, water, soil and nature were being denuded by industry and lack of regulatory oversight. Chlorine gas, the deadly dioxin toxin, was being dumped at sea; aerosol gases were breaking down the ozone layer in our atmosphere increasing the risk of cancers; there was uncontrolled industrial hunting of whales pushing some species to the brink of extinction; acid rain destroying ancient forests, and of course climate science was evolving with increasing evidence of man's impact on nature and climate. Back then, like now, the narrative is being controlled by the media, so seeing is believing when you are immersed in the impacts as an activist. That I had an overwhelming sense of responsibility to make the industry better! I know that without my resilience, nothing much would have changed these past decades with regards to awareness of the pollution generated in the production of materials used in period products, or the potential negative impacts on human health. In doing this, I endured years of corporate harassment in their vain attempts to discredit or silence my voice and actions. I saw a World in Action TV expose on the finding of dioxin and furan contamination in our soil, air and water that was directly linked to the use of chlorine gas in the production of pulp. Residuals of these carcinogens were also found in baby diapers, toilet paper, coffee filters and menstrual products; the science identified cancers in animals drinking from the pools and lakes surrounding pulping mills. The response from manufacturers of these consumer products was dismissive - this was my call to action starting in 1989, I knew I had to do something to change this, not least because I had my two baby boys to protect from this global catastrophe appearing before me. My two boys, 9 months and two and a half years old, amplified my sense of urgency to act. I was using these period products and the diapers featured in the report. Health risks aside, I also considered what kind of future would they and other children be facing with the task of cleaning up this chemical pollution as well as dealing with the mountain of plastic waste! As a mother, I felt totally responsible to act for them as well as future generations. It was more than instinct - it was clear as the facts I had witnessed. For me becoming a mother was almost the end of my life and that of my first born. Had I been a medieval woman, we would have succumbed, but an emergency cesarean saved us both. Although I had a lot of knowledge about the human body from my studies, I realised that we are often unaware of what can go wrong until you are in that moment. This made me hyper-aware of how much more we need to be connected to the messages our bodies send us and how much as women, we need to pay attention to how burdened we are by chemical exposures; in our homes, our environment and from the products we use in and on our bodies. As mothers we are responsible to protect our children from these impacts too. Absolutely. My love of nature alongside becoming a mother, put so much of what I knew from my eco-activism and scientific evidence under even closer scrutiny. I felt compelled to spread what I knew and to contribute to the delivery of the changes I saw as being urgent. Those who know me will say I have always been first to speak out about injustices, keen to point out the coercive agendas of some marketing practices—women are walking laboratories for BigCorp and I have been a natural rebel against attempts to frame me as a 'type of woman.' I have never used makeup, juvenile acne taught me to treat my skin gently. I instinctively knew a long list of petrochemically derived ingredients had to be a negative thing. I followed this principle for my children too, creating my own brand of organic and plant-based baby toiletries for my sons. It starts with a question that takes you on the journey where trust is based on transparency and validation. This has been my journey in producing Natracare and trusting the products I use on my body, in my house and eat. Let's put it this way: If you were ill and showed up at a hospital, would you underestimate, dismiss or label the doctor as 'too much' for caring so deeply about your wellbeing? Offending industries tried their best to impede my campaign to inform, but as one organization said, 'There's no smoke without fire.' Some underestimated my ability to communicate the issues with facts and evidence, and attempted to label my resolve as damaging to the brands and products on store shelves. I think those who know me well understand why I care so deeply—my children especially so. Tradition and culture presents women as needing to be beautified but not listened to. The elegant, the flawless skin, a need to stay young and virile. Society values the symbols of youth and vitality. It's often a trap we women are herded towards. That young women are undergoing cosmetic treatments in their early 20s is evidence of this pressure to be perfect and flawless. Being called outspoken can be perceived as being less feminine. I see it as a super power to be celebrated—never suffer in silence speak for yourself and for those held back from doing so. Yes it has evolved but not all of this expansion is positive. Investment companies have moved into the natural, organic and reusable period care sector in a big way. When money drives development, errors and missteps happen. Greenwashing and lack of regulations draw out the deceptions and frustrate me. Once I only had to call out one corporate industry of period product manufacturers. Now I even have to challenge brands masquerading as 'green.' What makes me hopeful, is a generation which looks closer at science and contaminants, seeks out the fake claims of nature-positive. Of course, I am still campaigning for and directly involved in change through regulation and standards to protect health, nature and the 37 years of work I have done to keep the period product category clean. I started a campaign of activism to raise the issues I discussed earlier. Natracare was my response to the challenge to make available to all women period products that are respectful; made using sustainably sourced raw materials, and made to be clean with a low impact when disposed of after use. Natracare is the embodiment of how disposables can be made better with a low impact on nature as well as without residuals that have unresolved issues around health and safety in the medium to long term. It cost me time—almost half of my life given to the campaign to make women's health and safety the most important feature in designing Natracare period products and continuing to participate in the actions to keep the category clean and free from greenwashing, band wagon hoppers! The prize is knowing so much has changed because of those long hours and decades of uncompromising! While I am not a natural juggler, I am organized and able to multitask. In the earliest days, my boys were just 9 months and 29 months old, so much of the work of building the business happened late at night, after they were in bed. Working across international time zones meant staying up into the early hours to build business contacts, speak with media and connect with other agencies. I never felt I had to play by anyone else's rules for what it meant to be a mother. My own mum held down two jobs, managed the family duties and chores, and raised us to be smart and capable. The most frustrating part was being recognized as a businesswoman. I was often assumed to be the secretary—no disrespect to secretaries—but many men found it difficult to imagine me as both a mother and an entrepreneur. I was also breaking ground as what was then considered an 'older' mother, having given birth for the first time at 34. Back in the '80s, '90s and early 2000s, being taken seriously as a female entrepreneur was its own fight. Clearly their understanding was through filters. They saw me at work as my office was in my home for the first 10 years so that I could balance and manage my two roles. Working from home throughout the 90's was also ahead of the 'normative curve'. To them I was just mum and from the tender ages of 4 and 5, they loved being taken on the long hauls, accompanying us to the Natural Products show in Anaheim, where we exhibited each year to build our markets. They got to know the scene and adapted to the daily meetings with buyers as the buyers needed to get to grips with me having children around too. This was a treat for the boys who got to learn to ski in Colorado and were taken to Disneyland during a work trip. I guess I shielded them from the work pressures when they were so young. Now they are young men, their appreciation of what they saw from the sidelines, allows them to also be involved in the company in very positive ways - through working with organisations benefitting from our 1% for the Planet giving; managing and overseeing our BCorp certification to creative website development, film and music production, amplifying the what and why of Natracare, and supporting the marketing and PR teams. As adults they have been able to put their unusual experiences and my business into context andI believe they are very proud of what I have achieved. That being committed to hard work and developing diversity of skills is a useful thing, that to become a critical thinker is a necessity to get to know the truth, to be kind to people as well as celebrating diversity are desirable and necessary attributes. The fact that as teenage boys they were experts on periods, toxins in menstrual products and why Natracare was 'created' made them a curiosity to their school teachers and a remarkable asset to their girlfriends and future wives. Always. I was late for my own wedding taking a call from one of my key retail buyers. Dressed to go, I was over 30 minutes late. Unconventionally, for 1994, my partner, our children and I all rocked up at the church together, we just had to take a lift in a friend's car instead of the stroll from our house through our village we had planned. Feeling guilty as a mum is a natural state for all mums in work, but that does not mean the children notice our occasional or long absences. I have recalled guilty events to my adult children from when they were young and they cannot remember the events nor feel and angst. It is the quality of the time sent that is the most important and I never missed a key event for them, well maybe one or two in 18 years perhaps that they cannot recall. That human bodies are brilliant creations and that no one person is the same. Knowing what is connected to what and what its function is is interesting for children even. Biology is an incredible subject that can take children on journeys of discovery that puts into context why we are built the way we are, and that shame is something that 'others' impose on us out of ignorance and cultural bias. Call a vulva by its name - describe the cycle of hormones that move us from a child to a young woman, the natural and gradual changes we move through and why then periods begin. This is not just a mum thing, single parents that may not have a female in their sphere to help them with this education when looking after their daughters, also need our help too make sure the language and sensitivity is not built around ignorance nor embarrassment. Regulations designed to control the safety of period products by preventing contaminating chemicals, heavy metals and endocrine disrupting chemicals, from ever getting into the products; standards to make sure testing and novel materials are determined safe before they are used, protecting our health rather than having to take legal action to get recourse years later if things go wrong—think TSS and tampon absorbencies, asbestos in talc, and the unknown to us now of the long term impacts on our health of detected contaminants in period products; and transparency—full list of ingredients both intentionally and unintentionally added, lists of fragrances/allergens and contaminants that could be present so we can make informed decisions about the products we choose. I aim to remain amongst the actions and commissions so this can be achieved sooner rather than later. It will always be hard work and others will challenge you along the way. What you are doing is the right thing to do, for women's health and that of mother nature. Some may thank you for that effort, some may never notice, but nothing will stop what you are putting in motion so be proud. We recently launchedwhen we…A Collective Rallying Cry for Change.This year-long integrated movement built on a simple belief: When we have what we need, we show up fully; and when we rise together, the world can change. Powered by community the movement invites individuals, allies, caregivers, educators, healthcare professionals, institutions and advocates to come together to demand transparency, break stigma, expand access and encourage better care for our bodies and our living planet. The launch ofwhen we… is anchored by the debut of thewhen we...hub found atnatracare.com/campaigns/when-we/a first-of-its-kind digital platform aiming to inform, empower and ignite progress. Thewhen we…hub brings together: Real stories of people and communities driving change Expert-backed information on ingredients and whole-body comfort suitable for diverse bodies, sensitivities, identities and life stages Advocacy and access initiatives Measurable environmental impact and transparency As a legacy mission-driven brand we are evolving our role: from challenging industry norms to building a collaborative resource that supports trust, access and long-term behavior change.