Favorites from this week

A productive week of taking care of my own health, calling in sick due to a rapid stomach bug, and working to realign my back after throwing it out at a birth. A wonderful weekend with friends, pets, food, drinks, and spending birthday time with midwife friends. Hopefully recharged for the upcoming week, with go-live on electronic notes on the labor floor and some busy free pregnancy test shifts on top of double-booked clinic schedules. Bring it on!...At 50, Does 'Feminine Mystique' Still Roar? - Lynn Neary at NPRAbsolutely need to re-read this in 2013. And loving Jessica Valenti's quote about justified anger being "useful and energizing." Let's go, feminists of this generation. Let's. Go. "...It was post-World War II America. The suburbs were growing exponentially and the economy was booming. A lot of women had worked outside the home during the war, and a significant number of women had gotten a college education. Now, they were all being told to stay home and find their fulfillment in taking care of their husbands and children."The moment was so pregnant and ready for an explosion," Collins says, "that all you needed was somebody just sitting there and saying: Look at that ad. They think you are so stupid. They have contempt for you. They hate you. Take look at that again.That's all you needed."When Friedan wrote The Feminine Mystique she was both a suburban housewife and a freelance writer who worked mostly for women's magazines, which were run by men. The book, says Collins, was neither a sociological tract nor a political manifesto."It's totally personal," Collins says. "You know the great criticisms of the book over the years — all of which are certainly true — that it didn't take into account working women, that it didn't take into account minority women, those people are totally absent. Laws are totally absent, discrimination in the workplace, none of that stuff. It's all a very personal, white middle class, college educated woman's howl of misery and anger at the place where she has found herself..."...Who's Paying for your Birth Control? - Emily Douglas at The NationMany thanks for this graphic! This is part of the fascinating conversation about equality in reproductive healthcare coverage, with contraception coverage not burdening women with financial as well as social responsibility. "Last week, the Obama administration updated its proposed regulations regarding birth control coverage under the Affordable Care Act. It refused to create an exemption for for-profit employers who object to provide contraceptive coverage on religious grounds, but it left a lot of people, reporters included, confused about how religiously affiliated employers would be accommodated, and who—the insurer, a third-party provider, or the federal government—would be left footing the bill for the coverage.To find out whether you can access no-copay birth control through the ACA, check out the infographic below!"...Five Radically Different Approaches to Women's Health - Jill Moffett at Women's Wellness WatchExcited to stumble upon this blog - looking forward to following more! Some cool ideas here, including mentioning what many recent midwife graduates hope for the profession as a whole, myself included! "... 3. Midwifery and fertility services for the rest of us. Not surprisingly, most prenatal care is very straight-oriented. But Maia Midwifery takes a different approach, prioritizing the needs of queer families. I love that the approach is so radically different from some of the overly granola earth-mama stuff that is part and parcel of most midwifery practices. Also in California is ReCLAIM Midwifery, which focuses on transgender health. This is true innovation, but it will probably be a very long time before this approach is incorporated into mainstream prenatal services..."...The Nu ProjectAwesome! 26 days to go to fund the book project on Kickstarter! ...The rise of the female White House prospect - Steve Kornacki at SalonMay the best and elected candidate win. And let the race be populated with reflections of the society it aims to serve."...When it comes to ’16, speculation about a female candidate on the Democratic side has centered around Hillary Clinton, and for good reason. Not only would the former secretary of state presumably crowd any other women out of the race, she’d have the potential to clear out the entire field, or at least come close to doing so.But the Napolitano scoop, which was provided by the Washington Post’s Karen Tumulty, is a reminder that there are multiple women positioned to run viable campaigns for the nomination if Clinton takes a pass. Already, there have been rumblings about Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar and New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand having interest in the race. Napolitano, the current homeland security secretary and former Arizona governor, is “quietly making it known she is considering the race,” according to Tumulty. Others could wind up in the mix too, so regardless of what Clinton decides, it’s doubtful Democrats will revert to the days of all-male fields in 2016..."