Favorites from this week

There is some really awesome news from this week - below are my favorites! I find this week's list especially moving and motivating. I hope that you are having a restful afternoon, possibly soaking up some sun in the outdoors, catching up on the news and figuring out ways to be involved and make change!...Getting Honest About Midwifery and the Flaws of the Natural Birthing Community - MamaBirthYES, YES, YES. So thankful that she shared this. Spread far and wide! "...I think it is time we STOPPED acting like midwifery is always the answer.  I think it is time we stopped talking about birth as though it should always be trusted.  I think it is time we stopped acting like if something goes wrong it means mom did something wrong or it could have always been prevented.I think it is time we held midwives up to the same scrutiny in the natural birth community as we hold OB's.  It is time we realized that there are good and bad midwives.  Some are ethical, some not.  Some are skilled, some are not.  Some are smart and yes, some are idiots.I would love to see us stop talking about empowering women.  It drives me absolutely batty for natural birth supporters to act as though they have the ability to give a woman her own power.  OY!  What's next- we let her eat food in labor!?  Go us!I would love to see women making their own informed choices and not getting their information just from blogs - yes- EVEN THIS ONE!  (Sometimes people send me questions- MEDICAL QUESTIONS!  And I have to say, it scares the living HELL out of me that somebody would ask me medical advice.  It does not stroke my ego.  It scares me.  I am not a doctor.  And if I WERE a doctor I am not your doctor!  But I AM NOT A DOCTOR!)  You should not trust me or any online personality with your health care.I love natural birth.  I think it goes right so often that it absolutely blows my mind.  I have read memoirs from midwives and it is shocking to me that more people didn't DIE considering the horrid conditions they were birthing in and the complete lack of care, nutrition, sanitation and support.  The female body is amazing.  The birthing process is well designed.  But please, please, please, we MUST recognize that it is not fail-proof.  We have GOT to see that birth doesn't always work.  There is very little in life that always works, our bodies included..."...It's About Time I Stopped Ignoring Sexist Rap Lyrics - Christiana Mbakwe at XOJaneReminds me of this post and this post. Everyone should be enraged."...Women are tired of being raped. Women are tired of seeing their sisters and friends being raped. Tired of having to reinforce the point that it’s not our duty to avoid being raped, but for men not to be rape. Tired of the cases like the Steubenville rape trial where the violation of a teenage girl’s body is seen as a lesser evil than the “disruption” of the careers of young athletes.Tired of rappers glorifying sexual assault.So tired that we’re finally shifting the responsibility to where it should have always lain, with the men who choose to rape and all those who willingly perpetuate rape culture.Personally, I’m tired of my own ambivalence when it comes to the misogyny that’s become synonymous with Hip Hop. I’m aware Hip-Hop didn’t create misogyny. That in its crudest sense, Hip-Hop is a dark mirror that reflects the parts of our society we like to pretend don’t exist. However this song awakened within me something I should never have allowed to lie dormant.It’s about time I became enraged..."...Being a C-Section Mama In the Birth Goddess Club - Amanda King, Blogger at Last Mom On Earth, at HuffPost ParentsNot all birth is easy. But all women endure, are powerful, and deserve birth respect. What a powerful and wonderful story to share."...I mourned the births of my children. What I went through didn't seem right. It barely seemed human. It didn't seem possible to endure. I returned home on legs that would barely carry me, and I was expected to carry the lives of my children, of the most important and beautiful people to ever exist. My body was gutted, destroyed. Nothing worked. I couldn't make it to the top of the stairs. I couldn't feed my babies with my breasts. I know that some of you think I simply didn't try hard enough, but you're wrong. I suffered greatly to feed my children, tried like the last breath of a stumbling woman in a desert. I hated everything about how my birth experiences unfolded, hated every bottle, every moment of guilt and panic and all the ways I was lacking..."...No More Nice Girls - Sady at Rookie MagPer Rookie style, this is an awesome, well-thought-out discussion of language and it ever-present cultural and indirect weaponic use to degrade women. Let us pay attention to how we all speak with women, from girls to our best friends. And let us call it out when we and others err."...But it’s amazing how, in a patriarchy, anything—even a genuinely noble virtue—can be used to belittle women. Because when those guys in college leered at me and told me I was “so innocent,” they didn’t mean it as a compliment (I didn’t ask them, but you know it when you hear it). They weren’t attracted to my purity of spirit. My inexperience made me vulnerable, and that can be a siren’s song for anyone (not just guys) who needs to feel stronger than the person they are pursuing. They seemed to sense that they could get away with all sorts of BS with me because I wouldn’t know that I could (and SHOULD) call them out on any of it. For example: TOUCHING MY FACE. WITHOUT MY CONSENT. I must stress: This happened MORE THAN ONCE. Over a decade later, I am NOT DONE being creeped out by this.There are other words like this: sweet, for example, and pretty. None of those are bad things to be, but somewhere along the line someone decided that these weregirly qualities, and if they were associated with girls, they must somehow signify inferiority and weakness. Add to this mix the simultaneous but contradictory fear of women and girls that comes with sexism and you get a culture that fetishizes helplessness in women (because if we think we’re supposed to be weak and helpless, maybe we won’t figure out that we’re not). So “sweet, pretty, and innocent” isn’t just a description; it’s become an order. That’s what girls aresupposed to be like..."...Emergency Contraception and Moral Panic: Dissecting the Newest Misinformation Campaign - Sidra Zaidi at RH Reality CheckOy. Thank goodness for groups like the International Consortium on Emergency Contraception (ICEC). "...Reproductive rights advocates have something to cheer about: A federal judge ruled last week that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) must allow universal access to Plan B over-the-counter for all ages. But anti-choice proponents want to have the last word on emergency contraception (EC), also known as the morning-after pill. Their strategy to limit access includes claiming that EC is unsafe for adolescents.After Judge Edward Korman’s ruling, Charmaine Yoest of Americans United for Life said: “This decision allows the abortion industry to gamble with young girls’ health in distributing a life-ending drug, with no real understanding of the long-term implications on their bodies.”A spokeswoman for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops stated that the court’s action “undermines parents’ ability to protect their daughters … from the adverse effects of the drug itself.”Once again, the anti-choice community is using inaccurate information to limit women’s and girl’s reproductive rights. There is no evidence that Plan B is a “life-ending drug:” EC is not the abortion pill. It works by preventing or delaying ovulation and does not interfere with implantation of a fertilized egg or with an existing pregnancy..."...High-risk HPV infection more than doubles odds of preeclampsia - Susan London at Family Practice NewsThis will be really fascinating research to follow!"...Women found to be infected with high-risk types of human papillomavirus early in pregnancy are more than twice as likely to develop preeclampsia, according to a retrospective cohort study reported at the Pregnancy Meeting, the annual meeting of the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine."This study supports an association between high-risk human papillomavirus and preeclampsia, which is consistent with the association that was previously seen between high-risk HPV and cardiovascular disease," lead investigator Dr. Mollie McDonnold commented."If this is confirmed in future prospective studies or larger cohorts, it may suggest a potential role for HPV vaccination in preeclampsia prevention," she added..."...CDC "Sexually Transmitted Infections Among Young Americans" Infographic