Favorites from this week

Did you miss the ACNM Twitter chat about next week's meeting in Nashville? Discover #nashacnm on Twitter to read the convo and follow along throughout the annual meeting next week!Also, I don't know how I missed sharing this, but have you all already caught up on the Listening to Mothers III survey?!?! Check out Childbirth Connection for links to the 2013, 2006, and 2002 surveys. The data keeps pouring out! Like this gem:BOOM.Lastly, for those not on Facebook, I am starting to work with a group in Chicago called forma, organizing a pregnancy support group for recently resettled refugee women. Would love for you to check out their website, follow on Facebook, and Twitter!...Violence & Silence - Jackson Katz at TedXFiDiWomenThanks to Kala for sharing!...Destroying the Point - Helen Razer at The Age"...Since then, the idea of an emerging social freedom has been used many times to sell women face cream and alcohol. The ''you go girl'' message has been successfully co-opted to bring my gender high heels and financial services and small cars. Because you're worth it.These days, women are still buying back their own dissent from advertisers. But things are different now. In an age of social networking, where so many of us feel we are in ''control'' of our media, the way to a lady's wallet is a more difficult business.As a movement called Destroy the Joint demonstrated last year, the exchange between feminism and the market has become a lot more complex.Feminism as selling point was simple in the 1970s. Those ads for Virginia Slims cigarettes are, at once, delightful and unsettling. There are women with Black Power afro hairdos, Gloria Steinem glasses, and all the accoutrements of the age we now call Second Wave Feminism.''You've come a long way, baby,'' read the text beneath a gallery of putatively free-thinking ladies.The women in the ads for Big Tobacco seem bra-less and confident and ready to take a long draw on a cigarette having so newly screwed The System. Of course, it was feminism that was being screwed.I could never stand the thought of a social justice movement being screwed by business and this is why I took up the habit of feminism as a young woman. As a so-called ''third wave'' feminist who came to the movement in the age of writers like Naomi Wolf, I returned to the time of my birth to read Germaine Greer, who had said ''You've got a long way to go, baby''.She was right when she had said it just a few months before Philip Morris had declared baby, you've come a long way. And decades later, she is still right..."...Eight Men Consider House Bill to Restrict Women's Reproductive Rights - Laura Bassett at The Huffington Post"...An all-male panel of House lawmakers considered a bill on Thursday that would ban abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy across the United States, without exceptions for rape, incest or health of the mother.The House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, led by the bill's sponsor, Rep. Trent Franks (R-Ariz.), has no female members..."...An Open Letter to Facebook - Women, Action, and the Media (WAM)"...We, the undersigned, are writing to demand swift, comprehensive and effective action addressing the representation of rape and domestic violence on Facebook. Specifically, we call on you, Facebook, to take three actions:Recognize speech that trivializes or glorifies violence against girls and women as hate speech and make a commitment that you will not tolerate this content.Effectively train moderators to recognize and remove gender-based hate speech.Effectively train moderators to understand how online harassment differently affects women and men, in part due to the real-world pandemic of violence against women.To this end, we are calling on Facebook users to contact advertisers whose ads on Facebook appear next to content that targets women for violence, to ask these companies to withdraw from advertising on Facebook until you take the above actions to ban gender-based hate speech on your site. (We will be raising awareness and contacting advertisers on Twitter using the hashtag #FBrape.)..."...Home Births: 5 Things Nobody Tells You - Beth Greenfield at Yahoo Shine"...When I gave birth to my daughter at home in October 2008 (for a variety of reasons I won’t go into here because I’m just not always up for that discussion anymore) it was—and forgive me for being revolting—the most intense, incredible, beautiful, loving, magical day of my life. But hey, that’s just me. So, in honor of the AAP’s new “position,” I offer up a handful of surprising nuggets for anyone who’s curious, or who might be considering a home birth of her own:A home birth can feel like a totally normal social gathering—a party, even. When I gave birth to my daughter at home, I had three people there to support me: my partner, our close friend (who took photos of the event), and our midwife, Miriam. In between searing labor pains, to my surprise, I was able to spend significant stretches of time doing totally normal things (even as I was sitting naked in a birthing pool in the middle of the living room the whole time). We discussed politics and the upcoming presidential election. We talked about the boy and girl baby names we had at the ready, and why. We listened to some of the hysterical birthing tales Miriam had up her sleeve. And we snacked (well, I did, at least), on nibbles from nuts to watermelon chunks. After the birth, we all hung out and snuggled (without Miriam, of course) and ate big bowls of pasta before falling asleep. ..."