Favorites from this week
When the weekend creates enough energy to feel as though the work week is conquerable, that feels like success. Hope you all had a fabulous last week and weekend! Here are some of my favorites from last week's news....Grave Concerns about the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act - Every Mother Counts"...Initially HR 1797 didn’t even include exceptions for rape and incest. At the last minute however, those clauses were quietly slipped into the bill with the stipulation that abortions performed in cases of rape could only be done if the woman could prove she’d reported her rape to the police. When Rep. Frank commented that the number of pregnancies caused by rape was “very low,” insinuating that this clause shouldn’t be considered an obstacle, all hell broke loose (again) in the media. Following that remark, the debating committee banned Rep. Frank from announcing the passage of his own bill.While HR1797 is not expected to become the law of the land, debates like this show that certain members of society lack basic respect for women and their healthcare providers to make responsible decisions on private matters that greatly impact our own lives. Meanwhile, unsafe abortions continue to be one of the major contributors to maternal deaths, and even just the debates about these sorts of further restrictions will only serve to push women into situations where they have no options..."...VIDEO: #AskJessica - How Do I Deal With Street Harassment? - Jessica Valenti at The Nation...Why I Regret Being a Stay-at-Home Mom - Lisa Endlich Heffernan at The Huffington Post"...I lowered my sights and lost confidence. But far and away my biggest regret about my years at home was that I lowered my sights for myself as I dimmed in my own mind what I thought I was capable of. I let go of the burning ambition I once held because I didn't feel as though I could hold it and three babies at the same time. My husband did not do this, my children did not do this, I did this. In the years that I was home, I lulled myself into thinking that I was accomplishing enough because I was. I was raising my children and as any parent who had spent a day with a child knows, that can fill all of the hours in a day. What I hadn't realized was how my constant focus on my family would result in my aspirations for myself slipping away. And despite it being obvious, I did not focus on the inevitable obsolescence that my job as mom held...."... In Healthy Pregnancies, Let the Baby Set the Delivery Date - Alan E. Guttmacher at The Huffington Post"...Later deliveries mean fewer complications for moms, too.Elective early delivery increases the risk of cesarean delivery. And C-sections, while common, carry risks for the mother, such as wound infection and anemia, and require longer recovery time. Having a C-section also makes C-sections more likely for subsequent pregnancies. Mothers who deliver after 39 weeks typically have better outcomes.Of course, because the estimated due date may be off by even two weeks, some women who think they are delivering on time are actually delivering early. So, unless there's a medical need to induce labor, it's usually best to wait for labor to begin on its own.Right now, many dads and moms eagerly are awaiting the birth of their babies. Parents worry about enough things during pregnancy -- avoidable risks shouldn't be among them....'...How Long Can You Wait to Have a Baby? - Jean Twenge at The Atlantic"...In short, the “baby panic”—which has by no means abated since it hit me personally—is based largely on questionable data. We’ve rearranged our lives, worried endlessly, and forgone countless career opportunities based on a few statistics about women who resided in thatched-roof huts and never saw a lightbulb. In Dunson’s study of modern women, the difference in pregnancy rates at age 28 versus 37 is only about 4 percentage points. Fertility does decrease with age, but the decline is not steep enough to keep the vast majority of women in their late 30s from having a child. And that, after all, is the whole point...."...Fighting Unwanted Cat Calls, One Poster At A Time - Stephen Nessen at NPR"...The 27-year-old takes a long look down the street for police, then reaches into a plastic grocery bag and pulls out a blue water bottle. She squirts down a blank wall with wheat paste and slaps up one of her trademark posters. It features a stark pencil drawing of a young woman staring sternly with the words below in bold type: "Women are not seeking your validation."It's in this neighborhood that she endures daily cat calls and unwanted comments from men. This is her way of talking back...."...Meet the man trying to change the way women give birth around the world - Beverly Turner at The Telegraph"...Be warned: it is not an easy read and in conversation Michel is keen to stress: “This is NOT a book for pregnant women.” But in and among the complex scientific jargon and references, are some light-bulb moments; some absolute gems that you will keep turning over in your mind for days. His book is a tinderbox that will infuriate both the pro-C-section lobbyists (babies born this way are five times more likely to suffer allergies he points out) and the natural birthers (infant death globally between birth and 28 days appears twice as high after planned homebirth than hospital birth).
Ridding the delivery room of macho language
Odent considers 2013 to be “a transitory phase of history” because the medical world has already awoken to the benefits of newborns having skin-to-skin contact with their mothers (rather than the traditional practice of whipping them away to be cleaned up), but, he says: “We still have to rediscover the basic needs of laboring women. This is the power of science to change cultural conditioning.”..."...Photos taken of my Facebook feed in the past week:
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