Favorites from this week

On August 1st, I will celebrate one year of Feminist Midwife. It's hard to believe that life has moved that fast, but so it is! If you have a favorite post, please share it with others you think might be interested. I'd love to have more new and interested readers in the upcoming year, just like y'all. Have them sign up for email updates! Oh, and make sure you and they are following on Facebook and Twitter, too, because I put different stuff there than I do here, many days of the week. Finally, Happy Monday :)...Awesome Facebook pics latelyFrom Rock the Slut VoteFrom True Lebanese FeministFrom Raising Natural KidsFrom One Million Vaginas...11 Filmmakers Who Expertly Answered The Question "Why Do You Write Strong Female Characters?" - Ryan Broderick at Buzzfeed...Reducing fear of birth in U.S. culture - Ina May Gaskin at TedX...Hookup Panic: No, Casual Sex Does Not Lead to Rape - Molly Jane Knefel at RH Reality Check"...Disrespect for female sexuality did not originate with hooking up—in fact, it is a cultural, deeply powerful disrespect for female sexuality that leads to such anxiety about hookup culture.

It is quite possible to interrogate how drinking complicates men’s and women’s communication of consent without blaming women for rape or negative consensual sexual experiences. But the importance of affirmative consent—not merely teaching boys to hear the word “no,” but to actively seek the word “yes”—must be isolated from the moralistic judgement that surrounds hookup panic. Casual sex does not lead to rape. Having multiple partners does not lead to rape. Focusing on schoolwork or career goals rather than relationships does not lead to rape. Writers can devote as many words as they like to worrying about such behaviors, and Susan Patton can continue to tell women that their new-found liberation (a premise which, as presented, is also worthy of interrogation) will leave them alone and undesirable. Such antiquated ideas are extremely damaging. But it is even more damaging to act as if sexual assault and rape are the price women pay for independence and sexual freedom..."

...There's a Way To Discuss Hook-Up Culture and This Wasn't It - Elizabeth Plank at Policy Mic"...1:50 Mika tells the "rough" tale of a slim, pretty junior from the University of Pennsylvania" who happened to be alone at 11pm on a weeknight after work. Uh-Oh. I know where this is going. She didn't have boyfriend (gasp!) and tragically texted her regular hook-up. "They watched a little TV, had sex, and then WENT TO SLEEP," Mika reads in a sombre tone.Educated women having consensual sex on a weeknight? Who do they think they are? Ally McBeal?2:30 The truth finally comes out. Women are apparently "too busy" to have boyfriends. Why aren't they dropping everything to look for a man already? What are they so busy with anyways? Their goals and ambitions?3:38 Kate Taylor explains that hook-up culture is caused by the evil messages we send women such as "you're brilliant" "you can do anything" or "you can be president". Women are being told that they need to be independent to succeed, as opposed to men who are told... wait, that IS what men are being told!4:42 Finally! The Cosmo editor makes some interesting points about the "ambition gap" between men and women, the persistence of the double-standard and the fact that women who have sex are still labelled as "sluts."5:05 Instead of asking a follow-up question to explore these fascinating topics, Mika gets uncomfortable and says "There are more young women than we know of that want to get married." Thanks for getting us back on track Mika!..."..."Dirty Dancing" Is A Subervise Masterpiece And Here Are Four Reasons Why - Lesley at XOJane"...When Baby learns that Penny lacks the funds to have an illegal abortion, to be performed by a "real MD" offering the procedure in a nearby town for just one night, she borrows the needed $250 (which would be roughly equivalent to $1900 today, according to the inflation calculators I checked) from her doctor father, without telling him what it's for.

Unfortunately, it turns out the “real MD” is a dangerous amateur who administers the abortion without anesthetic and leaves Penny pale and traumatized, shivering in pain and shock. Baby again sails to the rescue by fetching Doctor Dad to Penny’s bedside in the middle of the night, and he saves Penny's life, but he also forbids Baby to see any of the hotel staff involved in the incident ever again.

The impact of this part of the story never really registered with me as a kid -- like I knew vaguely what an abortion was, but I don't think I realized that the issue here was that abortion was not legal and therefore both accessible and safe. When Billy explains that “the guy had a dirty knife and a folding table” I remember being disturbed by it, but only in a vague way. Where did the knife go? What was the table for? Why doesn’t Penny want to go to the hospital? Why would the hospital call the cops? And so on.

The idea that Penny could hypothetically be arrested and prosecuted for having been nearly butchered in an effort to receive a procedure that should have been readily available was just inconceivable to me, and I was distracted by Patrick Swayze as Johnny Castle anyway.

As an adult, however, this whole section of the plot is just chilling, and a needed reminder of what happens when abortion is forced underground, into back alleys and secret rooms. Women die. Sometimes, they die alone and terrified that someone will discover what they’ve done -- or rather, what has been done to them.

For this reason, I cannot imagine this movie being made today, and I believe that the indefinitely postponed plans for a 2011 remake were probably less an issue of cited “casting difficulties” and more the realization that to make a film now that indicts restrictive abortion laws in such a clear and indisputable way would invite such a political firestorm that it’s probably not worth the effort for any major studio.

And you know, that’s okay, because “Dirty Dancing” doesn’t need a remake anyway...."

...Study Finds Benefits in Delaying Severing of Umbilical Cord - Catherine Saint Louis at The New York Times"...The World Health Organization recommends clamping of the cord after one to three minutes because it “improves the iron status of the infant.” Occasionally delayed clamping can lead to jaundice in infants, caused by liver trouble or an excessive loss of red blood cells, and so the W.H.O. advises that access to therapy for jaundice be taken into consideration.

By contrast, in December a committee opinion by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists reviewed much of the same evidence as the new analysis but found it “insufficient to confirm or refute the potential for benefits from delayed umbilical cord clamping in term infants, especially in settings with rich resources.”

The committee cited the risks of jaundice and the relative infrequency of iron deficiency in the United States as reasons for not changing longstanding practice.

But Dr. Tonse Raju, a neonatologist and an author of the guidelines, said he personally favored delayed cord clamping, even more so after this “very strong paper.”

The new report assessed data from 15 randomized trials involving 3,911 women and infant pairs. Eileen Hutton, a midwife who teaches obstetrics at McMaster University in Ontario and published a systematic review on cord clamping, called the report “comprehensive and well done” but said she felt the conclusion was “weakly worded,” considering the sum of evidence on the benefits of delayed cord clamping for neonates.

“The implications are huge,” Dr. Hutton said. “We are talking about depriving babies of 30 to 40 percent of their blood at birth — and just because we’ve learned a practice that’s bad.”

Said Dr. Raju, a medical officer at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development: “It’s a good chunk of blood the baby is going to get, if you wait a minute and a half or two minutes. They need that extra amount of blood to fill the lungs.” Healthy babies manage to compensate if they do not get the blood from the cord, he said, but researchers do not know how..."

...It's Rare That The Daily Show Slips Out Of Satire And Into Anger. This Is One Of Those Times. - Rossalyn Warren at Upworthy

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart

Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Indecision Political Humor,The Daily Show on Facebook

...Oh, and have you heard of these awesome people? Make me wish I lived in LA, like, yesterday.Autonomous Communities for Reproductive and Abortion Support"We provide FREE/LOW COST ABORTION DOULA SUPPORT for people in Los Angeles, CA (ofrecemos servicions de Doula de Aborto en Español tambien). We also do knowledge shares (hacemos talleres de salud autonoma en Español tambien) on Moonstrual Ed, Queer/GNC Sex Ed, Pleasure Ed, Autonomous Uterine Health, BDSM/Kink/Pleasure, Reproductive Liberation, (Queer) People of Color Reproductive Rights, eco-sex, eco-feminism, self-exam, natural fertility awareness, and much more! We are interested on taking our knowledge-sharing sessions to places where the information is limited. We are starting to document ourselves and our community. We believe that true un-biased information will be provided by people invested on autonomous, anti-imperialist, Muxerista and anti-BS info gathering. Check out acras.weebly.com and like us in FB facebook.com/acrascollective. Nos pueden contactar en nuestro email, acrascollective@gmail.com.com."