FM Weekly
I'm starting a newsletter.
It feels so good to write it down. I'm starting a newsletter for all sorts of reasons. I miss writing for the joy of writing, and being able to feeling like I'm writing directly "to" folx is one way to feel joyful in doing so. I want to write content that is a mix of feminism and healthcare, from those who give or receive either experience out in the world. I feel the need to meet the questions coming to me via email, instagram message, twitter DM, facebook comment, and just can't keep up with them all (I am but one person, yet one person with codependency issues who works full time and has a fulfilling personal life): subscribers to a newsletter offer a different way of engaging with people.
I'm starting a newsletter.
Next week I will celebrate seven years of writing under this name. Seven years of pouring my feminist midwife heart and soul out via a blog and social media accounts. Seven years of connecting my personal and professional self with an alter ego (that I de-anonymized when a long-ago post became viral). Seven years of finding nuances within midwifery and healthcare that I thought only I cared about until I whispered them into the ether and others came out in droves to tell me it mattered and I should keep going. Seven-ish years ago I used to write a weekly something-or-other, and I miss it. And over those seven years I started writing other things, for other people and audiences, and for the last few years I've really missed writing for myself.
So, this is all to say, I will still write the blog. I will still write long-form personal essays about being a midwife, especially as I return to work next week with a new view of how stressed and overwhelmed and passionately I was, and will be, engaged in my work. I will still write scripts for both patients/clients to consider language and narratives of how we engage with each other. I will still write opinions about what is happening in the world of feminism and healthcare and midwifery and obstetrics and gynecologic and queerness and love. I will still write openly and honestly.
But a few things have happened online in seven years. Algorithms filter what content people see, and I cannot for the life of me figure out how to manipulate them. People who engage online maliciously are not easily moderated by just me, and I'd like to start a curated community via those willing to engage differently. I'd like to receive comments to which I intentionally plan to respond, and engage fully when doing so. And, truthfully, I've started to value my time and my writing differently than I ever had before. I'd like to take back how I engage with people who seek to engage with me. I want to have a weekly (sometimes a bit more often, sometimes less) lens through which to consider my writing, through reports from clinical practice, considerations about how to engage in healthcare and the world inclusively and feministically either as a provider or as a person, and thoughts about being a person in this world and being true and loving to other people in this world.
I'm starting a newsletter.
If you are already signed up to receive updates on the blog, you will be auto-enrolled in the newsletter (and can unsubscribe there at any time). You can sign up on the blog homepage, bottom right corner for the "email newsletter" box. Or, you can sign up here. The first newsletter will come out later this week, and for the first few weeks will be free for all subscribers. From the get-go I will advertise the sliding scale fee to continue the subscription, and engage as a commenter, once I transition the writing to a curated group.
I'm starting a newsletter. And I'm just so freaking excited about it.
Please join me, and share with others.