In the category of blogs that I am enjoying this week

Privilege Denying Dude!

I think privilege denying dude would also say related things like "If you don't want to have a baby in a hospital, don't get pregnant" and "Birth trauma is all in your mind" and "Maternity leave is discriminatory".

Of course, he would do it while condescendingly mansplaining.

(For the record, women can also be privilege denying dudes. Lest anyone think I'm being sexist.)

Bonus link: If you are having a baby, and don't want your baby's pee or your milk to get on your mattress, I can vouch for this mattress pad: Queen Size SafeRest Premium Hypoallergenic Waterproof Mattress Protector - Vinyl Free

Link party, August blogcation

I guess my blogging is on an August hiatus? Between traveling and bracketing the traveling with long shifts at work, I am not doing much blogging (also, my e-mail inbox hates me - at least, I assume the feeling is mutual. So if you've e-mailed me and not heard back, that may be a factor.) Early September may not be much better, but I promise to post again soon!

In the meantime, some links:

* Jessica Valenti on learning to love her baby through a harrowing delivery and long NICU stay


* From Birthing Beautiful Ideas, these are many of the reasons that I too love being a doula!


* Elita at Blacktating ponders the idea of the "relief bottle".


* A doula's birth story that highlights some of the ways a doula can play an important role in a planned cesarean


* The Unnecesarean links to this excellent piece on the co-opting of "pregnancy is not a disease" by anti-contraception organizations, and then breaks it down:

...this whole conversation is ridiculous. We are only having it because somebody, somewhere, is upset that women are having sexy non-babymaking funtimes they don’t approve of, and they’re determined to make us all pay for their inability to deal with not everybody agreeing with them that this is bad.

Go on, read the whole thing!


* And for the lighter side of things... I've just discovered the webcomic Married to the Sea, and in celebration they clearly did a comic just for me:



There are lots more!

On the road

Posting lull as I'm on the road - visiting family and friends, then heading to a wedding. Welcome to any of you finding this blog through Facebook - one of my favorite posts on "trying" to have a natural birth is making the rounds, I see!

More posts when I get home again, including (maybe? could it be?) the end of my MPH series.

In the meantime, enjoy some talk about women's bodies and the responsibility society places on women to police their own sexuality:

The lesson, ladies, is that great cleavage comes with great responsibility. People who shame women for wearing “too-revealing” clothes like to center their objections on women’s clothing “choices,” but make no mistake—this is not about what we choose. This is about the things we don’t choose—having chests or butts or legs or necks or hair or any other part of our human bodies that others decide to project their particular sexual interests—and their slut-shaming—upon. The man who is horrified at a woman’s “overly exposed” breasts will likely never have to worry about wearing one shirt—one shirt out of a lifetime of shirts—that happens to accidentally set off some random person’s slut meter, because of the way his body just is. And because my breasts are smaller, less visible, less imposing than other women’s breasts—because there’s less boob there—I can feel free to wear the more revealing top without attracting claims of public obscenity. It seems that some women’s bodies are just naturally sluttier than other women’s bodies—and all women’s bodies are naturally sluttier than men’s bodies.

This is also about the things we "choose", like "choosing" to breastfeed, which is a normal and physiological part of mothering, having all this same b.s. projected on them. It's a shame we ladies are just so normally and physiologically slutty.

Great new blogs, and a minor LC update

You can take a look at my blogroll (greatly in need of updating) for many of the blogs I love. But I thought I'd highlight a few new (or new-to-me) that I've been enjoying:

First the Egg is not exactly new, as it's a expanded reincarnation of Feminist Childbirth Studies, but it's new enough! It's not just a blog but also a "nonsexist space for people who want to learn, reflect, commiserate, or laugh about being pregnant, giving birth, and helping children grow up whole and happy." There are feminist resources on pregnancy & birth (including breastfeeding), parenting, and women's health.

A Midwifery Journey is the blog of a nursing student who has been applying to CNM programs. She blogged a bunch about her impressions of various schools and opportunities, and has recently decided on Yale. It's been an educational and helpful read for me, given my constant personal swirling vortex of thoughts about the future ("midwife? yes? no? yes? no?" would be a short version, maybe someday I'll post the long version). I'm looking forward to hearing more about her experiences!

The Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine's new blog is great! With posts on the science, medicine, and policy of breastfeeding, this is quickly becoming a new favorite for me. Check out the post on how to critically evaluate media reports of breastfeeding studies, and the studies themselves.

That's all for today! I have a training all day, every day this week for my LC course. It's a review workshop for people interested in lactation support/planning to be LCs/planning to sit the exam. It's a mix of good, interesting stuff and a little more boring, less useful stuff, as is almost every workshop and/or conference. It does feel like a very solid review of everything we've learned this year which is both good and bad: good to review everything and get it compressed into one place in our heads (and notebooks) before the exam. Bad (or at least less good) not to be learning so much new stuff. We were talking in the car on the way back about how since we're the first class to go through this LC training, we're the guinea pigs for things like our textbook (there will be a different one used next year) and this review course (TBD if they require it again next year). The disadvantage is, of course, being guinea pigs for the things that don't work; but considering the plans to expand the training next year, I feel so lucky to have been a member of this first small class. The close relationships we've been able to forge with each other and with our precepting LCs have been so wonderful. And even when I'm getting bored in the workshop, I sit there and remind myself how incredibly lucky I am to have gotten the chance to do the training this year. I just cross my fingers that I can find a way to keep doing clinical, hands-on work with breastfeeding dyads. It is one of my favorite things in the world to do!