Category Archives: Choice

Newsworthy 11/11/08

One week after our historic election of Barack Obama as the 44th president of the United States, here’s a very interesting article on what his presidency might mean for Women’s Health (of the non-”airquotes” variety), namely improved access to birth control and sex education (i.e. the federal government no longer funding abstinence-only programs), a reversal [...]

Also posted in Complications, Contraception, Education, Feminism, Labor and Birth, Politics, Pregnancy, Research, Sex and Sexuality, Women's Health | 4 Comments

New hope for South Dakota

As reported by the Daily Kos, a rigorous new poll shows that Measure 11, South Dakota’s latest attempt to ban abortion, might not pass as easily as everyone originally thought.  South Dakota’s initial attempt to ban abortion in 2006 was defeated by 56% to 44%, mainly because the bill included no exceptions for victims of [...]

Also posted in Feminism, Politics, Women's Health | 3 Comments

ACOG’s Statement on Homebirths

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) recently issued a Statement on Homebirth which condemns homebirth and all those who are willing to attend homebirth (aka midwives), concluding that only “…the safest setting for labor, delivery, and the immediate postpartum period is in the hospital, or a birthing center within a hospital complex, that [...]

Also posted in Birth Centers, Homebirth, Hospitals, Labor and Birth, Politics | 2 Comments

Grassroots Birth Survey

The other day I discovered a postcard at my local yoga center urging women to participate in a birth survey, which instantly piqued my interest; apparently this survey has already been going on for some time, although I have only now heard about it. A little research has revealed that the Coalition for Improving Maternity [...]

Also posted in Birth Centers, Homebirth, Hospitals, Midwifery, Politics, Pregnancy, Research | 1 Comment

Female Genital Circumcision revisited

A few weeks ago, Dark Daughta over at One Tenacious Baby Mama asked me for a contribution to her new weekly series entitled Reloaded, which happens every Sunday and features old posts that are worth posting and reading a second time (oldies but goodies, as she calls them). She wanted posts that I was particularly [...]

Also posted in Education, Feminism, Myth, Folklore and Ritual, Politics, Sex and Sexuality, Violence Against Women | Leave a comment

Old and New News Roundup 10/2/07

So, I’m back in the blogosphere again, and realizing that I’ve been missing a lot of important news by taking a vacation for a few months. Here’s a quick overview of some of the stories I’ve found most pressing (and/or impressive) lately, even though some of these stories are old news by blog standards, and [...]

Also posted in Breastfeeding, Education, Feminism, Midwifery, Politics, Women's Health | 2 Comments

UK midwife responds

My post last week on the UK’s new birth agenda Maternity Matters prompted a UK midwife, Anna Skye, to write the following response on her blog Tales of Midwifery—the Truth. Rather a much-needed reality check, I suppose, to someone (yours truly) whose knowledge of the matter was based only on what she was reading in [...]

Also posted in Homebirth, Hospitals, Labor and Birth, Midwifery, Miscellaneous, Politics | Leave a comment

Supreme Court upholds abortion ban

Like we didn’t see this coming: as predicted, the newly revamped the Supreme Court is doing its best to steadily chip away at women’s rights without actually having to lift a finger against Roe v. Wade, and in the process is opening the door for State legislatures to enact even more restrictive abortion legislation on [...]

Also posted in Feminism, News, Politics | Leave a comment

UK’s new birth agenda: “Maternity Matters”

So, I didn’t think I’d be doing much blogging over my holiday, but as luck would have it, there’s a big debate about birth occurring in England right now—so big it’s been splashed across the pages of many of the newspapers I’ve been reading, and absolutely impossible to ignore. UK Health Secretary, Patricia Hewitt, recently [...]

Also posted in Homebirth, Hospitals, Labor and Birth, Midwifery, Politics | 5 Comments

Newsworthy

So, I’ve been a bit incommunicado thanks to the intensity of my clinical schedule, and the fact that last week was our first exam, and I was busy spending every spare minute studying for it (I’m very pleased to report that I did well on my exam, despite my deepest concerns regarding my sincere lack [...]

Also posted in Feminism, Issues, Midwifery, News, Politics, Primary Care, Research, STDs, Women's Health | 2 Comments