Category Archives: Contraception

The history of Planned Parenthood

By The Midwife | Published: February 11, 2012

This is a few weeks old, but it’s absolutely fascinating: Jill Lapore’s article Birthright: What’s next for Planned Parenthood in the New Yorker chronicling the history of  Planned Parenthood and the birth control movement, and how that movement became politicized, and then later violently attacked, and now so deeply partisan and entrenched in the public consciousness that […]

Also posted in Choice, Feminism, Politics, Women's Health | 1 Comment

The Fight for Planned Parenthood

By The Midwife | Published: February 23, 2011

And now, on to the national scene.  As I’m sure everyone knows by now, the House voted last Friday 240 – 185 to defund Planned Parenthood, which has 800 clinics across the nation and provides thousands of women with family planning, birth control, STD treatment, pap smears, and primary gynecological health care annually (and yes, […]

Also posted in Choice, Feminism, Fertility and Conception, Politics, Primary Care, Women's Health | Leave a comment

Plan B available, but still not easy to get

By The Midwife | Published: December 2, 2008

This is an interesting story about how difficult it was for a woman to obtain Plan B from Walgreen’s, over on the Consumerist.  Apparently the folks at her local Walgreen’s in Oxford, MS, tried to insist that she wait for one hour before getting the Plan B, as well as giving her literature on adoption, […]

Also posted in Feminism, Miscellaneous, Primary Care | 1 Comment

Newsworthy 11/11/08

By The Midwife | Published: November 11, 2008

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 Choice, Complications, Education, Feminism, Labor and Birth, Politics, Pregnancy, Research, Sex and Sexuality, Women's Health | 4 Comments

FDA approves Plan B for OTC sales

By The Midwife | Published: August 24, 2006

This just arrived in my inbox, moments ago. I can’t find a single news story written about this yet, in any of the papers. Is it really possible for a blog to beat the newspapers when it comes to a story? Neato! We did it! At 9:20 a.m. today, the FDA approved over-the-counter access to […]

Also posted in Choice, Politics, Women's Health | 1 Comment

Contra-contraception

By The Midwife | Published: May 11, 2006

Better late than never: check out this article from the New York Times magazine last weekend, which featured a long, in-depth look at the growing anti-contraception movement in America. A few highlights includes a detailed description of the entire Plan B over-the-counter approval-process debacle which happened last year, culminating in the resignation of Susan Woods, […]

Also posted in Choice, Feminism, Politics, Sex and Sexuality | Leave a comment

The anti-birth control/anti-abortion band wagon

By The Midwife | Published: March 23, 2006

Seems like ever since the FDA announced that two more women have died after taking RU-486, one of the drugs used during a medical abortion, the abortion debate has reached a new pitch as pro-lifers have eagerly added this news to their arsenal and pro-choicers have feverishly girded themselves for pitched battle. Naturally, this has […]

Also posted in Choice, Feminism, Politics | 1 Comment

IUD Insertion!

By The Midwife | Published: February 24, 2006

I inserted my first IUD today! I did it mostly on my own, with my preceptor checking my sounding and talking me through the procedure, and I was amazed by how simple it was. After learning all of the steps in school, and being tested on them during our IUD check-outs, it seemed like a […]

Also posted in Clinicals, Education | 1 Comment

Lions and tigers and tenaculums, oh my!

By The Midwife | Published: January 24, 2006

The IUD, I’m beginning to learn, is a much maligned form of contraception. It got a terrible reputation in the US because of all of the furor surrounding the Dalkon Shield in the 1970s, however, the two modern versions of the IUD (ParaGaurd, aka The Copper-T, and Mirena, aka The Hormonal One) are actually safe, […]

Also posted in Academia, Education | 9 Comments

Menstrual Magic

By The Midwife | Published: January 9, 2006

The curse, the red tide, my period, my monthly, my friend, on the rag, on the spurt, and on and on. All the jokes, all the whining, all the bitching, all the unfair media portrayal, the cultural stigma, the fear, the shame…menstruation gets such a bad rep that, at the very least, I felt it […]

Also posted in Academia, Fertility and Conception, Menstruation, Primary Care | 2 Comments