Archive for Womens Health News
Yesterday I went to the Tomato Art Fest here in Nashville. It was almost 100 degrees out, and I was coated head to toe in sunscreen (good thing, because there was practically no shade). I really enjoyed much of the tomato art at the Art & Invention Gallery, especially the handful of pieces that made me laugh out loud. I got to see Whit Hill & the Postcards perform. I love them, and didn’t realize until their show that they have relocated from Detroit to Nashville. I also had the cantelope popsicle from Las Paletas. Yum.
On to items of interest from the week:
This past week was the first annual Latina Week of Action for Reproductive Justice, and Nuestra Vida, Nuestra Voz has a blog carnival rounding up posts from the week.
Joan has had two abortions! They are just wrapping up 1964, so New York state is not going to decriminalize abortion for another five years. That makes two television series this season taking a pretty normal approach to abortion, presenting it in a straightforward way as the extremely common choice that it is.
The first, which we talked about earlier, was Friday Night Lights. I can’t talk about that one anymore for now because I’ve been instructed by my Our Bodies Our Blog partner Christine that I need to start at the beginning and not just keep watching from here. 
Relatedly, abortion gang notes what is lacking in some common forms of anti-abortion “information” online.
The FDA approved a new emergency contraceptive drug approved for use up to 5 days after contraceptive failure/unprotected sex (existing EC products are approved for 3 days). This was pretty well expected after the FDA’s Advisory Committee for Reproductive Health Drugs recommended approval back in June.
Bitch has “a selection of books on fat acceptance and fat bodies in general” that they recommend.
The Blog That Ate Manhattan has what I think is an important post about the tube feeding of dementia patients.
Anna at FWD/Forward has an interesting post about glasses as “an assistive tech[nology] that is very normalized, and yet doesn’t appear very often in our media,” including discussion of how media representations of glasses still serve as a code to convey meanings about a character that have very little (if anything) to do with actual visual acuity. It’s also a very useful post for easing into thinking about representations of other disabilities and assistive technologies.
Mom’s Tinfoil Hat points to the article she co-authored on Social Media, Power, and the Future of VBAC.
Rachel Maddow has been doing a pretty good job covering the need to end Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.
INCITE! passes along a call for submissions for This Bridge Called My Baby: Legacies of Radical Mothering.
Filed under: Abortion, Access, Rights, & Choice, Body Image & Eating Disorders, Contraception, Drugs, Events & Observances, Government, Miscellaneous, News Round-Ups 
Posted on August 15, 2010 | Filed under Womens Health News | Permalink
This is a neat little tidbit: The National Library of Medicine is apparently planning what they’re calling a “hackathon” to make data on medications and breastfeeding more readily available.
There is already the LactMed database from NLM which provides pretty detailed summaries of the possible effects of prescription and OTC drugs on lactation and breastfeeding infants. Unfortunately, this rich data source doesn’t look very user friendly and I think is not very widely known about by the general public.
According to this Government Health IT piece, NLM plans to invite:
a variety of interested parties to the event, including data experts, researchers from the National Institutes of Health’s Office of Research on Women’s Health, representatives of the La Leche League, pediatricians, breastfeeding mothers who blog and experts on Web services and application programming interfaces.
Then these folks are going to spend a day talking about how to take LactMed apart and put it back together in more user-friendly ways. I have recommended LactMed as a data source to folks before, but it’s definitely not the most welcoming interface. This process has the potential to make really useful information more widely known and much more usable, so I’m looking forward to seeing what comes out of it this fall!
Filed under: Breastfeeding, Events & Observances, Government 
Posted on August 12, 2010 | Filed under Womens Health News | Permalink
Reviewing the “Navigating the Healthcare System” chapter for the 40th anniversary edition of “Our Bodies, Ourselves”
There is a brand new edition of the “Our Bodies, Ourselves” book coming out next year, and the team is hard at work writing, reviewing, and editing this 40th anniversary edition. I was asked to serve as a reviewer for the “Navigating the Healthcare System” chapter, which focuses on evaluating online sources of health information, understanding research literature and health information in the media, accessing affordable care, and getting the most out of health care generally (such as prepping for doctor visits and your rights as a patient). I’ve just returned a ton of comments, suggestions, and additions that I think could help improve and strengthen the content, and I hope the editorial team doesn’t regret asking me for input when they see it!
I’m really looking forward to seeing the completed new edition. When the first stapled newsprint edition of Our Bodies, Ourselves was published in 1970, there were almost no other resources for women to learn about their bodies and share their experiences. Now, of course, the amount of information and resources on women’s health has exploded. For this reason, the new edition will not attempt to cover all women’s health topics, but instead will focus primarily on reproductive health and sexuality.
If you’ve not seen them, there have been additional updates between 1970 and today, including recent books focused specifically on menopause and on pregnancy and birth, and translations and adaptations in many other languages. It’s exciting to me to have a small part in the evolution of these works!
Assorted mystery new things at work
We have several projects going on at work that I can’t quite detail at the moment, but that are making work more fun and interesting and challenging these days. I’m also newly working as the clinical librarian for our Emergency Department, just for a little more newness in the mix. It’s not exactly *easy* at the moment, but it’s never dull.
Fruits and vegetables
I’m totally serious. I love summer produce. I love farmers’ markets. I love that our neighbors left a bag of homegrown tomatoes on our doorknob; I’ve been eating whole ones as snacks, and had some some cucumber and tomato sandwiches (one of my absolute favorite foods). Okay, so I love all the other fresh produce, too, but am fixated on tomatoes. If you’ve ever heard of the awesomeness of the Grainger County Tomato, I grew up in the next county over, with family members who grew their own tomatoes as well. Nothing beats an in-season, homegrown tomato.
Filed under: Miscellaneous 
Posted on August 9, 2010 | Filed under Womens Health News | Permalink
I groaned earlier this week when an energy conservation reminder from the larger workplace indicated that “Temperatures in Middle Tennessee are predicted to hit 100° F this week and to remain in the high 90s throughout the rest of August.” Ugh. I know every summer is hot, but as a local news station’s weather blog says,
So far this year we have logged 48 days at Nashville where the afternoon highs hit at least 90 degrees. The typical summer we get 44 days in the 90’s and we still have all of August to get through.
Who’s got my popsicles and sprinkler?
WPLN has links for where to go to cool off around Nashville in addition to a Red Cross cooling shelter. Suggested sites for getting out of the heat include our 21 public library locations.
The CDC has tips for anyone experiencing extreme heat, including these hot weather tips.
Filed under: Libraryland, Miscellaneous 
Posted on August 6, 2010 | Filed under Womens Health News | Permalink
The court decision that ruled unconstitutional Proposition 8 – a ballot initiative which banned same sex marriage in California – has no shortage of online coverage and commentary. Seriously, just google news & blog search it; you don’t need additional comments from me. Instead, I’m highlighting a couple of the passages that make me all happy.
I have a warm fuzzy feeling about the following passage that is almost indecent:
Many of the purported interests identified by proponents are nothing more than a fear or unarticulated dislike of same-sex couples. Those interests that are legitimate are unrelated to the classification drawn by Proposition 8. The evidence shows that, by every available metric, opposite-sex couples are not better than their same-sex counterparts; instead, as partners, parents and citizens, opposite-sex couples and same-sex couples are equal. Proposition 8 violates the Equal Protection Clause because it does not treat them equally.
Yeah, I know, there’s a stay on it so nobody can go get married just yet. But still. Here are a few more lines I liked:
Moral disapproval alone is an improper basis on which to deny rights to gay men and lesbians.
Proposition 8 thus enshrines in the California Constitution a gender restriction that the evidence shows to be nothing more than an artifact of a foregone notion that men and women fulfill different roles in civic life.
The right to marry has been historically and remains the right to choose a spouse and, with mutual consent, join together and form a household. Race and gender restrictions shaped marriage during eras of race and gender inequality, but such restrictions were never part of the historical core of the institution of marriage. Today, gender is not relevant to the state in determining spouses’ obligations to each other and to their dependents. ..Gender no longer forms an essential part of marriage; marriage under law is a union of equals.
Christine has her own favorite passage and additional coverage over at Our Bodies Our Blog.
Filed under: Access, Rights, & Choice, Laws, Legislation, & Courts 
Posted on August 6, 2010 | Filed under Womens Health News | Permalink
Not too long ago, I went to see my primary care provider (a nurse-practitioner), and felt after the appointment that something was missing, that in some manner I did not receive proper and complete care. How was my experience incomplete? The lack of a physical exam. A nurse had taken my blood pressure (twice, actually), but never once did my NP actually lay a hand on me, nor was I ever on the exam table. There was no opening to say “aaaaahhhh,” no deep breaths on each side.
Nothing was *wrong* that prompted my visit. I just needed to talk to my provider about something I was experiencing and make a plan to deal with it. We had a conversation, face to face on equal footing (a positive, I think), about my concerns and a plan for tackling them. Logically, nothing about the reason I was there suggested a need to listen to my heart or lungs, or to look in my ears, nose, or throat. And yet, I still felt as though something was missing, as though something had been neglected.
Dr. Daniell Ofri writes about this very issue today in the New York Times, in the piece “Not on the Doctor’s Checklist, but Touch Matters.” She notes, of course, the very thing I had decided on my own – that the hands-on approach was not strictly necessary for my care. Ofri writes:
Despite a long and storied tradition, a physical exam is more a habit than a clinically proven method of picking up disease in asymptomatic people. There is scant evidence to suggest that routinely listening to every healthy person’s lungs, or pressing on every normal person’s liver, will find a disease that wasn’t suggested by the patient’s history. For a healthy person, an “abnormal finding” on physical exam is more likely to be a false positive than a real sign of illness.
I know all of this. I knew it at the time of my visit, and when I considered what felt absent afterward. I really like my NP, recommend her frequently, and have a comfortable working relationship with her with regards to my health. I was reminded, though, of this talk I went to by Dr. Abraham Verghese (author of My Own Country, and Cutting for Stone), and the emphasis he placed on touch, on ritual, on the difference between curing and healing, and the ability of physicians to heal the sense of violation of an injury or illness can bring through high-touch methods of engaging with the patient. Verghese’s words really rang true for me, and perhaps primed me to notice the lack of touch at my own provider visit in the first place.
As I noted in the Sunday round-up, Verghese was recently interviewed for PBS about this subject, and spoke about current Western medicine’s reliance “on technology, in a system that stresses cognitive knowledge and machines over the skill that comes from touch and feel.” Similarly, Ofri concludes that:
Touch is inherently humanizing, and for a doctor-patient relationship to have meaning beyond that of a business interaction, there needs to be trust — on both ends. As has been proved in newborn nurseries, and intuited by most doctors, nurses and patients, one of the most basic ways to establish trust is to touch. ..Which is why a doctor’s visit never feels complete without a physical exam. It is a crucial part of the doctor-patient relationship that cannot be underestimated. One doesn’t need a scientific study to prove that.
It’s comforting me in some way to have this absence I felt validated by physicians, even though my logical mind knows that there was no necessity for, no clinical diagnostic purpose which would have been served by, a look in my head and a listen to my chest. I’m not even a very touchy-feely person, so it’s unusual for me to give such matters a second thought. Perhaps it’s just the habit, the ritual, of those aaaahhhs and deep breaths. It’s observing the proper forms in a way, an opening in which I say, “I will let you into this space of mine, from where we can work on my health.” I can’t explain it in evidence-based scientific terms, but according to Ofri, I may not need to – the need for humanization through touch is, perhaps, enough of an explanation for us all.
Filed under: Health, Miscellaneous 
Posted on August 3, 2010 | Filed under Womens Health News | Permalink
Some items of interest this week:
Following up on the 20th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, just a note to check out @Disabilitygov on Twitter, which tweets disability-related news and resources and is tied to the U.S. government site, disability.gov.
Also, a new document has been released by the government, Access To Medical Care For Individuals With Mobility Disabilities. It is intended to be an educational tool for health care providers, as it provides standards and answers to frequently asked questions about patient care, but could also be a good tool for individuals who need to raise accessibility concerns with providers. There is also a PDF version that could be downloaded and printed.
At Academic Ob/Gyn, Dr. Nicholas Fogelson describes his dislike for the term “unnecesarean,” and a lengthy and fascinating comment thread followed (377 comments at my last check). A lot of the comments are more hostile than I think is productive, but there are some interesting threads about meaning, communication, patient engagement, authority, and empathy, if you look for them.
Robin Marty at RHRC is talking about a proposed law to implement fertilized egg personhood in Colorado. It would define the term “person” to apply to “every human being from the beginning of
the biological development of that human being.”
The World Health Organization reminds us that Aug 1-7 is World Breastfeeding Week (the website kind of hurts my eyes, but there seems to be some info/resources there).
The author of The Blog That Ate Manhattan was interviewed for womenshealth.gov.
eastsidekate at Shakesville points to a really disturbing account of atransphobic emergency medicine encounter.
CNN induces shudders: Meet the critters inside your mattress.
This news article talks about CPR and whether you can get by just doing the chest compressions without the breathing. Relatedly, I recently added this free CPR and Choking app to the work iPad (it’s actually an iPhone app), which provides neat videos of how to perform the relevant rescue techniques.
From PBS’s NewsHour, Doctor Stresses Intuition of Touch, Not Technology – it’s an interview with Dr. Abraham Verghese (video + transcript). I attended an enjoyed a talk from Dr. Verghese earlier this year.
The Abortioneers talk about the barriers immigrant women may face obtaining legal abortions in America, such as difficulties in accessing willing pro-choice interpreters.
The Incite! blog points out a call for submissions for Dear Sister: Letters to Survivors of Sexual Violence.
Over at Our Bodies Our Blog, C and I had posts on Reactions to the New ACOG Statement on VBAC, midwifery legislation in Massachusetts, and protests in Georgia responding to so-called “pro-life freedom rides.”
Finally, you really have to check out Inside insides, which features MRIs of food (mostly vegetables). I really love the celery one for some reason.
Filed under: Abortion, Abuse, Rape, & Safety, Access, Rights, & Choice, Birth, Global Issues, Laws, Legislation, & Courts, Miscellaneous, News Round-Ups 
Posted on August 2, 2010 | Filed under Womens Health News | Permalink
Ms. Magazine Associate Editor Jessica Stites is apparently soliciting suggestions of great feminist books for young adults for a Best of Feminist YA Fiction List for the Fall issue of Ms. Magazine.
To contribute your suggestions and see the recommendations of others, go to this page at Goodreads – you’ll have to join the site (it’s free, and I use it) in order to share your books or rate books on the list.
I know Ms. is often criticized for reflecting the concerns of only certain types of feminists – this is one chance to participate and draw attention to feminist books that reflect broader experiences. As a librarian, I’d love to hear people’s suggestions as well.
Filed under: Libraryland 
Posted on July 29, 2010 | Filed under Womens Health News | Permalink
Okay, the concept for this test has apparently been around for 25 years, but I just learned about it, and I thought it was too good to bury in the round-up. The Bechdel Test is a simple one. To pass it, a movie must meet these criteria:
(1) it has to have at least two women in it, who
(2) who talk to each other, about
(3) something besides a man.
This video provides a great introduction to the concept:
For your reference, http://bechdeltest.com/ lists movies with their status on the test (such as, “There are two or more women in this movie, but they only talk to each other about a man.”) Users can add to, comment on, or disagree with the status currently associated with a given film.
The comic strip that popularized the rule and a bit of backstory can be found at http://alisonbechdel.blogspot.com/2005/08/rule.html [hey, that post is from 2005, so I'm only *five* years behind there!]
Filed under: Miscellaneous 
Posted on July 26, 2010 | Filed under Womens Health News | Permalink
Some things that captured my attention or otherwise delighted me this week:
Zen Habits has 20 ways to eliminate stress that I should really pay more attention to.
Via Siobhan at Bringing Health Information to the Community, I learned about DeafMD, which provides health information in video form using American Sign Language. It includes videos on numerous diseases, understanding laboratory and imaging tests, and a searchable database of doctors they consider deaf-friendly (submitted by readers; no criteria for deaf-friendliness described).
Pam’s House Blend has the video and transcript of Dan Choi’s appearance on The Rachel Maddow Show. I have to admit, I teared up a little watching this segment. Pam has been covering Choi’s case pretty extensively, including his appearance at Netroots Nation.
Maddow has also been covering the Shirley Sherrod case extensively – not health-related, but important. There are plenty of good commentaries out there about the media, politics, and race aspects of this story, but I would also point out that it’s an important example for those of us in information work as a media literacy teaching tool. In other words, although video may seem to get us as close as possible to the truth of what a person has said or done, it’s still possible that a video snippet is not providing the whole story or the truth of the context. Smart teachers of information and media literacy will use this case as a perfect and unfortunate tool for illustrating this point.
The New York Times has a piece asking Should Patients Read the Doctor’s Notes? I say yes, regardless of physicians’ apparent fears of being sued, of being bothered with questions about their notes, of having to actually think about how patients might react to these notes *about their own bodies and medical care.* Aside from which, it’s the law that they’re able to. I’ve accessed and reviewed my own medical records fairly regularly compared to most people, I guess, and as a result have read the notes from my own partial thyroidectomy, found out the results of an allergy test the provider never bothered to get back to me about, and pondered the weirdness of a note that “patient refused breast exam” from a provider who never offered me one (and I can’t think of any reason why they would have). It’s both weird and awesome and I recommend it to everyone.
Via Culture Conductor via Derrick, I learned about Genderfork, “a supportive community for the expression of identities across the gender spectrum.” Somehow I got from there to this list awesome list of recommended reading to explore; there are book posts on the site itself, too.
Relatedly, Lee Wind at I’m Here I’m Queer What the Hell Do I Read? has a post on where one should buy their books and the effect that choice has, including a plug for local libraries and their interlibrary loan services.
While we’re on libraries, my OBOS co-blogger Christine also posts for the MacArthur Foundation’s Spotlight on Digital Media and Learning (which has some really cool info). One of her recent posts has a nice libraries focus, PLAYBACK: Why Libraries? Why Books? And Why Study at Harold B. Lee?
Over at OBOS, we’ve had posts this past week on Avastin, DCIS, and early breast cancer detection, ACOG’s new VBAC recommendations (which place an increased emphasis on informed decision-making and patient autonomy), a new microbicide discussed at the recent International AIDS Conference, shackling of incarcerated women during labor, and a book review of “Willing and Unable: Doctors’ Constraints in Abortion Care.”
There’s a new Cochrane review on the efficacy of hormonal contraceptives in overweight or obese women. I haven’t read it yet, but it’s on my list.
Robin Marty at RHRC reports from the The View from Under the Bus: The Search for Common Ground on Abortion panel at Netroots Nation.
In horrifying news of the week, Uzbek women accuse state of mass sterilizations. There are no words.
Via Deeply Problematic, Vaseline Issues “Skin-Whitening” App for Facebook. Unilever’s response to CBS News was apparently basically, “but it’s for the Indian market!”
The GAO released a new report, Direct-To-Consumer Genetic Tests: Misleading Test Results Are Further Complicated by Deceptive Marketing and Other Questionable Practices. The New York Times’s Prescriptions blog also has some notes/coverae on this story.
Locally, I’m hoping to go see the play “41″ – a reflection on the Stonewall riots – at the Darkhorse Theater in Nashville next weekend. Out & About has more.
Filed under: Abortion, Abuse, Rape, & Safety, Advertising/Marketing, Birth, Boobs, Contraception, Events & Observances, HIV/AIDS, Libraryland, Pregnancy, Web Resources 
Posted on July 26, 2010 | Filed under Womens Health News | Permalink
Over at Our Bodies Our Blog, I have a review of Lori Freedman’s new book, “Willing and Unable: Doctors’ Constraints in Abortion Care.” I really enjoyed the book as it covered aspects of the provider equation of abortion access that I haven’t thought much about until reading it.
The topic of the book – the reasons why physicians who are not ideologically opposed to providing abortion and are trained to do so are not providing them in the course of their practice – ties in nicely to a recent article in the New York Times, “The New Abortion Providers,” if you read that in this Sunday’s magazine.
As a bit of local interest, the book is published by the larger workplace’s Vanderbilt University Press.
Filed under: Abortion, Access, Rights, & Choice, Reviews 
Posted on July 19, 2010 | Filed under Womens Health News | Permalink
A few things that caught my eye this week:
Heather at Scarleteen is inviting people to participate in a new series in which people of two generations discuss their experiences, such as of teen motherhood, being trans, lesbian, gay, bisexual, intersex, HIV positive, or asexual, abortion, surviving rape and sexual abuse, and other topics listed here. See the post and send her an email if you’re interested in participating.
Amy at Science and Sensibility recommends Trish Greenhalgh’s book, How to a Read a Paper, and I definitely second that recommendation. Great, clear stuff on understanding study design and interpretation.
The New York Times Magazine has a great piece, The New Abortion Providers, on barriers physicians face in providing abortion and integrating it into mainstream medical care. Christine has a post commenting on this at Our Bodies Our Blog, and later this week I will have a review there of a related book on the topic.
Via PZ Myers at Pharyngula, I saw this hilarious (hilarious in that depressing way) take on the model Disney provides for young women, from the Second City Network:
Last week, NPR has a story on the practice of shackling incarcerated women during labor and delivery. It points out that only 10 states have laws against this practice, despite recommendations from professional medical organizations against the practice and the exceeding rarity of escape attempts by very pregnant women.
This terrible excuse for a person – Ron Ramsey – is running for Governor in Tennessee. He actually says (right around 4:43 in the video): “You could even argue whether being a Muslim is actually a religion or is it a nationality, way of life or cult, whatever you want to call it.” Needless to say, I will not be voting for Ramsey. I would encourage others not to vote for him, either.
Ramsey’s remarks are related to a bunch of similarly terrible excuses for people who are protesting the building of a mosque in Murfreesboro, TN.
Renee at Womanist Musings has a post talking about abortion and adoption, that people often try to talk women out of abortion by telling them they will regret it, but that there is very little talk about adoption-related regret – “It’s interesting that in this society — that supposedly respects and honours mothers, that once again their voices are muted to push an ideological position. ” Someone has already recommended the book, The Girls Who Went Away, in the comments. Wake Up Little Susie is another book on a similar theme.
The MedlinePlus consumer health information site from the National Library of Medicine has a new look. Siobhan reviews some of the changes. There is lots and lots of non-English-language health info for patients at this site.
Finally, found via Speak to Power, a Scottish public service ad explaining that nobody “asks for it” (even with their clothing choices) with regard to rape.
Filed under: Abortion, Abuse, Rape, & Safety, Access, Rights, & Choice, Advertising/Marketing, Birth, Body Image & Eating Disorders, Funny, Government, Miscellaneous, News Round-Ups, Pregnancy, Sex & Sex Education, Web Resources, Women’s Health 
Posted on July 19, 2010 | Filed under Womens Health News | Permalink
I spent a good chunk of yesterday reading a book (Fresh: A Perishable History) while listening to/watching C-SPAN BookTV‘s coverage of the 2010 Harlem Book Fair (this is a special kind of book-obsessed geekery).
For whatever reason, C-SPAN has these videos set as “not shareable” and “not embeddable,” so you’ll have to go to the actual sites to see them; I have managed to provide a direct link to the video clip of interest.
First, there is a panel discussion on diversity in children’s and young adult publishing. This panel features authors Nick Burd, Jerry Craft, and Zetta Elliott, along with Wade Hudson and Cheryl Willis Hudson of Just Us Books, and Vanesse J Lloyd-Sgambati of the African American Children’s Book Project. Librarians may be interested in discussion of the need to collect children’s and young adult books that reflect a variety of ethnicities and skin tones. The panelists also spoke about the need for parents to have books in the home, and the problem of the assumption that children’s books featuring white characters are for all children while books featuring non-white characters are assumed to be only for the populations they depict.
A second panel of interest was the biography and memoir panel, which might provide some to-read or “to buy for the library” suggestions. It featured the following authors talking about their lives and books:
Finally, BookTV also aired an event from the recent American Libraries Assocation meeting featuring author Mary McDonagh Murphy talking about the impact of Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird” and her book, “Scout, Atticus & Boo: A Celebration of Fifty Years of To Kill a Mockingbird.” The discussion also features celebrity librarian Nancy Pearl.
Filed under: Events & Observances, Libraryland 
Posted on July 19, 2010 | Filed under Womens Health News | Permalink
The recently published Wax meta-analysis in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology has caused quite a stir, primarily because of the authors’ conclusion that “Less medical intervention during planned home birth is associated with a tripling of the neonatal mortality rate.” At Our Bodies Our Blog, I detail some of the questions raised by this analysis, and why I don’t think this paper on its own actually adds very much clear knowledge to our understanding of home birth safety and outcomes.
It’s a rather long post, but covers a number of issues including the authors’ framing of their findings, the lack of detailed reporting/analysis of methods and data from the original papers, the neonatal death issue, and questions of attendant type and unplanned home birth. Come on over and join the discussion.
Filed under: Access, Rights, & Choice, Birth 
Posted on July 19, 2010 | Filed under Womens Health News | Permalink
At Our Bodies Our Blog, I have a post on Health Care Reform and Family Planning, including information on the new option for states to provide family planning coverage to low income folks who make too much money to qualify for Medicaid, and a provision to cover preventive care and screenings for women, along with discussion of whether contraception might get included as a preventive service.
Co-blogger-in-chief Christine has her own post on the recent abortion episode of Friday Night Lights, and more tv talk.
And while I’m OBOS-talking, can I just remind people that Our Bodies Ourselves is so much more than just that one, first book from 1970 that you might have been given by your cool mom or aunt back when you were a teenager? There’s the blog, of course, where C and I do our best to provide timely updates and discussion of important women’s health issues. There also have been several updates of the landmark book since back in the day, and a 40th anniversary edition is expected next year. OBOS also has a Global Translation/Adaptation Program to work with women’s groups around the globe to produce relevant adaptations of the work. For example, Hebrew, Arabic, Armenian and Chinese projects are currently in the works. Meanwhile, focused books on menopause and on pregnancy and birth have been released in the past few years. I think it’s awesome that so many women have fond memories of the old (and groundbreaking) edition of the book, but thought I’d take the opportunity to remind people of the work that’s still happening today!
Filed under: Abortion, Access, Rights, & Choice, Contraception, Government, Health 
Posted on July 15, 2010 | Filed under Womens Health News | Permalink
As someone who grew up in the rural south very near the University of Tennessee’s cult of Big Orange football, the idea of spending time watching a tv show centered around small town football is normally about as appealing to me as beating my head against a wall. I seriously would rather take a two-hour math test than pretend to give a crap about a high school football game. Been there, moved away from that.
As such, I’ve never seen a single episode of Friday Night Lights.
However, there has been plenty of hoopla about an “abortion episode” of the show (see RHRC and Feminsting, for example). I kind of had to watch it, given how – despite the estimated 1/3 of U.S. women who will have abortions in their lifetimes – the issue is usually not presented at all or swept under the rug with a convenient miscarriage or some other such avoidance strategy.
I want to be clear that without having watched the show, there may be some context or back story that is relevant that I’m missing. I definitely do not know character names, so they may be described by their role/relationships below. Without further ado, my thoughts as I watch it (via Hulu, MAJOR SPOILER ALERTS, I guess):
- Scenes from the last: there’s a teen girl, she’s pregnant, she doesn’t know what she’s going to do and is “so scared.”
- Hey, it’s a tiny church! And they are so proud of a kid named Luke! I’m guessing Luke is going to turn out to be the biological dad of our terrifying fetus.
- Football, football, buzz, buzz….
- Boy: “How you doin’?” Girl: “Well, I woke up this morning and I’m still pregnant, so..had better days.”
- Boy insists Girl needs to talk to her mom, because “she’ll understand.”
- Boy (Tim, who is not the dad) forces Girl’s (Becky) hand and brings it to Some Woman who is not her mom. I like that Some Woman starts out assessing the situation by asking Becky if she anticipates physical harm if she tells her mom. She also asks whether the guy knows, and encourages her to tell her mom as soon as possible.
- Some Woman brings up free medical care available during pregnancy and an adoption agency; Becky asks what happens if she doesn’t *want* to have the baby. Some woman says “I can direct you to a [unintelligible word] for that.” I seriously have no idea what she says there. It sounds like “Little Richard.” Ah, closed captioning says it’s “literature.”
[ad on Hulu on HIV awareness for Asians/Pacific Islanders]
- More football. Cut to Becky and Another Some Woman at a table, eating food. Another Some Woman is kind of annoying, even in <5 seconds. I'm gonna guess that's Becky's mom. Becky blurts out, "I'm pregnant." Denial ensues. Then outrage.
- Okay, first Some Woman seems to be the wife of Football Coach Guy. Some Woman tells Football Coach Guy that Becky and this guy turned up to talk about being pregnant. SW an FCG seem to have a daughter about the same age as pregnant Becky. I guess this is going to turn into some kind of family talk at some point.
[There is another storyline here in which Some Kid's Mom overdoses and is in the hospital]
- Hey! Luke, recognized at Small Church, is in fact the sperm contributor to Becky’s fetus. Becky is at school and seriously annoyed with Luke, wanting to make sure he hasn’t told anyone, and not really wanting to talk about it at all.
- Hey! We’re at an abortion clinic, working through legally required counseling about probable gestational age of the fetus. Mom cuts off the doc, saying he doesn’t have to go through it all, because she’s “not having a baby, she’s having an abortion.” Doc explains that everything he’s saying is state-mandated. He says that after he finishes telling her, she can decide what she wants to do. Becky’s Mom says she’s already decided what she wants to do. They leave with Becky’s Mom complaining to Becky about having to take another day off of work so some doctor can tell them they’re trash. Becky yells that she’s sorry, but her mom tells her she does not have to be sorry.
- Now the football parents are talking about what their daughter would do in case of a “hypothetical pregnancy.” Can I count this for my “family talk” prediction?
- Luke tells his dad. His dad tells his mom, who makes a biblical Mary and Joseph analogy, which Luke rejects. Luke’s mom says they need to meet Becky, and then “we’ll figure out what to do.” It’s kind of gross for some reason I can’t quite articulate. (except maybe it’s that none of them are the one who’s pregnant!)
- Becky turns up at the home of the football coach’s wife (Some Woman) and lets her know that she’s having an abortion and her mom knows. Becky asks why she feels so weird, and is told it’s because “it’s a hard thing, this is a hard situation.”
- Becky explains that she’s in the 10th grade, has no money, and doesn’t want to throw her life away. She expresses, though, that it’s really obvious that her mom wants her to have an abortion. She feels that she was her mom’s mistake, and maybe she could take care of a baby, but it would be awful if she spent the rest of her life resenting the baby (must be a bit about how she thinks her mom thinks of her here).
- Becky asks if the Football Coach’s Wife (sorry, I still haven’t caught her name) thinks she’s going to hell if she has an abortion, and the Football Coach’s Wife tells her, “No, honey, I don’t.”
- They (Becky and the Coach’s Wife) have a conversation about what the Woman (Coach’s Wife) would tell her daughter, and she tells her she knows she’s in a real tough spot, to think about her life and what she wanted, and that she’d support whatever her decision was. Damn, isn’t that what everybody wishes they had a mom around for?
[based on the preview, it looks like Coach's Wife is going to have some work trouble based on accusations from Luke's mom that she referred Becky to an abortion clinic]
- Becky goes off to the clinic with her mom. We don’t ever actually see any scenes at the clinic, except for the mandatory counseling/waiting period scene earlier.
- Luke calls Becky to tell her she’s not alone, at which point she tells him she “took care of it.” She tells him it was the right thing to do, and cries a bit as she gets off the phone.
Overall, I thought this was a surprisingly realistic take on the topic of abortion. The manner in which Becky worked through the decision seemed fairly realistic. There was no convenient cop-out, and the show depicted trusted adults as being available for listening without forcing a particular choice on the pregnant teen. It’s exceedingly unusual to see a depiction of a character choosing abortion on television, despite their actual frequency. Kudos to Friday Night Lights (and NBC) for actually discussing the issue and doing so in a realistic way. The Atlantic also has a nice article on this episode, explaining:
That said, Becky’s ultimate decision to have an abortion on Friday Night Lights this week—and carrying it out—wasn’t the most surprising thing for me in this week’s episode. It was the nuanced, apolitical manner in which the writers depicted the reality of a teenage girl facing and dealing with the choices and consequences that surround an unwanted and unplanned pregnancy that impressed me. The episode was devoid of political posturing or grandstanding. It didn’t insult its viewers. It was classic “show-not-tell” at its best…the writers managed to allow us to see a young woman struggle with her ultimate decision to terminate her pre-born child.
[Although, really? "Pre-born child" twice in two paragraphs? [see the full text] ‘Tis a fetus, Tony Lee. Unless you want to refer to all the rest of us as post-born, pre-dead humans. In which case, I’ll withdraw my judgment that you are not so nuanced or apolitical yourself.]
Filed under: Abortion, Access, Rights, & Choice, Adolescent Health, Miscellaneous, Reviews 
Posted on July 13, 2010 | Filed under Womens Health News | Permalink
I’m taking Monday off work. Because I have the terrific privilege of paid vacation days, and have enough of them that I’ve actually topped out and will not accrue more until I take some of them.
First, a few of my recent posts at Our Bodies Our Blog that I’ve neglected to link up here:
Meanwhile, OBOS’s fearless leader Judy Norsigian has an op-ed in the Boston Globe on the high cost of medically unnecessary caesarean sections – C’s post on the piece has info and the link. Christine also has posts on Media Gone Wild: The Continuing Sexualization of Girls and Multiple Strategies to Stop It and the problems of not appropriately including women in medical research.
Now, some other stuff worth a read.
Robin at RHRC points out that Louisiana has passed – and Gov. Jindal has signed – a forced ultrasound for abortion bill for the state.
The blogger at Birthing Beautiful Ideas points to media coverage from the Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch in which Kingsdale Gynecologic Associates in which one of their docs calls it hurtful that some have called their anti-doula policy and standard “birth plan” “paternalistic and closed-minded.” BBI is more sensitive than I am in understanding that their feelings could be hurt by the critiques. I say, if they didn’t want to be called paternalistic, then they shouldn’t have developed a “birth plan” that includes, for example, language about episiotomy that says (emphasis added): “We promise to use our medical expertise and experience to make the best and safest decision for you and your baby.” Walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, etc. Can change from being a duck, with some revision of the policy and a critical look at the sorts of attitudes that underlie such phrasing.
The Unnecesarean had a blog carnival centered around the Crisis in the Crib documentary about infant mortality, especially among Black babies. I haven’t seen it yet myself, but see The U for links to commentary.
Locally, WPNT (my local public television station in Nashville, ran an installment of their Children’s Health Crisis series on infant mortality. I haven’t seen that just yet, either.
Via Womanist Musings, a call for submissions to an anthology, Occupied Bodies: Women of Color Speak on Self-Image. Click on over for details, submissions due Oct 15.
One can now follow the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report on Facebook and Twitter.
The FDA is asking for public comment “to help the agency implement a new federal law that requires the posting of calorie content and other nutrition information on menu items at certain chain restaurants and similar retail food operations and vending machines.”
Radical Doula talks about a Big victory for midwifery in New York State.
Courtney at Feministing and Cara at the Curvature talk about the passage of an Illinois law to mandate that every rape kit actually be tested.
And finally, via the librarian blogger at Pinched Nerves, this excellent LA Times opinion piece, U.S. public libraries: We lose them at our peril. The author of the piece also wrote the recent book, “This Book is Overdue!” While I’m not a total fan of that book (I like it, but my critiques are too librarian-y for this post), it’s hard to resist someone who writes:
The people who welcome us to the library are idealists, who believe that accurate information leads to good decisions and that exposure to the intellectual riches of civilization leads to a better world. The next Abraham Lincoln could be sitting in their library, teaching himself all he needs to know to save the country. While they help us get online, employed and informed, librarians don’t try to sell us anything. Nor do they turn around and broadcast our problems, send us spam or keep a record of our interests and needs, because no matter how savvy this profession is at navigating the online world, it clings to that old-fashioned value, privacy. (A profession dedicated to privacy in charge of our public computers? That’s brilliant.) They represent the best civic value out there, an army of resourceful workers that can help us compete in the world.
Filed under: Abortion, Abuse, Rape, & Safety, Access, Rights, & Choice, Birth, Body Image & Eating Disorders, Ethics, Laws, Legislation, & Courts, Libraryland, Midwifery, Miscellaneous, News Round-Ups 
Posted on July 12, 2010 | Filed under Womens Health News | Permalink
Yesterday, I received a mailer from Tennessee State Senate candidate Jeff Yarbro, who is running against incumbent Sen. Doug Henry in the Democratic primary in District 21 – my district. The campaign piece is notable for a Democrat in a state where the TN Democratic Party praises a candidate for his “pro-life” stance in party communications.
One side of Yarbro’s mailer clearly states:
“Jeff trusts women to make decisions about choice – not government.” (presented as a quote from his wife)
Hey, that sounds a lot like what I’ve argued here. And here. And here.
On the back side, the mailer includes language that “…Yarbro supports a woman’s right to choose” and that the candidate opposes SJR127 “or any other attempt to limit women’s reproductive rights.” It concludes:
“Jeff understands that this is a divisive issue and respects those who disagree with him, but he believes that there are better ways to reduce the number of abortions than putting obstacles between women and their doctors.”
Damn. Isn’t that a breath of fresh air?
You can see an image of the back side of the mailer here.
Aunt B has written a lot recently about the problems of the current Tennessee Democratic Party (TNDP). Specifically, see her post, Democratic Women of Tennessee, It’s Time to Have a Little Talk, in which she asks incredulously: “But when the Democratic party itself starts talking positively about anti-abortion candidates specifically because of their anti-abortion records, as if that’s a selling point?” Just go read her post, I’m serious. It’s a pretty clear summary of the problem I have with the Democrats-in-charge in this state.
More specific to this district race, I’ve written about my problems with Henry’s stance on abortion before. Such as when he failed to address concerns about a “death certificates for abortion” bill, and instead responded generically that, “There are certainly strong arguments in favor of the unwilling prospective mother, but I decided long ago that I would come down in favor of the child.”
Or when Sen. Henry displayed his total tone-deafness about both women AND rape, and remarked that:
“Rape, ladies and gentlemen, is not today what rape was. Rape, when I was learning these things, was the violation of a chaste woman, against her will, by some party not her spouse. Today it’s simply, ‘Let’s don’t go forward with this act.’ ”
At least one Nashville Democrat claimed that Yarbro’s stance wouldn’t go over among this district’s “decidedly an anti-choice lot”, but he didn’t ask me – I live in the district, and I’m all for it. I don’t know everything about Yarbro just yet – the mailer prompted me to start to find out more – and there are some things in the issues section of his site that I think could be problematic. Of course my opinion could change as I learn more, but at the moment I’m strongly leaning Yarbro, based simply and largely on his explicitly pro-choice position on this issue.
As a side note, I’m seriously considering writing in “next available actual Democrat” in the Democratic primary for the Gubernatorial election.
Filed under: Abortion, Access, Rights, & Choice, Events & Observances, Government 
Posted on July 11, 2010 | Filed under Womens Health News | Permalink
One more side trip, and then we’ll return to health-y posts, I’m sure. Last weekend, I went out of town and headed back to east Tennessee to meet a new niece and attend a cousin’s wedding, and got a visit to the updated* Market Square in Knoxville and a family cook-out out of the deal.
We met the sister-in-law, brother-in-law, and 6-month-old niece in Market Square for lunch on Saturday at Tomato Head. I love Tomato Head. I actively miss Tomato Head now that I’m in middle Tennessee, and have been wanting a Cheddar Head for about 6 months. The Cheddar Head is a sandwich, which I get on pita and is described simply by its ingredients: fresh spinach, organic baked tofu, roasted onion, sweetwater valley sharp cheddar, mustard & mayo, heated with tomato. Nom.
Market Square was also having a farmers’ market, which apparently happens every Wednesday and Saturday, so we poked around there, and stopped in some stores on the Square as well as Krutch Park, which has been improved since I last saw it. We also stopped in at the Mast General Store, and picked up a gift for my cousin’s wedding. If I had more disposable income and a local Mast store, I could spend a lot of it there, where there’s a little bit of everything. Fraggle puppets, people, Fraggle puppets. I also have to give kudos to Knoxville for making free parking available on weekends in city/county garages.
Family cook-out involved kalbi (or galbi, or bulgogi…), fried rice, kimchi, and namool, alongside corn on the cob, cherry pie, chocolate cake, and homemade vanilla ice cream. The frozen bean burritos I had back home last night don’t come close.
*I haven’t lived around there since ’02, so anything from the last 8 years is “updated” to me.
Filed under: Events & Observances, Miscellaneous 
Posted on July 11, 2010 | Filed under Womens Health News | Permalink
Trace’s post on To Kill a Mockingbird inspired to make another post on what I’m reading at the moment. To the left are the items I have lined up; I’m not exactly shocked to be first in line for the prison libraries book.
I’m currently trying to get through both Paul Farmer’s Infections and Inequalities: The Modern Plagues and Pow Wow: Charting the Fault Lines in the American Experience: Short Fiction from Then to Now (edited by Ishmael Reed).
I also have these items checked out:
Note: my caption/alt text/description does not seem to be loading correctly. The image is a list of items I have on hold from the Nashville Public Library.
Filed under: Libraryland, Miscellaneous 
Posted on July 10, 2010 | Filed under Womens Health News | Permalink
My colleague Taneya does a lot of genealogical research, and has been extremely helpful and generous with her time in tracking down a good chunk of my family tree. Some resources she showed me yesterday inspired me to do some looking myself, which resulted in my seeing photographs of the headstones for one line of my family from grandfather and grandmother all the way up to great great great grandparents! And they’re all in one cemetery in rural east Tennessee! (with the exception of my grandparents, who are in a different cemetery in the next county)
Here’s the headstone for my great great great grandfather (or “third great grandfather” – I’m not up on the correct lingo; 1826-1900), and the one for my great great great grandmother (1821-1916).
There is also a photo of a grave marker for the “infant twin daughters” of my great great grandparents (1913).
Taneya also has a post with photos and a bit more info here.
Filed under: Miscellaneous 
Posted on June 30, 2010 | Filed under Womens Health News | Permalink
I recently read a blog comment elsewhere* in a thread that was related to birth choices in its way. The comment said:
“VBAC’s are not allowed by the hospital here because they are so extremely dangerous.”
Now, “so extremely dangerous” is a subjective description, but here’s what the recent NIH VBAC Consensus Statement has to say: “the vaginal delivery rate after trial of labor has remained constant at approximately 74 percent.” So 74% of the time, an attempted VBAC successfully results in a vaginal delivery.
And with regard to the oft-cited fear of uterine rupture:
“The risk of uterine rupture for women who undergo trial of labor at term is 778 per 100,000. …There have been no reported maternal deaths due to uterine rupture…For term pregnancies, the reported risk of fetal death with uterine rupture is less than 3 percent.”
So according to this report^, the risk of uterine rupture with a trial of labor is less than 1%. Among that <1% with uterine ruptures, the risk of fetal death is less than 3%. According to the report, maternal mortality is actually lower with a trial of labor (regardless of whether it results in vaginal or cesarean birth) than with elective repeat cesarean.
And yet, the perception out there is that it's "so extremely dangerous." And that the “extreme danger” to women/babies is why hospitals don’t allow it, rather than healthcare provider/system concerns about legal liability.
Even if we do get more nuanced and less restrictive recommendations out of the major medical association on VBAC, we’re going to have a lot of work to do walking back that “extremely dangerous” perception that was promoted along with the VBAC bans.
*I am not linking to where the comment came from, because that is not the place to have this argument right now. If you decide to search for the phrase and find it, please do me – and the author of the site – the courtesy of not picking a VBAC fight in that comment thread. If you know the story you'll know why, and if you don't know the story you definitely shouldn't start something there.
^See the free full text of the statement for more details about incision type and other factors related to provision and safety of VBAC attempts.
Filed under: Access, Rights, & Choice, Birth, Ethics 
Posted on June 30, 2010 | Filed under Womens Health News | Permalink
Some things that caught my attention this week:
A Providence, RI ob/gyn clinic was found to have inserted possibly 400-500 IUDs that are not approved for use in the U.S. and may not be effective. It looks like they’re saying it’s basically the version of the devices approved in Canada, but the investigation is ongoing.
Physicians for Reproductive Choice and Health has The Abortion Provider’s Declaration of Rights, and is asking for sign-ons. It declares the rights of providers to be free from harassment and violence, to give patients complete and accurate information about the procedure (and not give medically inaccurate politically-motivated information), to perform the procedure after obtaining the patient’s consent without proscribed waiting periods, to choose the best techniques for the specific patient, and to learn the procedure as medical students and residents.
I just finished reading Willing and Unable: Doctors’ Constraints in Abortion Care. It was really interesting to me and covered some aspects of abortion access that I don’t usually think very much about, but I want to let this one simmer a bit before reviewing.
Birthing Beautiful Babies has two posts on the Kingsdale Gynecologic Associates in Ohio and its “birth plan” and apparent ban on doulas. One example from the “birth plan,” in the section on episiotomies, that I think is telling:
“We promise to use our medical expertise and experience to make the best and safest decision for you and your baby.”
Right, because episiotomy is a decision that should be made for a woman. *headdesk* By the way, there is a proposed rule that all hospitals accepting Medicare/Medicaid allow patients to designate their own visitors, not allowing the hospital to make any distinction between immediate blood/marriage relatives and others preferred/selected by the patient. This is being praised as a way to allow better LGBT visitation rights, but I wonder if it might interact with doula bans like this as well? See my recent post at Our Bodies Our Blog for details and info on the public comment period.
AIDS.gov has a new widget for locating HIV prevention and service providers – horizontal and vertical versions are available for embedding into websites. I don’t think it will work right in free WordPress accounts because it’s javascript.
We got iPads for the rounding librarians at work, and I promptly downloaded all of the apps from the National Library of Medicine. I ended up keeping REMM (radiation emergency reference) and WISER (emergency response). Not that I’ll ever need them, but they’re a cool “just in case” reference. I deleted the Health Hotlines one as it seemed rather incomplete, as well as ReUnite (for post-disaster people connection) – it’s a test app, but it kept prompting me for updates. Aside from the NLM apps, I’ve downloaded Molecules – this is cool but would be more useful for teaching if I could actually label the atoms – and ePocrates (nice drug reference, works pretty well). I also got the Evernote app, but am undecided about how well this one works for me, although it does have an easy audio recording feature for note taking.
Via Siobhan, resources on Asian American health disparities.
National Advocates for Pregnant Women has recent news from a court decision in Kentucky centered on whether a woman who used illegal drugs during pregnancy could be charged with wanton abandonment of her child. They note that:
By refusing to accept the prosecution’s argument that the “unborn” should be legally disconnected from the pregnant women who carry them and treated as if they were separate legal persons, this decision protects the civil and reproductive rights and health of all women in Kentucky.
The Court also noted what a “slippery slope” allowing such a charge could lead to, potentially regulating all aspects of the behavior of pregnant women.
Finally, Renee at Womanist Musings points out that that Forbes list of top 100 websites for women didn’t do much to be inclusive of women of color, trans women, women with disabilities, or other marginalized communities of women, and I think this is a fair criticism of the list, and of those of us (like me, as Our Bodies Our Blog was on it) who were included but didn’t immediately notice/point out how others were excluded or how the list was focused. It’s certainly a kind of privilege that it was an issue that was too easy for me to overlook in my “omg, we got noticed” glee, and something I should be better about.
Filed under: Abortion, Access, Rights, & Choice, Birth, Contraception, Drugs, Ethics, Government, HIV/AIDS, Miscellaneous, News Round-Ups, Pregnancy, Women’s Health 
Posted on June 28, 2010 | Filed under Womens Health News | Permalink
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