Crazy That We Need It, But We Do

God I love California. Check out this campaign for breastfeeding acceptance which features lifesize cutouts of breastfeeding women.

Rare Slap on the Wrist for Deceptive Birth Control Ad

It doesn't happen very often, but ads for Yaz, the best-selling birth control pill in the US, were considered so misleading that the FDA actually stepped in and required the manufacturer, Bayer, to run a corrective ad campaign. 

Wait - you mean it's not a great idea to take hormones that cause you to stop ovulating and carry a risk of serious side effects in order to clear up your skin or improve your mood? 

Upcoming Events at Bluestockings

Yah, these events are for the New Yorkers in the audience, but the rest of you can still buy the books or watch the film. Or arrange a reading / screening in your home town! All events will be held at Bluestockings Bookstore and Fair Trade Cafe, 172 Allen Street @ Stanton.

Saturday, February 21st @ 7PM - Free
Reading: Carol Leonard "Lady's Hands, Lion's Heart." Teamed up with Choices in Childbirth, we celebrate the release of "Lady’s Hands, Lion’s Heart," Carol Leonard’s memoir about her 30 years as a midwife and advocate for reproductive freedoms. Leonard is a co-founder of Midwives Alliance of North America (MANA), and her book is inspiring, hilarious, touching and a might full of beans. Doubtlessly, this book is a future classic in birth literature.

Thursday, March 5th @ 7PM - Free
Reading: Julia Watts "Women. Period." Please join contributors to "Women. Period. Women Writing on Menstruation," a new anthology of poetry, essays, and short fiction exploring the monthly cycle which unites all women. While menstruation is perhaps the most universal of
female experiences, surprisingly little has been published on the subject. Period.

Wednesday, March 11th @ 7PM - $5 Suggested
Screening: Carol Ciancutti-Leyva "Absolutely Safe" (2007, 85 minutes) While more women than ever are getting breast implants, few people seem to be asking: why? Even fewer are asking: are implants safe? Join director Carol Ciancutti-Leyva for a screening of "Absolutely Safe," her documentary about everyday women who find themselves and their breasts at the tangled intersections of health, money, science, and beauty.

Why We Still Have a Long Way to Go

It's been over 40 years since Natural Family Planning, the predecessor of Fertility Awareness, was pioneered. FA & NFP are now codified, and have been repeatedly proven to be safe and effective methods of fertility management. They are empowering, safe, inexpensive, reversible, environmentally friendly, and vegan. They do not diminish sexual pleasure, and provide added benefits such as shortening the time to a desired pregnancy and being safe to use for contraceptive purposes while breastfeeding. They are also acceptable by people with a wide range of moral and religious belief systems. So why the hell are they such a big secret?? Why aren't we being taught this stuff in schools? Why are there so few teachers of FA in this country? Why don't our gyns tell us about it? Why don't you see ads on it for TV along with all those stupid ads for various kinds of Pills? (See 2/22 post for an article on Yaz and their less-than-truthful ads.) I'll tell you why. Yes, there is the profit factor. Yes, there is the squeamish factor. But mostly, there is the ignorance factor. When even a well-known reproductive rights activist/author like Cristina Page does not understand what Fertility Awareness is or why women might want to practice it, you know that we have a long way to go:

Bizarre and ill-informed blog post re Georgetown grant

The Return of the Rhythm Method

My credo is that the more contraceptive options women have, the better. There is no one right method for all women, and a wide variety of methods increases the likelihood that any given woman will be able to find a method that works for her. However, I recently found that I'm not quite as broadminded as I thought it was on this topic. Georgetown University's Institute for Reproductive Health recently received a 3 year, $600,000 grant to increase the availability of natural family planning here in the US, primarily to low income women. Sounds great, right? So why am I angry and slightly nauseated? Because the method they are going to be promoting is the Standard Days Method, aka Cyclebeads. And Cyclebeads use exactly the same principles as the Rhythm, or Calendar Method. It is a purely statistical method that does not take into account individual variability or use any observational methods except for keeping track of menstruation. Mind you, this heavily field-tested and deeply funded method can be very effective. If women fall strictly within the parameters for its usage (regular cycles always between 26 and 32 days), they can expect a 95% effectiveness rate. And I have stated in the past that I think this method, along with the Two Day Method, can and will be a boon to women in the global south who lack access to decent health care. My objection is not to the effectiveness of the methodology, but rather to the return to the dark ages that this grant represents. Are American women really so stupid and unmotivated that they cannot be taught to observe their fertility? No, not everyone is going to be up for detailed charting and lessons in anatomy & physiology, but even a simple temperature-only method would empower women far more than this Birth Control for Dummies approach, in which fertility is regarded as a great mystery that cannot be understood. Women all over the world, many of whom lack numeracy and literacy, have been taught to observe their cervical mucus and track it with colors and pictures (as with the Billings Method). Surely if rural women in China can learn this technique, and practice it effectively, women in this country can, too. 

"Bringing easy-to-use, effective natural planning to American women." 

Is this really the direction we want reproductive health care and sex education to be moving in this country???

Nevermind the Dioxin

Bad news: Yes, you will find dioxin, fire retardant, rocket fuel, and other incredibly nasty chemicals in breast milk.

Good news: Breast is still best.

Not terribly surprising, but reassuring nonetheless to moms who may be worried that the environmental toxins found in breast milk outweigh the benefits. Nope. An analysis of recent studies shows that, despite the pollutants, the benefits of breast milk still trump those of any substitutes. Nurse away, kiddies. Maybe when you grow up you'll find a way to get Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) out of the ecosystem.

Fertility Awareness Teacher Sarah Bly Hits The Road

Lucky residents of Portland, Austin, and possibly Iowa City: FA teacher Sarah Naomi Bly is coming your way. If you live in or near those towns, Sarah invites you to join her for an 8 hour workshop that will teach you to understand your fertile times for pregnancy avoidance, pregnancy achievement, and connection to your body and your cycles. Here are the dates, costs, etc:

Portland, Oregon: Saturday 2/7 and Sunday 2/8, 9AM-1PM

Austin, Texas: Saturday 2/21 and Sunday 2/22, 9AM-1PM  

Iowa City, Iowa (tentative): Saturday 2/28 and Sunday 3/1, 9AM-1PM

All classes are $94 for women, $120 for couples. Fee includes printed materials and private followup consultation. $30 non-refundable deposit required. For more information re Sarah and her practice, visit her website, www.graceofthemoon.com. To sign up for a workshop, call or email Sarah. Contact info is on her website. (Take that, spambots.)