I’ll be in DC from Nov 10-17 for the AMIA conference, and will be making stops at the medical libraries of Johns Hopkins, University of Maryland @ Baltimore, and Howard University, as well as the National Library of Medicine. If you’re at the conference or in the area, and are a librarian, health or librarianship blogger, or women’s health advocate who would like to get together, send me an email.
The Mothership BBQ graciously hosted a holiday party last night for Nashville-area bloggers. A recap:
I’m playing around with WordPress to see if I want to move there from Blogger. If you want to take a peak, and let me know if you prefer one over the other, the site is at womenshealthnews.wordpress.com. I haven’t committed to the move yet, and you’ll have plenty of warning before I do. Please note that the WordPress page is still in progress, so the categories, blogroll, etc. are not yet fully developed. Read the rest of this entry »
Katie Allison Granju, Knoxville blogger and author of Attachment Parenting, is scoping out locations for her upcoming birth. Katie has specific concerns due to a genetic condition, but also has certain criteria for how she’d like to labor, and has hit several barriers in finding what she needs, as described in this post. Katie would like to labor in water, but the hospital only has two rooms with tubs. She suggested renting one and bringing it in, but was told by the head of nursing that they only allow women to labor in water “if their water hasn’t broken and they aren’t dilated.” In other words, they don’t allow women to labor in water. Why a healthcare professional who presumably knows what labor is would tell a woman that she can labor in water if her water hadn’t broken and she isn’t dilated is beyond me. Nurse Cranky took things one step further, telling her she can’t use a birthing ball because she might fall off, and it’s a liability issue. Katie also describes the hospital’s “support” for women who don’t want epidurals – “support” to them apparently means “we won’t push drugs on you,” but doesn’t seem to include any techniques or strategies for helping laboring women otherwise cope with pain.
The 32nd Carnival of Feminists is up at Bumblebee Sweet Potato, and the post about Rep. Stacey Campfield’s proposed legislation to issue death certificates for abortion got a nod. Check it out for links to discussion of the Edwards blogger flap, policy issues, and other topics. Read the rest of this entry »
Blogger GruntDoc works in an emergency room, and has posted x-ray images of a patient’s hand which was damaged by fireworks on New Year’s Eve. The patient was holding a tube firework in his hand for launching, and “damaged” is an understatement. For comparison, a normal (intact) hand looks like this on x-ray.
Now that I’ve been forced to switch to the new Blogger, which includes a “labels” feature for posts, I’m pondering whether I want to continue adding Technorati and MeSH tags to each post. If you have a preference, please let me know in the comments. Read the rest of this entry »
Please note that comments here are moderated very infrequently, if at all. Old posts have been migrated over as well, so please come on over if you have a comment.
The condom amulet to the left was made for me by the blogger at a little red hen, knitting activist and fellow Oberlin alum Naomi Bloom, complete with NYC Condoms for my collection. Visit the Safe Sex section of her blog for more about her condom amulet and condom distribution work – Naomi is especially passionate about HIV/AIDS prevention work in women over 50, and is generally a kick-ass, impressive, and generous woman. Go visit her site.
This post is simply to give thanks to the blogger at Sitting Still for standing up for a vulnerable pregnant woman during a genetic counseling session. A snippet: