LAmom

CHECK OUT MOMS RISING!

If you know me at all, you'll know that THIS is right up my alley:

Help America's Mothers and Families Now!

There is a silent crisis in America. Mothers and families are in trouble. The wage gap between mothers and non-mothers is now greater than between women and men: One study found non-mothers earn 10% less than their male counterparts; mothers earn 27% less; and single mothers earn between 44% and 34% less.

This wage hit has a direct impact on families--a full quarter of families with children under six live in poverty, at least 9 million children don’t have any health care, and far too many parents can’t afford to stay home with sick children. Working toward common sense family-friendly policies like those covered in The Motherhood Manifesto will help all families.

The Moms Rising campaign seeks policies that support parents and children, like parental leave, flexible work options, child care and after-school care, fair wages, and universal health care for kids.

I blog about pregnancy and motherhood discrimination all the time.  Moms Rising seems to be focused mainly on the motherhood side and less on pregnancy equality, but it's all good.

Go sign their petition.  Tell them LAmom sent you.

LISTEN TO THE UTERUS

(cross-posted to LAcrone)

This post ended up going in directions I had not originally planned :-)

So the preliminary results of a Dutch study say:

Women in stressful jobs who become pregnant should virtually halve their time at work right from the start of their pregnancy, according to Amsterdam specialist Gouke Bonsel.

Bonsel, a professor of social health at the well known AMC hospital in the city, says women should work no more than 24 hours a week, if their occupation is stressful.

Preliminary results from a recent study had shown surprisingly strong results, he said.

'We were astonished and we thought long and hard about publishing the results, but it is perfectly clear.

'Women who work 32 hours or more in a stressful position have noticeably lighter children, with all the consequences,' Bonsel says.

The study, a major long-term investigation into pregnancy, found an average weight decline in newborns by 150 grams, the same as that caused by smoking during pregnancy,

There are some instances where pregnant women need special consideration, but I don't think this counts as one of them.  I believe that many of us, male or female, pregnant or not, abuse our health by allowing ourselves to be put under chronic stressful conditions and accepting it as normal.  For us, the consequences may not manifest themselves for a long time.  Pregnancy just happens to be a time when the results of this neglect are more immediate and easier to recognize.

The right response to this data would be to conclude that overstressing people is bad.  The wrong response would be to decide that pregnant employees are a hassle because they can't take the heat.

These stressed-out pregnant moms and their low-birthweight babies are trying to tell us something about our lifestyle.  You can call them our canaries or you can call them our prophets.

All that hippy-dippy ecofeminist talk about the uterus being a cauldron of wisdom -- this is an example of what that means (at least what it means to me).  For instance, some say that the emotional changes women may get premenstrually are not indications that the women are losing their grip.  Rather it's that they are genuinely confronting feelings that they (and the rest of us) are usually in denial about.  We can either listen and learn or we can push it away -- Don't pay any attention to her.  She's got PMS.

PMS, menstrual problems, menopausal storms and more.  I think our wombs are sending us a lot of messages about the toxic (both physically and emotionally) environment we live in.  And a lot of treatments for those problems seem to be aimed at getting those uteruses to just SHUT UP, without looking at what the underlying messages might be.  Your hormones are making you unpredictable and unproductive?  Try these hormones in a bottle.  They'll regulate you nicely.  And if that doesn't do the trick, maybe we'll just take that uterus out.  OK?  Now, back to work.

Don't get me wrong.  There are indeed some instances where women have female problems because their reproductive systems are just plain broken.  But often, we're too quick to conclude that it's the woman's body that's at fault and needs to be either fixed, pitied, or ignored.

Similar ideas explored here, but not female-related.

EVERYBODY SHOULD HAVE A BOSS LIKE OURS

When I dropped by the school this morning, my brother was there and he had brought his baby with him.  She was being watched in the office while he taught a math class.  I wish more people had options like that.

WE CAN OVERCOME OBSTACLES LIKE THIS, BUT WE SHOULDN'T HAVE TO

I've got more pregnancy stuff for ya.

Firefighter forced to take test hours after giving birth:

A firefighter took a promotion exam just 12 hours after giving birth because of a state law requiring all promotion candidates to be tested at once.

Beda Kent gave birth January 10, slept for a little more than two hours and popped some painkillers before taking the exam. She scored 104 out of 110 and expects to return from maternity leave in March as a captain with a $6,000 raise.

When she was six months' pregnant, Kent learned the test would be given on January 11 -- just four days after her due date.

She asked if a proctor could administer the exam at the hospital if necessary, but was told there could be no exceptions except for firefighters on active military duty.

After her daughter was born, Kent left the infant named Brina Sue at the hospital within hours.

Kent, who has worked for the Houston Fire Department for 12 years, opted to take the test because missing it would have meant waiting at least two years before the next promotion exam.

But, she said, the department should accommodate those with legitimate medical excuses.

"The law said that they didn't have to, but they could have sent a proctor," Kent said. "The test is in a sealed envelope. It shouldn't have been a problem."

The Fire Department had an ambulance standing by at the test site in case she needed anything, but it would have been so much better if she could have taken the test without leaving her hours-old baby.

But the inflexibility of the Houston Fire Department pales in comparison to this:

After the exam, Kent's insurance did not allow her to be readmitted to the hospital so she and her husband returned every four to five hours to nurse the new baby.

"We made the best of it for the next 36 hours," Kent said. "It was tough."

ARRRGH!  That's corporate medicine for you.  A postpartum woman needs to be resting, not driving back and forth to a hospital five times a day.  And even if Ms. Kent was no longer a patient, she should have been allowed to stay there as a part of her daughter's health care plan.  If I had been little Brina Sue's pediatrician, I would have written an order directing that she have unlimited 24-hour access to whatever feeding method her parents feel is best for her.  (Boy golly, a 4-to-5-hour feeding schedule would never have worked for JG.  When he was a newborn, he nursed every 40-60 minutes!)

Kudos to Ms. Kent for her determination.  But if we value motherhood as much as we say we do, let's not make moms jump through those kind of hoops.

UPDATE -- Rather than make another post I'll just append this cheesy celebrity story: Laurence Fishburne accused of pregnancy discrimination.

YET ANOTHER PREGNANCY FIRING

This one's in Madison, WI.  Read:

A former saleswoman for a technology company claims she was fired just days after telling her boss she was pregnant.

Pamela Alexander made the allegation against Madison-based NameProtect Inc. in a sex discrimination lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Madison.

The lawsuit seeks back pay and compensatory and punitive damages against NameProtect, which provides online security and brand protection solutions.

The company is claiming that the firing was for budgetary reasons and not connected to her pregnancy.  You be the judge:

Her lawyer, Jake Westerhof, said it was "hard to find any logic" in NameProtect's "claiming it had budget problems and then firing its top performing salesperson." He said he believed the company anticipated Alexander would take maternity leave, during which she would not produce any sales.

Another salesperson fired that month was rehired in a short enough time that he did not miss a paycheck while two others who sold VigilActive were allowed to keep their jobs, the suit claims.

This is the kind of stuff I'm talking about when I say "institutionalized anti-life bias."

STRONG AND CAPABLE PREGNANT WOMAN -- WHAT'S THE PROBLEM?

When I saw the headline and the opening paragraph, I thought, "Way awesomely cool!"

Gold medal win with baby on board

A disabled Thai athlete gave birth to a baby girl two days after winning a gold medal in the discus event at the ASEAN ParaGames in Manila, officials said Wednesday.

But the rest of the story had me scratching my head.

Wanna Ladee, 22, said she did not tell anyone about her pregnancy because she was in desperate need of money for her newborn.

(. . .)

Wanna will receive a 50,000 baht ($1,250) reward for winning a gold medal in the discus as well as a bronze in the shot put event, Jaturaporn said.

Wanna was among 164 Thai athletes taking part in the December 14 to 20 games for the disabled that followed the Southeast Asian Games in the Philippine capital. More than 1,000 disabled athletes from 11 countries participated in the ParaGames.

"I did not tell anyone about my pregnancy because I needed the reward money for my coming child," Wanna told a Thai radio station interviewing her at the hospital.

Why should revealing her pregnancy cause a problem?

The Sports Authority of Thailand is to investigate how officials allowed the eight-month pregnant woman to take part in the games and also blamed the host country for not conducting dope tests from her urine which would have detected her condition.

Why shouldn't she be allowed to compete?  We're not talking about running the marathon here.  The discus and shot put both weigh far less than the "heavy lifting" limit that pregnant women are encouraged to avoid.  I don't see the problem.

Congratulations to Ms. Ladee on both her athletic victories and the birth of her child.

BIG BELLIES ON THE TELLY

I Samantha Bee.

It's so lovely to see her on television, pregnant and almost at full term.  In this clip (big download), the story partly revolves around her pregnancy, but most of the time she's just doing her regular job, faithfully bringing us the fake news.

Ana Gasteyer, too.  It was a few years ago that she was pregnant while on Saturday Night Live, but it was a thrill to see her, sometimes in skits that involved pregnancy, but sometimes just being.

I love to see pregnant women just having a life and being recognized as capable of gestating and chewing gum at the same time.

NO "CHESTNUTS ROASTING" JOKES, PLEASE

One thing about feministing.  They find out about every experimental form of contraception that's on the horizon.  Well, there's a new one being used in Serbia.  Men are getting mild electrical shocks to their testicles, which is said to render their sperm immobile for about 10 days.

MOMS AND BABIES AT RISK AFTER EARTHQUAKE

The earthquake in South Asia may continue to result in casualties for months to come.

The U.N. estimates 40,000 pregnant women were among the 4 million people affected by South Asia's Oct. 8 earthquake. Health officials say the temblor may have triggered miscarriage and premature labor, and could worsen Pakistan's already dismal statistics on infant mortality.

Korejo said higher infant and maternal mortality rates could persist in the quake zone if survivors don't get adequate health care. "If they can't reach care, (mothers and babies) could easily die," she said.

Women treated at the hospital are the lucky ones. Some 800,000 people in remote areas have been virtually cut off since the quake, with no aid or medical care.

TAKING AIM AT AN OLD TRADITION

. . . in particular, the tradition of "dropping out of school to have a baby."  The Feminists for Life of America College Outreach Program has for many years been holding pregnancy forums, where they are able to hear the concerns, complaints, and suggestions of college students and administrators regarding the difficulties that pregnant and parenting students face when they try to continue their educations.

They brought these ideas together and have made a description of their fantasy college, FFLU. Similar to the baby-friendly vibe at the real-life offices of Mothering Magazine, the imaginary FFLU is an institution that strives to meet the needs of students, faculty, and staff members alike who are pregnant and have young children.

After describing the facilities and programs available at FFLU, they invite readers to rate the family-friendliness of their own college campuses.