My best friend: Lady Bird (2017, dir. Greta Gerwig)

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Keep Children in Rear-Facing Car Seats Longer

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Image from Consumer Reports article cited below As we head into the new school year and the holiday weekend, it is a good time to remind parents and guardians to double-check their car seat usage. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has issued new guidelines suggesting that parents keep their young children in rear-facing car seats until they reach the height or weight limits of that seat.  In other words, don't be so eager to get those children front-facing because children really are safer rear-facing.  In the past, AAP recommendations were age-based. Generally they recommended that children become front-facing at age two . But there is such a wide variation of size in children, even at the same age, that going only by age doesn't make sense. Also, research shows that rear-facing remains the safest position even for children older than two. Instead, parents should consult the height and weight limits of the car seat they use and use those to guide when to switch to fro...
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9th Turkey Awards: Obesity Eugenics Media Campaigns

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A fairly recent article in an Australian newspaper ─ October 2016 ─ had the inflammatory headline, " Call to stop obese women from having babies. " The picture below it featured a woman with a slight double chin and said, " Experts warn obese women should not have children. " Well, here we go again with the Obesity Eugenics Wars. This incredibly discriminatory movement is the winner of not one but two Turkey Awards. It's time to call these egregious practices out. If you aren't familiar with them, the Turkey Awards are the "prizes" I hand out to highlight fat-phobic treatment of people of size from care providers, biased attitudes or studies from researchers, or troubling trends in the care of fat pregnant women these days. In past years of the Turkey Awards, we've talked about: #1:  fat-phobic care providers #2:  scare-mongering and shaming tactics #3:  jumping to conclusions about risks #4:  scorched earth tactics #5:  prenatal weight gain e...
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Women Are Dying From This: Taking Cesareans Seriously

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When women have cesareans, they are rarely warned that a possible complication can be placental problems in future pregnancies. Many women (and especially higher weight women ) are pressured into cesareans in their first pregnancy. Many of these same women are counseled away from Vaginal Birth After Cesarean (VBAC) and into repeat cesareans in subsequent pregnancies. Few of these women have been told that cesareans raise the risk for Placenta Accreta, a very serious complication, and that every cesarean increases the risk for it. I know *I* wasn't told this. This is a tremendous disservice to parents and to the importance of informed consent. About Accreta In Placenta Accreta, the fertilized egg implants near or on scar tissue in the uterus. This scar tissue is usually from a prior cesarean, but can also be from a D&C procedure, fibroid removals, a perforation from an IUD, or any uterine surgery or instrumentation. The placenta then grows into the uterine wall in this scar tis...
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