What you can do to help get midwives licensed in Alabama even if you don’t live anywhere near it
The Alabama Birth Coalition is an organization that’s working hard to change this. It’s completely volunteer-based, totally grassroots-driven, and one of the coolest collective of people I’ve ever had the pleasure of being around. I recently interviewed Hannah Ellis about her work with the Alabama Birth Coalition and what you can do to help — even if you don’t live anywhere near Alabama.
How did having twins change your life?
My husband and I got the shock of our lives at our first ultrasound at 20 weeks. (We didn’t feel the need for an ultrasound until we wanted to find out the sex of the baby.) “Did you know there were two babies in there?” the technician said. With no fertility treatments or history of twins in my family, suddenly I went from pregnant with my first baby to pregnant with my first two babies!
A camping-themed kids’ room adults can totally love, too
Offbeat Mama published a post today I couldn’t let just lay there. This is a super simply, floor-beddy, back-to-nature type room centered on camping. I can totally see doing this in my own home — or maybe in a temporary space, a short-term rental, a new apartment!
“Which restroom should I use?” Challenges facing transgender children in public schools
The absurdity of it never fails to strike me — my child can’t attend public school because he has no place to pee? The intent behind forcing a seven-year-old boy into the girl’s restroom can only be to shame, and this shaming carries with it a violent hatred that has broken bones, taken lives.
Three generations bring in a fourth
I looked in the mirror and saw the head and smiled. My midwife was holding the top of my perineum and quickly sloshing me in olive oil. I pushed again and looked down and the head had doubled in size! I pushed again and WOOSH! Sage was born! All of him, all at once!
Surprisingly and delightfully traditional photos of Pushba
Best as I can decipher, these photos by of Pushba were featured in a Ukrainian gallery in a photography exhibit focused on breastfeeding. While they are indeed lovely photos of Pushba nursing her son, I’m also completely tickled by the more traditional clothing she’s wearing. It’s my beloved freaky Pushba in a floral scarf!
What did you do to make the first months of parenthood less overwhelming?
What were the three things (or more!) you did that made those first few months with baby less overwhelming? Or what do you wish you had done?
How trying to have a baby might change your sex life
I’m trying to get pregnant. I’m not taking the “go off the pill and see what happens” approach. I’m taking a more active approach. I’m thirty-four, and I think I want to have two kids. I’m not exactly worried about making that happen, but I figure that all else being equal, it’s best if we knock out the first one as soon as possible.