In 2012 Baker called for an apology from Elizabeth Warren, who had claimed an affiliation with this group. Glossator 6 (2012): Black Metal. His sorrow and his woe
As checkups go, it was a bit uncomfortable. Unlike my old practice, where they take action only if, say, you drop a body part in the waiting room, this new gal was on her game. First, she busted me on my three- glass- a- night Chardonnay habit. Then she followed up with a series of passive- aggressive questions about my general health.
How do you feel about your weight? She flipped through the pages of the file sent over by my old doctor. Two births, two miscarriages, a few stubborn ovarian cysts, and a fifteen- year merry- go- round of vaginal infections. Her pen paused over the file.
Uh, yeah, that would be my lawfully wedded husband of about two million years. And were we still sexually active?
Yes, I said, resisting the urge to add, define ? She smiled up at me so brightly I felt sure she was about to burst out laughing. Yes. Feel free to lean over with that Sharpie and draw a big L for Loser right on my forehead. What do you think of when you imagine diaphragm sex? Hot, spontaneous quickies in the middle of the day on top of the new HE washer? Parking the kids at Grammy. Possible, but not probable.
- Adam Fuss: untitled (2012). I only complain of my grief & sorrow to The God!'.
- In fact he got so upset that we had to stop the car so he could calm down.
No, the venerable diaphragm, that cheery latex dome with its alarmingly over- springy coil, its demure petal- pink clamshell housing, its absurd beige . Was it my fault I was still using the same method I picked out when I walked into the Planned Parenthood clinic in Ithaca, New York, at the dawn of the ? Or has there been a kind of eerie silence about the whole topic, a distinct lack of progress, a pall over the land even? We. I have sex regularly, I need reliable birth control that doesn. Pharmaceuticals have developed new medicines to treat depression, head off migraines, settle the stomach, soothe us to sleep and keep us there for the night, and, yes, help our men- folk get it up and keep it there. Yet in twenty- odd years just once has somebody managed to pitch me better birth control. As women with children, mothers bring a unique perspective to bear on the topic of family planning.
On the one hand, having seen that life comes out of us, we might feel less insistent than before that we be able to artificially start and stop the fertility process at will. On the other, knowing better than anyone how hard it is to birth, nurse, nurture, and raise a human being, we? This last bit would be particularly ironic, considering birth control was made legal.
Is birth control, like, say, fashion, now considered the province solely of the young, nubile, and childless? Drifting off at last to sleep, I thought it might be worthwhile to dig through the detritus of our consumer- centric culture to figure out what part, if any, moms play these days in family planning.*. The very phrase conjures up comforting visions of serious, quiet consultation between a mom and her health- care pro on just what the perfect contraception is for that precise moment in her reproductive life. I have two problems with this scenario.
Joining the venerable oral contraceptive (the Pill), which is by far and away the leading method of reversible birth control in the United States, are the Patch, which you change once a week, the Ring, which you change once a month, the Implant, which lasts for up to three years, and Mirena, a hormone- releasing IUD that can be kept in place for as long as five years? Study after study after study says yes (as the editors of the activist women. Health activists like Judy Norsigian, co- author of Our Bodies, Ourselves, caution that we don.
Increasingly, what those new moms are being advised to try, says Wysocki, is intrauterine contraception. Because IUDs ran the risk of perforating the uterus or causing severe pelvic infection, they used to be offered to women who had already had one child, on the (offensive) premise that, should her fertility be permanently impaired, at least the injured mom had managed to pop one kid out.
Worse, it turned out that one brand of IUD, the Dalkon Shield, was liable to wick bacteria up into the uterus, causing thousands of women to suffer severe pelvic infections. Twenty women died, the manufacturer declared bankruptcy, and all IUDs were pulled out of the American market. Flash forward thirty years and it. New, improved, and, according to both manufacturers and a wide range of health professionals, safe IUDs are back on the market and once again being aggressively marketed to moms. Consider this warm- and- fuzzy language from the makers of Mirena: You have enough to do with a family and full life. Mirena long term birth control lets you be spontaneous. For up to five years, you can enjoy birth control freedom and intimate moments whenever the mood strikes (and the kids are in bed).
Notwithstanding that nasty side- swipe at the diaphragm, the reasons for marketing IUDs to moms are backed this time around by some sounder medical reasoning. IUDs should be used by women who are at low risk for sexually transmitted infections. IUDs are usually easier to insert in women who have had babies already; they. Who fits those categories best?
Mothers. But the biggest news since I last hit a Planned Parenthood outlet: Emergency contraception is now available. When I was in my early twenties and just starting to play the please- God- don. If you messed up on the before part. A woman with an infant, a toddler, and a kindergartner on her hands is just as likely to mess up her Pill prescription as a single working girl who has at least nights and weekends to take care of her bodily needs.
And consider these two facts: According to the National Center for Health Statistics. Twelve percent of that total were deemed by the women to be .
That figure alone certainly puts to rest the idea that emergency contraception is needed only by young and/or childfree women. Even though its advocates argue than Plan B can go a long way toward preventing some abortions, the EC pill has had a long hard battle toward legitimacy.
In some states, pharmacists who object to Plan B on moral grounds are being encouraged not to fill prescriptions. And politics inside the FDA have long delayed hearings that would pave the way for Plan B to be available over the counter (at press time, it looked like the hearings were finally going to go forward). Politics aside, for mothers, Plan B is news we can use.*. And I knew in a vague sort of way that pharmacists were being encouraged to refuse to fill Plan B prescriptions. But I admit it, I was shocked when I started reading past the headlines and got caught up in a hurry on what. The New York Times Magazine. The excellent, ongoing coverage of the various chips and blows to birth control in Salon.
But a staggering majority of people support the right to use contraception: Ninety eight percent of all women who have had intercourse use some form of birth control at some point in their lives (according to the NSFG). Clearly, a lot has happened while we. But what will it take to turn the average already overwhelmed mom into a contraceptive activist? Our Bodies Ourselves.