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POSTPARTUM
Taking Care of a Newborn Is a 60-Hour Work Week
What: A healthcare consultant dedicatedly tracked her time during the first year of her baby’s life. The result? Some incredible information on just how much time and effort it takes to raise a baby. (Plus other helpful observations – like how often her baby got sick after starting daycare.)
Why it matters: We live in a country that seems to think having a newborn is something you can do in addition to fulltime work.
Source: Motherly
Two Uteruses, Two Babies, Two Birthdays. One Mom?!
What: Kelsey Hatcher of Alabama has two uteruses, and she ended up pregnant with baby girls in both – at the same time. Her baby girls, Roxi and Rebel, were born on December 19 and 20th respectively, via vaginal birth and then C-section.
Why it matters: This is no platitude – women are incredible.
Source: ABC
BIRTH CONTROL
Explaining “Missed Period Pills”
What: Wired breaks down the practice of “missed period pills” from countries like Myanmar and Thailand, which are the same medications as what’s commonly known as the abortion pill in the United States. The biggest difference? You take them without confirming a pregnancy – the goal can simply be to start your period right away.
Why it matters: The medication is the same, but the approach is different enough (i.e. taking the medication not knowing if you are pregnant or not) that it could help in states where abortion is banned.
Source: Wired
New Jersey Makes Birth Control Pills Prescription Free
What: The start of a new year often means new laws, and in New Jersey it means pharmacists can offer birth control pills without a prescription.
Why it matters: As state Sen. Shirley Turner put it – “It’s safe, it’s been in effect for 50 years, and there seems to be no problem with women taking contraceptives…So they don’t need to really go to a doctor just for a prescription. And when you do that, of course, you’ve got to pay. So it costs more money.”
Source: Gothamist
ABORTION ACCESS
Getting Abortion Pills ‘Just In Case’ Quadrupled Since Roe Fell
What: A study from JAMA Internal Medicine looked at records from the nonprofit Aid Access and found women in the United States requested abortion pills in case they became pregnant unexpectedly around 25 times per day before the Supreme Court’s draft decision to overturn Roe was leaked to about 118 times per day in the months after.
Why it matters: Women are planning ahead for the unexpected, regardless of what state lawmakers try to force them to do.
Source: New York Times
FEMTECH
Company Developing Endometriosis Tests Raises $13.5M
What: Heranova Lifesciences in Boston raised $13.5 million in seed funding for its endometriosis and bacterial vaginosis tests and therapeutics.
Why it matters: Money is finally trickling into what will likely become a booming business – treating conditions that have been long ignored or lacked innovation.
Source: Mobihealth News
WELLNESS + BEAUTY
Learning About Beauty from the Women of 1562
What: The New York Times reviews a book that chronicles the beauty tricks of the trade from 16th century Italy, including a book from 1562 that had 1,400 recipes for face, hair, and body. Despite that, no-makeup makeup was “all the rage in Renaissance Italy.”
Why it matters: Because it was one of the few parts of their life they had agency over, “participating in rituals of bathing (which, in that era, was less about rinsing the body than rubbing it with cloths), cosmetics, skin care regimens — the whole of beauty culture — created a place for women to bond, and was a key part of their social lives.”
Source: New York Times
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