|
PREGNANCY + POSTPARTUM
Looking at Proteins in Blood Didn’t Help Find High Blood Pressure During Pregnancy
What: A study of 1,850 women with their first pregnancy between 2010 and 2013 looked at whether certain proteins in the blood could be used to identify who would have high blood pressure or preeclampsia. But the models “did not significantly improve risk predictions for these events.”
Why it matters: “Hypertensive disorders of pregnancy affect about 10-15% of people and are associated with increased risks for having a pregnancy complication, heart attack, stroke, and in severe cases death. The authors note while the finding is negative, it helps show that other approaches are needed to better predict who might experience high blood pressure during pregnancy.”
Source: NIH
Women Have to Sue Employers to Pump (And Now They Can)
What: The 19th profiles women who are suing their employers for failing to provide an adequate space to pump breastmilk – including a bus driver who was told to pump on her bus, then at a myriad of other locations, including the bus terminal, a hospital, and the county fairgrounds (!!!)
Why it matters: “Her case, filed in U.S. district court in Michigan, is one of a swelling number of lawsuits, all filed this year, against employers who are allegedly failing to provide nursing mothers with the time or a space to pump. About a half dozen collective and class action lawsuits have been filed against large national employers, like the U.S. Postal Service, and prominent retailers and restaurants, including McDonald’s, Starbucks and Nike.”
Source: The 19th
MENSTRUATION
What Life with PMDD Is Like
What: KFF Health News has a deep dive on premenstrual dysphoric disorder, known as PMDD, which is a “life altering” mood disorder than affects women during their menstrual cycle: “Though researchers estimate that the dysphoric disorder affects around 5% of people who menstruate — about the same percentage of women with diabetes — the condition remains relatively unknown, even among health care providers.”
Why it matters: “In one study, 72% of respondents with the disorder said they’d had suicidal thoughts in their lifetime. And 34% said they had attempted suicide, compared with 3% of the general population.”
Source: KFF Health News
ABORTION ACCESS
GOP Policy Leader: Women, Doctors Should Be Jailed for Abortion
What: A Republican leader in charge of shaping the party’s positions on policy has “a history of pushing extreme anti-abortion positions, including advocating for a national ban without exceptions for rape or incest. He also entertained the possibility of jailing women who get abortions and the doctors who perform them.”
Why it matters: The GOP has tried to moderate it’s position on abortion because it is out of step with public opinion, but these are the people ultimately in charge of deciding where policy goes.
Source: CNN
The Real Life Agony of Abortion Bans
What: A Scientific American op-ed from the authors of the study that found Texas’ infant deaths rose after the state’s abortion ban: “Making exceptions to abortion bans for certain scenarios is inadequate; pregnancy is inherently dangerous, and the law is incapable of parsing all the ways in which a pregnancy can go wrong.”
Why it matters: “Since our publication and the proliferation of heartbreaking anecdotes that magnify these negative effects, we have seen the pro-life movement treat people’s traumatic experiences as collateral damage for the larger cause of saving fetuses. For many who oppose abortion, these tragic outcomes are viewed as unfortunate but necessary sacrifices for the mission to prevent abortion at all costs. This approach treats the health of pregnant people as secondary to the fetus, which is unacceptable.”
Source: Scientific American
|