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EVERYTHING
Black Women Most Likely Group to Report Being Treated Unfairly by Provider
What: Kaiser Family Foundation released an analysis of a survey from last year that found Black women are “more likely than other groups to report being treated unfairly by a health care provider in recent years because of their race and ethnicity and that these experiences have health consequences.”
Why it matters: Not only were Black women more likely to report these incidents, but they shifted “with Black women’s health status: Black women who describe their physical and/or mental health as fair or poor are more likely than those who report better health to say that a negative experience resulted in worse health, being less likely to seek care, or switching providers in the past three years.”
Source: KFF
Women Are the Kinkeepers
What: The New York Times explains “kinkeeping”, the often-invisible labor that goes into “family bonding and magic-making. … Researchers defined the role as a family communicator who helped the extended group stay in touch by sharing family news and planning gatherings.” It will come as little shock that women are the vast majority of kinkeepers.
Why it matters: So where’s the health angle? “Kinkeepers can also play a crucial role in promoting overall family health, said Caitlin Allen, a social and behavioral scientist at the Medical University of South Carolina who has studied the phenomenon. Kinkeepers even have the potential to save lives by sharing family medical histories and encouraging loved ones to seek out preventative care, she said.”
Source: New York Times
PREGNANCY + POSTPARTUM
American Postpartum Care Is Globally Bad
What: Time magazine looks at the business of postpartum retreats in America. The topic has been covered before, but this paragraph really hits home how deficient our postpartum care is:
“Many countries have figured out how to mitigate feelings of stress and isolation for new parents. In China, a postpartum parent rests for a month while a family member or “confinement nanny” attends to housework, older children, and other tasks. In many parts of Latin America, female relatives take on domestic duties for a 40-day period called la cuarentena. In Japan, new mothers often return to their own parents’ homes while still pregnant and stay after the birth to be cared for while they heal. In the Netherlands, the government sends a maternity nurse to new parents’ homes after they’re discharged from the hospital. In Sweden, nurses and midwives make home visits after delivery…”
Why it matters: “…In the U.S., meanwhile, one in four women returns to work within two weeks of childbirth.”
Source: Time
BIRTH CONTROL
Reminder: IUDs Remain Very Painful for Some (Many?) Women
What: The Washington Post put out a call for women to share their IUD insertion experiences and got more than 500 responses. They rounded them up into an Instagram carousel, and here is one that stuck out:
“The first time …I felt an explosion of cramps along with sharp internal pain, and then promptly passed out. …The second time … [my new OB] prescribed medication to soften my cervix, applied local anesthetic, and even did a quick ultrasound to check for the best angle of approach. It was virtually painless.”
Why it matters: There are ways to mitigate the extreme pain that some women experience getting an IUD – we just need health practitioners to offer them (and insurers to cover it).
Source: Washington Post
ABORTION ACCESS
Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff Calls on Men to Advocate for Abortion Access
What: Second gentleman Doug Emhoff wants more men to speak up for protecting abortion access, giving an interview on the topic to NBC and holding and event in Atlanta with a group called Men4Choice.
Why it matters: As Emhoff put it—“This is an issue of fairness to women. Women are dying. It’s affecting men’s ability to plan their lives. And it’s also an issue of what’s next, what other freedoms are at risk. And these freedoms are affecting all Americans, not just women.”
Source: NBC
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