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EVERYTHING
Want More Kids? Do More Housework (Men)
What: Washington Post columnist Heather Long breaks down research from Nobel Prize-winning economist Claudia Goldin on the global fertility rate decline. Goldin found the steepest drops could be explained through a combination of how fast women entered the workforce after World War II and men’s ideas of who should raise kids and clean up at home caught up to that.
Key line: “In places where men do more around the house, fertility rates are higher, where they do less, rates are lower. Goldin’s research paper doesn’t advocate for any specific policy, so I called and asked what she thinks can be done to achieve ‘couple equity,’ where couples share child-care and household tasks equally. After a pause, she said men must believe that every other dad is doing more housework now, too.”
Source: Washington Post
Do Women and Men Need Different Amounts of Sleep?
What: In response to social media commentary, the New York Times looks at whether women need more sleep than men. They find one sleep disorder doctor who says there is no evidence of that…but note that one of the main studies to look at sex differences in sleep found women report 11 minutes more sleep per night – along with more frequent insomnia.
Key line: “Research suggests that women experience lower quality sleep, on average, than men do — whether they’re caregivers or not. In a 2023 online survey of more than 2,000 adults from the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, for instance, researchers found that women were nearly twice as likely as men to say they rarely or never wake up feeling well rested.”
Source: New York Times
All the Cuts at Federal Health Agencies (For Minimal Savings)
What: The Washington Post has the details on “several thousand” employees who were fired from HHS over the weekend. Those affected worked on everything from regulating food packaging to responding to infectious-disease outbreaks. One person who went on the record about being fired was Arielle Kane, who had recently joined CMS to “launch a program aimed at reducing maternal mortality and severe complications in 15 states’ Medicaid programs.”
Key line: “The cuts swept across health agencies such as an emergency preparedness office, the FDA, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institutes of Health and more. Patient advocacy groups — as well as current and former employees — expressed deep alarm over the cuts.”
Source: Washington Post
PREGNANCY AND POSTPARTUM
Majority of Pregnancy Hemorrhage Deaths Preventable
What: A study looking at all pregnancy-related hemorrhage deaths in California between 2014 and 2018 found that over 60% of cases were preventable. The most common causes were delayed response, delayed recognition, or insufficient quantities of blood products.
Key line: “Optimizing system-based approaches for hemorrhage preparedness, detection, and clinical management is critical to reduce preventable deaths from hemorrhage, especially among patients who do not respond to first-line treatment.”
Source: Obstetrics & Gynecology
ABORTION ACCESS
What Happens Next with Abortion Shield Law Cases
What: The 19th looks at what’s next for Dr. Margaret Carpenter, the physician being sued in civil court in Texas and criminally indicted in Louisiana for providing abortion pills to patients in those states. The cases are expected to wind through New York state courts, until they potentially reach federal courts and possibly the Supreme Court.
Key line: “New York’s shield law clearly says that the state will not extradite someone for providing an abortion if they did so while physically in the state. Because Louisiana alleges that Carpenter mailed medication to the patient — and did not come to Louisiana to do so — the Empire State is unlikely to comply. Still, Carpenter could be at risk of extradition to Louisiana if she goes to another state, Cohen said, because the shield law’s protections only apply within New York’s borders. ‘If I were Dr. Carpenter, I would not leave the state of New York,’ he said.”
Source: The 19th
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