May I have 10 minutes of your time? Haha, I made this video for Sarah and she said I could post it too. Even though it's a little grainy, I love how it turned out! I feel so honored to have been invited to attend such a beautiful birth!

PS - turn up the volume in the long stretch of video, when she births him, so you can hear the sweet things she was quietly saying to him :)

i thought this was pretty awesome :)

a friend of mine posted this a while ago, and it was just reposted in naturalbirth. i have loved it every time i've watched it :)

this was posted a while ago in the breastfeeding communities, and i bookmarked it. i wanted to post it before i start clearing out my favs :)

( saggy boobies aren't from breastfeeding! )

some of you have been on my list a long time, some only a short time. but i'm in a very vulnerable place in my life right now so i think i need to trim a few people who i'm just not feeling lately. no hard feelings, you're all really great! and maybe we can reconnect when i'm feeling a little better about things :)

a friend of mine just created ppdsupport. i think there's a few users on my list who might be interested in joining, or know someone else they could share the community with. just trying to get the word out there :)

this was posted in birth_is_normal and pregnant, and i wanted to repost it here. this blog really touched me. i want to be a midwife so badly. and i've said it before but i'll say it again, no more hospital births for me :)


"One of my favorite women, a midwife in Oregon, posted this essay she wrote about what hospital birth is like. You wanna know what it will be like to birth in a hospital? I suggest you read this. This is the best account I've read, by far.

I want to also point out her comments on how newborns are treated after birth. She's so right, it's absolutely inhuman. There is no other time in our lives when we would ever permit someone to treat our babies in this way, and yet when they first come into the world, when they are the most vulnerable, we let them be manhandled and mauled. She posted another blog entry with links to videos of some hospital births. I couldn't even watch them in their entirety, they were so disturbing to me.

Just think.........and, if you chose hospital birth, know what you're up against."

my entire journal is backed up to this point with ljbook :)

this is not intended to deny or minimise in any way the shocking pain and harm of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM). but many people emphatically deny any similarity between Female Genital Mutilation and Male Genital Mutilation (MGM, circumcision).

( FGM vs MGM )

i've been considering doing this for a while now. i finally decided right now that it needs to be done. maybe you don't post often, or you never comment, or i'm just not feeling your journal, or our life ideals are just too different, etc. etc. etc. it's nothing personal, i really do like each and every one of you. and i'll still see you around in communities!

this is also a good time, if any of you are not feelin' my journal, to feel free to cut me off of your list as well. no hard feelings, even though i might be a little sad if some of you let me go ;)



ETA: i'm screening comments. just... because.

doesn't apply to me, but i was definitely happy to see this! :)



On Wednesday, the New York State Senate passed the Expressing At Work Bill, meaning that the bill has now passed both houses of the state legislature and is expected to become law. (It had passed the Assembly a number of times in years past, but languished in the Senate until recently). For those who are interested, the text of the law is as follows:

Section 1. The labor law is amended by adding a new section 206-c to read as follows:
S 206-C. RIGHT OF NURSING MOTHERS TO EXPRESS BREAST MILK. AN EMPLOYER SHALL PROVIDE REASONABLE UNPAID BREAK TIME OR PERMIT AN EMPLOYEE TO USE PAID BREAK TIME OR MEAL TIME EACH DAY TO ALLOW AN EMPLOYEE TO EXPRESS BREAST MILK FOR HER NURSING CHILD FOR UP TO THREE YEARS FOLLOWING CHILD BIRTH. THE EMPLOYER SHALL MAKE REASONABLE EFFORTS TO PROVIDE A ROOM OR OTHER LOCATION, IN CLOSE PROXIMITY TO THE WORK AREA, WHERE AN EMPLOYEE CAN EXPRESS MILK IN PRIVACY. NO EMPLOYER SHALL DISCRIMINATE IN ANY WAY AGAINST AN EMPLOYEE WHO CHOOSES TO EXPRESS BREAST MILK IN THE WORK PLACE.
S 2. This act shall take effect immediately.

what a two-faced bitch.
i came across something interesting this afternoon, something i don't think i was ever supposed to see, while doing a search for a bunch of my user names (it was a boring afternoon, and after what happened with the porn site incident, i was curious what else was out there).......

( ,,|,,(-.-),,|,, )

People are illogical, unreasonable, and self-centered. Love them anyway.
If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives. Do good anyway.
If you are successful, you win false friends and true enemies. Succeed anyway.
The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway.
Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable. Be honest and frank anyway.
The biggest men with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest men with the smallest minds. Think big anyway.
People favor underdogs, but follow only top dogs. Fight for a few underdogs anyway.
What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight. Build anyway.
People really need help but may attack you if you do help them. Help people anyway.
Give the world the best you have and you'll get kicked in the teeth. Give the world the best you have anyway.


http://www.paradoxicalcommandments.com/origin.html

PDF of an article from Men's Health magazine on circumcision.

It has pictures and descriptions of the process, as well as talking about the ethics of circumcision and the damage it can do. It's not pretty or fun to read, but it has a lot of information. It also talks about why circumcision became so common in the USA.


(stolen from krisw's journal)

sorry for spamming everyone's friends pages! i promise, i'm done now.
well, after this ;)





hope to see some of you there!

DECIDING WHETHER OR NOT TO CIRCUMCISE YOUR BABY BOY
- Dr Sears -

This is a decision that many parents face. There are many misconceptions and out-of-date information that parents may read. Here is a summary of the pertinent issues that you should consider when making this decision.

Medical benefits - THERE ARE NONE! Do not circumcise your baby because you think there are some medical benefits. A recent review by the American Academy of Pediatrics looked at all the data from the past decades to see if there truly were any medical benefits. Their conclusion - NO. There are no significant medical benefits that make circumcision worth doing. Here are a few benefits that we used to think were true, and now know are not.

      Cleanliness - although it is true, a circumcised penis does not collect much white stuff underneath the foreskin like an intact    
      penis does, THIS IS NOT A MEDICAL BENEFIT. It is really just one less area to wash in the shower.

      Decreased risk of STD's - this was a myth that we now know is not true.

      Decreased risk of penile cancer - it used to be thought that circumcised men had a much lower chance of cancer of the penis. 
      We now know that this benefit is much smaller than previously thought. The AAP determined that this benefit is so tiny, it is not 
      worth circumcising for this reason. 

     Avoiding infections in the foreskin - it is true, occasionally intact foreskins get irritated. This is easily treated with warms soaks 
     and washing. Rarely, the irritated foreskin becomes infected. This requires antibiotics to clear up, but is easily treatable. Even if 
     this does happen once or twice in a person's life, it is not a reason to circumcise at birth.

     Avoiding the need to do it later on - very rarely, someone has a problem with recurrent infections in the foreskin that need 
     antibiotic treatment. Some of these men then need to be circumcised in an operating room under general anesthesia. This is 
     extremely rare, however, and is not a reason to circumcise everyone at birth. 

     Avoiding bladder infections - it used to thought that circumcised boys and men had a much lower chance of bladder infections. 
     The AAP now knows that this benefit is very small, and is only true for the first few years of life. After that, there is no difference in
     the number of bladder infections. Again, not a reason to circumcise.

THEREFORE, IF YOU DECIDE TO CIRCUMCISE YOUR CHILD, DO NOT DO SO BECAUSE YOU THINK THERE IS ANY MEDICAL BENEFIT.
( Read more... )

Poll #965378 circumcision
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: None

Have you, or will you circumcisize your sons?

comments and results are screened