Studies show that a continuous, supportive presence, even if the person is on the other side of a curtain and not speaking, have a positive effect on a woman’s labor, making it shorter, less painful, and able to proceed naturally without intervention.  If you are pregnant with a supportive partner, the birth of your child can be a time of togetherness that enhances your partnership and sexual connection.  The continuous support of the baby’s other parent reinforces the truth, which is that no matter what, you are in it together as parents.  A friend, a godparent or grandparent of the baby, or a professional labor support doula can all act as the supportive continuous presence for a mom who has no partner or whose partner cannot be present.  The best professional labor support person will be able to facilitate and support helpful participation by the mom’s significant others, no matter who they are.  

When women are giving birth in the hospital, they experience a new set of caregivers, students, residents, hospitalists, etc during their birth when the shifts change every 12 hours.  This is why it is so important that a mom bring support with her, rather than hoping to find it from hospital staff.  When a mom gives birth in a freestanding birth center or at home, she generally has a small number of skilled caregivers whom she has met before her birth and who will stay with her until her baby is born.  The research which shows that a CONTINUOUS supportive presence is helpful in labor suggests to me that for most women the continuity of care provided to healthy women by out of hospital midwives would generally lead to healthier labors.  

Watch this video on continuous labor support!

 

Sex leads to pregnancy leads to childbirth.  This, of course, is a huge oversimplification.  It is possible to have lots of satisfying sex that doesn’t lead to pregnancy because a penis never goes into a vagina.  It is possible to have chemical or mechanical problems of the reproductive system that make it impossible or unlikely for penis-in-vagina sex to produce pregnancy.  People can also have penis-in-vagina sex but using any of a number of chemical, mechanical or physiological methods to prevent pregnancy (contraception).  But, penis-in-vagina sex has been until very recently in human history the only way to make more humans, and it is only recently that it has been as simple (and difficult) as taking a medicine to prevent pregnancy. 

 

When pregnancy occurs as a result of sex, it may not necessarily lead to childbirth.  Genetically abnormal embryos often spontaneously abort, and one pregnancy out of five will end spontaneously before halfway through the pregnancy (20 weeks).  Many women choose to end unwanted pregnancies through induced abortion, even in countries where abortion is illegal, clandestine, and dangerous because it is practiced outside the reach of evidence-based healthcare.  Illegal abortion is a leading contributor to maternal mortality worldwide.  In countries where abortion is legal, women have the choice to end an unwanted pregnancy with the help of a trusted healthcare professional and at little risk to their health or well-being.  So, women can be pregnant without ever having given birth or having a child. 

 

For most women who choose to get pregnant, sex gets them pregnant, though some use reproductive technology like insemination or in vitro fertilization to conceive.  However, all unplanned pregnancies, which is about half of all pregnancies, occur because of penis-in-vagina sex.  So, although it is a generalization, it is still generally true:  sex leads to pregnancy leads to childbirth. 

 

Knowledge is power.  Sex ed helps us take charge of our sexual and reproductive health, and an important part of reproductive health is the part where you’re reproducing: conception, pregnancy and birth.  Sexuality is affected by pregnancy, and childbirth is accomplished with the same hormones and muscular contractions as orgasm.  Sex, pregnancy, and birth are biologically and physiologically linked.  Childbirth ed is sex ed. 

 

All animals are built to reproduce themselves, and we humans do it with sex, pregnancy, childbirth and breastfeeding.  The pregnancy and birth of your child is your first act as a parent, and as parents you want to make the best choices you can for your children and family.  By getting educated about the physiologic process of pregnancy, childbirth and breastfeeding, you set yourself up for a healthy reproductive life, and prepare yourself to be an informed consumer of the health-care you receive during pregnancy and childbirth.  I want to bring childbirth ed to Scarleteen because when women and families are educated about birth it can be an empowering, transformative and even sexual experience in the life of a family. 

The empire strikes back

In recent weeks, we've taken huge steps towards blocking spam accounts on LiveJournal. In fact, we've suspended as many as 30,000 accounts in a single day! We've implemented several pre-emptive measures to prevent the creation of spam accounts, and we've honed our detection of suspicious content. Spam bots are a crafty lot, so we'll continue to refine our tactics and keep up the good fight to keep you safe from spam attacks on LiveJournal.

RSS feeds again

If you're addicted to xkcd_rss, icanhaschzbrgr, or other syndicated feeds, we're pleased to report that we've resolved the update error that was mucking up your RSS feeds. While content was being pulled correctly, it wasn't being posted to the feeds themselves. Late last week, we finally nailed down what we hope was the root problem, so content should post properly. We thank you for your patience.

Wii have killer CSI Deadly Intent contests!

c_s_i

If you're a gamer who loves CSI, have Wii got news for you! c_s_i is sponsoring killer contests. Simply post a question to a member of the CSI crew. The winner will get a free copy of CSI: Deadly Intent for Nintendo Wii (with a retail value of $39.99) and get their question answered by a member of the CSI writing team! There's also a fantastic monthly contest. To enter, join c_s_i, play the online version of CSI: Deadly Intent, and respond to a two-part query for a chance to win a Wii! Entries will be judged on composition and originality. Sorry, but you must be a U.S. resident and over 18 years old to participate. Check out the rules here.

Enveloped in postcards

Last week, we asked you to send in postcards to help us decorate our drab concrete walls. Here's a photo of the results so far! Thank you so much and please keep them coming! You can mail them to Frank the Goat, Esq., c/o LiveJournal, Inc., 539 Bryant Street, Suite 210, San Francisco, CA 94107. Be sure to include your username, since we'll be giving ten random users paid account credits.

Photos of the week

If you haven't visited our new LiveJournal photo community, you're in for an amazing visual trip. LiveJournal users from around the world will take you on a scenic journey to everywhere. Post your own pictures or kick back and enjoy at lj_photophile. You can view some of this week's awesome photos after the jump. Please start tagging with geographic location, since we'd like to track all the places around the world represented in this community. Keep on commenting too!
( Read more... )

After a whirlwind week in Portland packing up my grandma's apartment for a move into assisted living and helping my mom negotiate grandma's move and her own healthcare, I came back home and took my final for midwifery school without really having spent any time studying at all.  After months of frustration with my school, I really enjoyed and appreciated the final. It reminded me of how much I knew, and tested truly applicable midwifery knowledge.  There were a few essays, but mostly multiple choice which is sort of ridiculous, as the answers are given to you -- your own knowledge is really tested when you have to come up with the answers yourself.  In my math classes in college, there were a lot of take-home, open-book tests where you could have all the resources you wanted, because the questions required you to use the skills from the class in innovative ways, rather than spit out rote answers you could find in the book.  This was not thabout, and I'm quite confident that I passed.  That means I've completed the academic midwifery program I set out to do.  But I still have 20 births to attend and skill to improve upon.  I am contemplating a move to Oregon soon, and am beginning to think about finding an apprenticeship there.  I am celebratory that I am done with this program, but the journey is far from over.  Everybody says, "Oh, now you're a midwife," and I look forward to the day when I can answer "Yes, I am!"  I imagine the NARM exam will be a little more intensive.  We'll see. 

aiyatheydidnt
The Chinese version of ONTD, AIYA is a dynamic international community that welcomes users who share a love of contemporary Chinese pop culture. Dedicated to celebrity gossip and entertainment news, you'll enjoy gorgeous photos and breaking stories featuring the glitterati of mainland China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong.

wendylady2
Designed to rescue fashion victims everywhere, this Brit-based community reads like a rag-ezine. Published once or twice weekly, you'll view bizarre highlights of the global fashion scene through captivating photos and delightfully snarky editorial. Sit tight for a virtual fashion tour from the runways of New York to Milan to Paris and back home again to London in homage to the adage: you can't buy good taste.

soldiers_heart
A passionate community for veterans of all ages (mostly American), plus families, friends, and supporters. View poignant snapshots detailing life in combat and back on civilian soil in the form of original artwork, personal narratives, poetry, and photos. Be forewarned that members don't shy away from describing their disappointments, disabilities, and struggles.

EDIT: If you're reading this, our maintenance is OVER! The problem was not found on our equipment, which means we'll have to work with our ISP to fix this small problem -- which also means another maintenance window in the future -- but at least we have eliminated our side.

Thank you everyone, and a special shout out to rekoil for giving me a great suggestion AND also the opportunity to feel like I've just called in to a local radio station.

Have a great day, night or afternoon wherever you may be.

---

Hi everyone, sorry for the late notice but I'm going to have to do some testing on 1 of our 4 internet circuits TONIGHT; Friday night or Saturday morning depending on which time zone you're in.

Most of us shouldn't notice any impact, though there may be some slowness or lag when I switch traffic on to our other ISP circuits and then another hit when I stop the tests. If a page won't load or times out, try hitting refresh 1 or 2 times and it should load then. If it doesn't work at all... trust me, I'll be typing really really really fast to try to undo whatever I just did. Hopefully you'll have some Halloween candy (if you're in the USA and celebrate that kind of thing) nearby to take away the bitterness of a small site outage. :(

Here's the handy-dandy Website That I Always Use to get a feel for when the maintenance will start in your area. Our site traffic historically dips on Friday afternoons until Saturday morning which is why we tend to pick this time for maintenance work.

( tech details )

status.livejournal.org will, of course be updated before and after the maintenance window. Or else marta will get mad at me. :D

bt

In response to user comments from last week, we want to let you know that we'll remain LJ cut-free for the next month in order to get more eyeballs on our evolving newsletter. As for product coverage, that continues to be our top priority. For more granular detail, however, we recommend you join lj_releases.

Super-tweak for Yandex search

Some of our beta testers expressed privacy concerns using the Yandex search engine. Here's why: Last week, when you ran a search, you could see the usernames (and only the usernames) of everyone who commented on an entry, even if that entry was switched to Private or Friends Only after it was originally indexed. You could NOT see the actual comments from Friends Only or Private posts. In response to your input, we've implemented a fix to keep all user activity currently marked Friends Only or Private completely hidden. If you'd prefer your public content not to be indexed by Yandex, click here and use the settings labeled Search Inclusion (this covers your entire journal) and/or Comment Search Inclusion (which covers comments only). To test drive Yandex search now, click here.

Postcards from the edge

Several years ago, we asked LiveJournal users to send postcards to help us decorate our dull, white-washed offices. Since a good idea warrants repetition, we're at it again (same issue, new address). We hope you'll surround us with LiveJournal love by sending your postcards to Frank the Goat, Esq., c/o LiveJournal, Inc., 539 Bryant Street, Suite 210, San Francisco, CA 94107. We'll post snapshots right here. Be sure to include your username, since we'll randomly pick 10 lucky recipients to win free paid account time.

Conquer Writer's Block

Here are some excerpts from this week's most popular question of the day:

If a friend or relative makes a racist or homophobic remark, do you tend to confront them or let it slide? Are you more likely to confront them if it offends you directly or someone else who seems reluctant to speak up?

1. I find it easier to stand up for other people, and i wouldn't let it slide if they made a rude or hurtful comment.
2. Usually if a friend makes a racist or homophobic remark, I tend to let it slide. I think that while i would not say such things myself, I have no right to censor those around me.
3. This happens all of the time. I confront some relatives, but I refuse to if they are drunk or watch Fox News.
4. I'd let it slide if it was just a private remark... As much as I despise bigotry and intolerance, I know that you can't change people-they have to change themselves ...
5. Confront! confront! confront! Politely, but without equivocation.
6. SPEAK UP. Always, always, always speak up. Letting something slide lets ignorance win. No matter if it offends me directly, or someone else, I will confront the speaker and let them know that's not ok.
7. I don't get offended personally. As an immigrant, woman, gay and person of color if I took every single potentially offensive remark seriously I wouldn't get anything done.
8. I punch them in the balls. With my mind.
9. I do speak up, but often very timidly because I feel that I'm white and therefore I don't really have any authority to lecture someone on what's racist and what isn't...
10. Generally speaking, I do not let this shit fly, because it reduces me as a person, to this non-person and it replicates the destructive discourse that makes sure that sexual minorities, racial minorities, women, people with disabilities, trans people and every intersection thereof into something other than human... And sometimes... I'm just too tired to deal with it, so I roll my eyes, make a sarcastic remark and hope the conversation moves on quickly.

For more daily questions and user comments, join writersblock. FYI, we don't want to invade your privacy, so we haven't credited individual users for their responses. We'd appreciate your feedback on this!

Spotlight community of the week

We can't resist making one last midnight trip to the ol' pumpkin patch. If you adore crazy costumes, fiendish festivities, and bottomless candy consumption as much as we do, this community has just what it takes to light up your jack-o-lantern.


halloween_fan

Photos of the week

We received so many incredible photos, we had to close our eyes and point. We uploaded a selection of awesome images at our new lj_photophile community. Please join and start posting (try to keep the width at around 625 for the sake of consistency)! We'd love for you to tell us more about your photos! You can help us select spotlight photos by commenting on your favorites. Once again, we thank you for making our online world more beautiful!

shutter	pancetta	ilya_gorokhov

Curtains

Thanks, again, for tuning in. We look forward to seeing you next week.

halloween_fan
Here at LiveJournal, we never balk at an opportunity for high drama, wicked costumes, and gluttonous sugar consumption. But this community takes it one step further: Here, everyday is Halloween. Of course, the hallowed eve is particularly sacred to this spirited crowd. If you're looking for last-minute costume ideas for your black cat, faux eyeball candy, or stand-out haunted houses, dive in for a splash of pagan merriment.

picturing_food
Designing gourmet? Feast your eyes on these pixel perfect dishes with an accent on presentation. A visual smorgasbord of eclectic cuisine, ranging from fusion to down-home comfort foods. If the way to your heart is through your stomach and the way to your stomach is through your eyes, you're sure to leave with a good taste in your mouth.

bookish
Passionate readers share well-penned reviews on a broad sweep of genres, including fiction, YA, sci-fi, paranormal, fantasy, and good ol' pot-boiling suspense. Those of a lit crit persuasion are invited to introduce themselves before posting. And for the silent majority who prefer to bask in our neighbors' labors, there are thoughtful reviews, book list suggestions, and even great gift ideas to keep your library card and dowtime filled.