There is a lot of talk these days in health circles about evidence-based decision-making, i.e. developing policy based on strong research, rather than on ideology, “anecdata” or economic expediency. Unfortunately, a lot of the talk is just that — talk. Take, for example, some recent Canadian developments in the world of midwifery.
The research into the safety, efficacy and cost-effectiveness of midwifery is well established (though you might not know it from the Little House on the Prairie image it still has in popular culture). Researchers have amply demonstrated that babies born with the assistance of midwives (at home, in hospital or a birthing centre) fare just as well as those born to mothers cared for by obstetricians (see this recent study by Eileen Hutton on the study she conducted into midwifery in Ontario). In fact, among women with low-risk pregnancies, a home birth with a midwife might actually be even safer. Data collected by the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care indicates that women cared for by a midwife are subject to fewer obstetrical interventions, such as C-sections and episiotomies. And the cost? The ministry has itself indicated that midwives save the healthcare system between $800 and $1,800 per birth.
Even though the evidence shows that the outcomes for mama and baby are just as strong for women receiving midwifery care than not, obstacles remain to women who want to be seen by a midwife during their pregnancy. For example, availability of fully funded and publicly regulated midwifery services across the country is patchy, and there are three jurisdictions in Canada that don’t offer publicly funded, provincially regulated midwifery at all: the Yukon, New Brunswick and PEI. In New Brunswick, it can cost a woman anywhere from $1,500 to $3,000 out of pocket to have a midwife provide care.
Another issue is that the demand for midwives outstrips their numbers–though the growth in the profession over the past few years is considerable. Right now, there are about 500 registered midwives working in Ontario, but this is about 150 more than just a few years ago. (A personal aside: The demand for midwifery care is so intense that, when I told my doctor I was planning on having a baby, she responded, “When you find out you’re pregnant, don’t phone your husband, don’t phone your mom–phone the midwife.”). There are only 6 places in Canada where midwifery education programs are available, but the good news is that the programs are graduating larger numbers of students than ever before.
A third and very significant problem for women seeking midwifery care is the issue of hospital privileges. Obtaining hospital privileges for midwives has proven, in some cases, to be difficult. Take the case of two registered midwives who recently opened a clinic in Orangeville, Ontario. After months of providing midwifery services in the community, they still cannot get privileges to practice at a local hospital. This forces women in their care to have to drive 30 – 60 minutes away to get care from a midwife in a hospital setting. The restriction of hospital privileges completely goes against the philosophy of evidence-based decision-making in healthcare.
With fewer and fewer doctors delivering babies, midwives are prepared to step into the breach (no pun intended). But the demonstrated advantages of midwives for the entire healthcare system can only be fully realized with a coordinated effort among provincial health ministries, midwifery working groups and organized patient/consumer groups. Recent developments, such as Ontario’s Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care permitting new midwifery registrants to find work immediately upon graduating, is one such positive step. Canadian women need more steps like these to ensure universal, quality maternity care for all.
I found out about InvisiblePeople.tv from Katya Andersen’s non-profit marketing blog. It’s a project undertaken by Mark Horvath, who was once a homeless person, and now maintains a vlog of interviews with people living on the streets. The brief videos are powerful testimonies to just how easily homelessness can happen, and how excruciatingly difficult it can be to get out. I’d love to know if anyone has undertaken a similar project in Canada.
Homelessness, of course, has its gendered dimensions, as Tracy’s story illustrates:
According to a study published yesterday, Toronto teenagers want more access to sex education. The media are reporting this story as if it’s honest-to-goodness news, but I’m kind of wondering whether anyone is actually surprised at the findings of the Toronto Teen Survey, which was conducted by Planned Parenthood Toronto in conjunction with York University, the University of Toronto, Wilfred Laurier University, and Toronto Public Health. I’m sure community groups that deal with teen health and sex education, such as Planned Parenthood or Head and Hands, are more than ready to yell out a huge “I told you so” to governments and boards of education that have been slowly hacking away at sex ed classes in public schools.
I have to admit that I’m not entirely up to date on the quantity and quality of sex education classes in Canadian schools, which certainly must vary province to province, given that education is provincially regulated. But, from what I’ve read and heard over the past couple of years, my general impression is that sex ed classes are not meeting the needs of today’s teens. In Ontario, teens receive sex ed classes in Grades 7 and 9, which is not nearly enough, as far as I’m concerned. In fact, the newly published report recommends that sexual education be included in all elementary and high school grades. Far worse than Ontario is the province of Quebec, which decided last year to eliminate sex ed classes altogether in favour of an approach where teachers of all subjects are encouraged to include sex education in their classes. (I’m not sure how a math teacher is supposed to incorporate a discussion of, say, sexual intimacy while also teaching the quadratic equation, but maybe I’m just not being imaginative enough.) Not surprisingly, Sue Johanson was less than pleased with Quebec’s new mandate. And considering that just last week Alberta passed a law that allows parents to pull their kids out of classes in which religion or sex will be discussed, I’m going to guess that some kids in Alberta aren’t getting their fair share of sex ed either.
Okay, so now that this study has been conducted and published, what next? Is anything actually going to change? Are these teens who have indicated a subpar understanding of sexual health going to get more information? Or are governments and school boards going to pretend the study doesn’t exist? I suppose we’ll have to wait and see what happens, but my guess is that the sex ed battle has just barely begun.
I’m a big fan of reading the Best of Craiglist because it is such a fascinating, hilarious and gross sampling of humanity’s highs and lows. It’s also fun trying to guess which of the posts are written sincerely and which ones are total fabrications that are purposely meant to be jaw-dropping. One such “Is this real or not?” Craigslist post a reader sent me was this one:
I am due in June. I have read a lot about how great for your health it is to eat your placenta (after all, most mammals, even vegetarians, do this). Unfortunately I don’t have a strong enough stomach to just eat it, so it was recommended to me that I dry it out in a food dehydrator, put it in a coffee grinder, and put it in capsules to take daily. Again, I just don’t have the stomach (and may not have the energy after birth to do this.) What I need is someone who is reliable…someone who has given birth or watched a birth, knows what a placenta looks/smells like/etc, who is 100% comfortable handling something like this. I have read that it can take up to 10 hours of work. Please e-mail me why you would be willing to do this and how much you would charge.
There’s something about this ad that is really beautiful (that mythical quality of ingesting the power of the placenta) and sweet (OMG, dude, after giving birth, you’re happy to eat just about ANYTHING that someone else has cooked for you). But there’s also something about it, too, that points to the growing list of things that perfect mothers are supposed to do. You can’t just squeeze the watermelon out from between your legs in a beautiful, orgasmic, fast-but-not-too-fast, doula and midwife-assisted home birth while wearing a white nightgown in a candlelit room (and that’s just the birth! Forget about actually raising the kid!). You’ve got to worry about processing the placenta into a palatable form; otherwise, you’re wasting the power of mother nature. Seriously, after living through birth, I’d had just about enough of mother nature, thankyouverymuch.
That’s why I’m wondering: does anyone actually know anyone who actually ate the placenta? Or does this exist strictly at the level of urban myth?
Before you answer the question that looms at the top of this post, I have a small confession to make. Even before I read about nose waxing (a.k.a. the New York nose wax) as the newest beauty trend, I’d already given my own nose hair some consideration. One day, as I looked into the mirror in one of those examine-every-inch-of-my-face kind of moments, I noticed (gasp!) my nose hair. And I wondered: “Do other women remove their nose hair? Have I unknowingly become a nose hair freak?”
For those of you who are as new to the concept of nose waxing as I am, this new trend entails waxing the hairs in the lower part of your nostrils. Some will say these are pesky hairs that need eliminating; I say they’re probably not something you need to worry about. But, heck, considering I just realized yesterday that some women are waxing these hairs away, maybe I’m just completely out of the loop.
I’m not quite sure whether nose waxing is necessarily a women’s issue or even feminist one. I mean, tons of men trim their nose and ear hair, although I think these tasks are often reserved for the excessively hairy. To me, it seems like the kind of task undertaken by men who are getting on in their years. However, when it comes to women waxing their nose hairs–and not to pass judgment here–uh, isn’t it just a teeny bit excessive? And painful? I mean, how much nose hair does the typical woman have? Is it interfering with everyday functioning?
To sate my morbid curiosity, I am posing the following question: are you a nose waxer? Please post a comment (an anonymous one, if you wish). I really, really want to know how much of a trend this is becoming. Apparently, it started in the U.S. and has crossed the pond and become the new thing to do in the U.K.
As for my own nose hair, I think I’ll leave it as is. My nostrils probably work hard enough. And, frankly, I’m not ready to wage an unnecessary battle with a part of my body that facilitates breathing. I’m too afraid of bad karma.
Just when I thought I’d heard about every weight loss gimmick short of sewing your lips shut, I’ve had the misfortune of reading about a new product that encourages women to keep their mouths shut and pass on the spring rolls and prosciutto-wrapped bread sticks. Introducing Huge Lips Skinny Hips, a lip gloss that creator Karen Robinovitz of Purple Lab claims will help women avoid “eating mindlessly,” thus aiding in the shedding of pounds.
Now, before I go into my official feminist rant about this sexist and potentially anorexia-inducing product, I have to tell you a little story. On occasion, I wear makeup. ‘Cause I like it. A lot. The thing is, I have more of an affinity for eye makeup than lip makeup. Know why? ‘Cause I LOVE eating. So, when I’m off to a dinner or some other food-a-licious function, I take one of two actions: a) I either don’t bother wearing lipstick because I know it’ll disappear anyway, or, b) I wear lipstick or lip gloss and then don’t worry about it because food trumps glossy lips. (Note: I’m also not one to sneak into the bathroom and reapply; I’m usually having too much fun to remember that my lips are naked. I know–I’m shameless.)
Sadly, however, Huge Lips Skinny Hips banks on the fact that women DO care about naked or messed up lips and that they’ll choose perfect lips over the tray of canapés that is making its way around the room. But, as advertised, that’s not the only reason why the product works. Huge Lips Skinny Hips also contains extracts from hoodia, a cactus-like African succulent, touted to be an appetite suppressant. So glob on the lip gloss and say goodbye to hunger. Or so the product promises.
Want more? Huge Lips Skinny Hips also professes to have ingredients that aid in plumping up your lips and reducing fine lines and wrinkles around the mouth. Huzzah! The answer to all of the world’s problems!
I have no interest in debating whether hoodia is an effective appetite suppressant, whether the lip gloss contains enough hoodia to suppress your appetite, whether your lips will become fuller after application of this product, or even whether the lip gloss is adequately silky or shiny. My real concern is that women are making products for women based on the assumption that we hate our bodies. I’m more than fed up with the endless policing of every aspect of women’s bodies: thin lips, wrinkles, fine lines, fat thighs, thick ankles, uneven breasts, flabby arms, imperfect skin, unkempt pubic hair, etc., etc., etc.
And, what enrages me even more is that many beauty products are increasingly being advertised under the guise of not oppressing women. Purple Lab’s website claims: “Huge Lips Skinny Hips is not promoting that you starve or even stop eating.” Right. You’re just telling women that we need to obsess over every square inch of our bodies. With all of that pressure, no wonder women are reaching for the nearest bag of potato chips.
What worries me most is the message we’re sending to young girls and teenagers. While I’m aware that lip gloss is not specifically targeted at teen girls (especially now that glossy lips are in), I do know that if teenagers are going to experiment with makeup, parents may consider lip gloss to be an innocuous item that they will permit their kids to play with. But Huge Lips Skinny Hips ain’t no Bonne Bell Lipsmackers, and if girls start choosing this appetite-suppressing gloss to add a little shine to their lips, then we’ve got a serious problem on our hands.
There is a lot of talk these days in health circles about evidence-based decision-making, i.e. developing policy based on strong research, rather than on ideology, “anecdata” or economic expediency. Unfortunately, a lot of the talk is just that — talk. Take, for example, some recent Canadian developments in the world of midwifery.
According to a study published yesterday, Toronto teenagers want more access to sex education. The media are 
Before you answer the question that looms at the top of this post, I have a small confession to make. Even before I read about 
Just when I thought I’d heard about every weight loss gimmick short of sewing your lips shut, I’ve had the misfortune of 
Confabulous badges!
