Thursday, August 10, 2017
8 Tools for Coping with Miscarriage
8 Tools for Coping with Miscarriage
http://www.womendeservebetter.com/8-tools-for-coping-with-miscarriage
Emotions You May Feel:
It’s normal to feel an array of emotions after a pregnancy loss. These emotions can range from but are not limited to: sadness, numbness, shock, depression, anger, disbelief, a sense of failure, and vulnerability.
The first thing to remember during this time is that it’s OK to feel these emotions.
Second, the loss of pregnancy isn’t your fault; complications can happen to any woman.
Some women experience physical symptoms while dealing with their emotional distress. You might experience fatigue, trouble sleeping, difficulty concentrating, and loss of appetite. There are hormonal changes that occur after a miscarriage, and this can intensify these emotions.
Some Things You Can Do:
http://www.womendeservebetter.com/8-tools-for-coping-with-miscarriage
Emotions You May Feel:
It’s normal to feel an array of emotions after a pregnancy loss. These emotions can range from but are not limited to: sadness, numbness, shock, depression, anger, disbelief, a sense of failure, and vulnerability.
The first thing to remember during this time is that it’s OK to feel these emotions.
Second, the loss of pregnancy isn’t your fault; complications can happen to any woman.
Some women experience physical symptoms while dealing with their emotional distress. You might experience fatigue, trouble sleeping, difficulty concentrating, and loss of appetite. There are hormonal changes that occur after a miscarriage, and this can intensify these emotions.
Some Things You Can Do:
- Grief and loss are different for everyone, and the time it will take to heal will vary depending on the person. Give yourself time to heal.
- You may need a chance to process what happened and how you feel. Taking time off of work can be a good way to give yourself time to understand your loss.
- Sharing your stories with others can actually help you heal with your loss. It may feel painful to talk about, but people can help you not feel alone in this situation. Not everyone will have the right response to your news because he or she hasn’t been through it, but it’s about not keeping the pain to yourself regardless of how someone responds to the news.
- Try to not close yourself off from others. You don’t have to tell everyone; you can just share your news to a few close friends.
- Your partner may be coping and reacting in a different way than you are.
- It’s important to remember that everyone grieves differently. Men, on average, react differently from women when it comes to grief and loss. He may be keeping his feelings inside instead of dealing openly with his loss with others.
- Talk to your doctor or midwife about in-person support groups near you.
- You may want to contact a local counselor to talk to about your loss.
- Pregnancy After Loss Support (PALS): This website has online sources and some in-person support groups in several of the 50 states.
- BabyCenter.com has support groups for women who are going through the same type of loss.
Tuesday, April 25, 2017
Study finds gender imbalance in children born to Indo-Canadian women
Study finds gender imbalance in children born to Indo-Canadian women
Karen Howlett
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/study-finds-gender-inbalance-in-children-born-to-indo-canadian-women/article34794700/ Fewer girls than boys are born to Indian women who immigrate to Canada, a skewed pattern driven by families whose mother tongue is Punjabi, according to a new study.
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Karen Howlett
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/study-finds-gender-inbalance-in-children-born-to-indo-canadian-women/article34794700/ Fewer girls than boys are born to Indian women who immigrate to Canada, a skewed pattern driven by families whose mother tongue is Punjabi, according to a new study.
One
of the most surprising findings of the study, to be published Monday in
the Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology Canada, is that the preference
for boys does not diminish, regardless of how long women from India
have lived in Canada.
“It’s counterintuitive,” said Marcelo
Urquia, a research scientist at the University of Manitoba’s Centre for
Health Policy and lead author of the study. “We know that the longer
immigrants are in Canada, the more likely they are to align to the host
country.”
But
for many Indian immigrants who express a strong desire for sons, the
study found, the practice of sex selection remains entrenched. Women who
already have two female children are most at risk for abortions in the
second trimester, when parents can learn the sex of the fetus. The study
builds on previous research led by Dr. Urquia that found a deficit in
Canada of more than 4,400 girls over two decades.
The
latest study shows that women born in India who already have two
daughters gave birth to 192 baby boys in Ontario for every 100 girls.
The sex ratios are so distorted, they cannot be explained by natural
causes, Dr. Urquia said. Across the globe, by comparison, the odds of
having a boy over a girl are slightly higher: 107 boys for every 100
girls.
The preference for boys among
many Indian immigrants reveals underlying gender inequities and will not
change without intervention, Dr. Urquia said.
Amanpreet
Brar, a third-year medical student at the University of Toronto who
worked on the study, said gender-selection abortion was talked about
openly in India’s Punjab province, where she grew up, but she was
surprised to learn that it also happens in Canada.
Ms.
Brar, who immigrated to Canada with her family when she was 14,
remembers the traditional celebration called a Lohri in India for
celebrating the birth of a boy.
“It was rare to hear about a girl’s birth being celebrated,” she said.
But
some steps have been taken in Canada to end gender-based customs and
celebrate the birth of girls. In Brampton, Ont., where 40 per cent of
the population is South Asian, one hospital has started handing out
Ladoos, a sugary Indian sweet, when a baby girl is born, Ms. Brar said.
Traditionally in India, Ladoos were just for moms who delivered boys.
The
study analyzed 46,834 birth records for Indian-born mothers who
delivered up to three live births in Ontario hospitals between April,
1993, and March, 2014, and who immigrated to Canada between 1985 and
2012. Mothers who gave birth to twins or triplets were excluded. The
study also looked at the mother’s birth place, her mother tongue and how
long she had been in Canada.
Among all
the mothers having their third child, nearly twice as many males were
born compared with females if the previous two children were girls. The
ratio was even higher among women whose mother tongue was Punjabi: 240
boys to 100 girls. The ratio of males to females did not differ
according to when women arrived in Canada.
In
India, the ratio of male to female newborns varies considerably, with
several northern states consistently showing numbers that favour boys,
the study says. The practice of sex selection is not widespread across
India but it is prevalent, said Kripa Sekhar, executive director of the
South Asian Women’s Centre in Toronto.
“Many members of the community
welcome a girl child,” she said. “It’s a small minority of the community
in Canada that still practises this.”
A
woman has a fundamental right in Canada to decide whether to have an
abortion, and should not come under pressure from a spouse or other
family members to deliver a male child, Ms. Sekhar said.
“This is an issue of choice that is taken away from a woman,” she said. “In many ways it is very abusive.”
Follow on Twitter: @kahowlett
More Related to this Story
Saturday, January 21, 2017
Some women stay away from Women's March over abortion issue
Bloggers note: the long reach of the PP Abortion industry....
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Some women stay away from Women's March over abortion issue
Melissa Linebaugh was looking forward to taking part in the Women’s March on Washington with her mother and her 9-year-old daughter.
A self-described Christian liberal from Dover, Pa., she was horrified by President Trump’s rhetoric toward women and minorities during the campaign. This was their chance, she thought, to stand with other women in support of a more inclusive and equal world.
Then she read that the organizers had refused to partner with a group of antiabortion feminists. Would she, Linebaugh wondered, be welcome?
“As liberal as I am,” she said, “my one real issue that I struggle with is abortion.”
She was not alone. Across the United States, many women who oppose abortion decided to stay away from the marches planned in Washington and around the country Saturday.
Others said that they would march anyway, though in some cases it would be to protest what they see as the outsized influence of abortion providers on the women’s movement.
Not sure of what to do, Linebaugh turned to the march’s Facebook page, where a debate was raging between those who support and those who oppose abortion rights. The vitriol she saw in some of the posts stunned her.
“The pro-life stance reduces women to nothing more than walking incubators,” one defender of abortion rights wrote.
“The Pro Life movement has tried to destroy Roe v. Wade ever since it was upheld by the Supreme Court!” another wrote, referring to the 1973 decision that legalized the procedure nationwide. “Absolutely they should not be a part of the Women's March.”
Linebaugh was crushed. Why couldn’t these women see that “everybody could be together for the same cause and still have and respect different viewpoints?”
“I sat there and literally cried.”
The ruckus began when the Atlantic reported Monday that the march organizers had recognized the New Wave Feminists, a Dallas-based antiabortion group, as one of hundreds of official partners. Hours later, the organizers issued a statement apologizing for “this error” and dropped the group from the list.
“The Women’s March platform is pro-choice and that has been our stance from day one,” the statement said.
Destiny Herndon-De La Rosa, head of the New Wave Feminists, said she wasn’t offered an explanation for the reversal but believes that the organizers caved in to pressure from the “pro-choice feminist community.”
“I understand that when you say ‘pro-life,’ people assume bullhorns and bloody fetus signs,” she said, but added that her group takes a very different approach.
“While we are a pro-life group, we do not work to make abortion illegal,” she said. “We work to make it unthinkable and unnecessary by loving women and serving them well enough that they would never feel the need to turn to abortion.”
Herndon-De La Rosa said she was heartened by an outpouring of support on social media from women who support abortion rights but were disappointed at the organizers’ decision and wanted groups like hers to feel welcome.
When thousands of women take to the streets of the nation’s capital Saturday, she plans to be there, and she has encouraged other women to march too.
“We have so many things in common, fighting domestic abuse and human trafficking and just oppression worldwide,” she said.
Heidi L. Sieck, a cofounder of the #VOTERPROCHOICE campaign who helped put together the march’s policy platform, said, “There was never a moment that this march wasn’t about reproductive freedoms.
A self-described Christian liberal from Dover, Pa., she was horrified by President Trump’s rhetoric toward women and minorities during the campaign. This was their chance, she thought, to stand with other women in support of a more inclusive and equal world.
“As liberal as I am,” she said, “my one real issue that I struggle with is abortion.”
She was not alone. Across the United States, many women who oppose abortion decided to stay away from the marches planned in Washington and around the country Saturday.
Others said that they would march anyway, though in some cases it would be to protest what they see as the outsized influence of abortion providers on the women’s movement.
Not sure of what to do, Linebaugh turned to the march’s Facebook page, where a debate was raging between those who support and those who oppose abortion rights. The vitriol she saw in some of the posts stunned her.
“The pro-life stance reduces women to nothing more than walking incubators,” one defender of abortion rights wrote.
“The Pro Life movement has tried to destroy Roe v. Wade ever since it was upheld by the Supreme Court!” another wrote, referring to the 1973 decision that legalized the procedure nationwide. “Absolutely they should not be a part of the Women's March.”
Linebaugh was crushed. Why couldn’t these women see that “everybody could be together for the same cause and still have and respect different viewpoints?”
“I sat there and literally cried.”
The ruckus began when the Atlantic reported Monday that the march organizers had recognized the New Wave Feminists, a Dallas-based antiabortion group, as one of hundreds of official partners. Hours later, the organizers issued a statement apologizing for “this error” and dropped the group from the list.
“The Women’s March platform is pro-choice and that has been our stance from day one,” the statement said.
Destiny Herndon-De La Rosa, head of the New Wave Feminists, said she wasn’t offered an explanation for the reversal but believes that the organizers caved in to pressure from the “pro-choice feminist community.”
“I understand that when you say ‘pro-life,’ people assume bullhorns and bloody fetus signs,” she said, but added that her group takes a very different approach.
“While we are a pro-life group, we do not work to make abortion illegal,” she said. “We work to make it unthinkable and unnecessary by loving women and serving them well enough that they would never feel the need to turn to abortion.”
Herndon-De La Rosa said she was heartened by an outpouring of support on social media from women who support abortion rights but were disappointed at the organizers’ decision and wanted groups like hers to feel welcome.
When thousands of women take to the streets of the nation’s capital Saturday, she plans to be there, and she has encouraged other women to march too.
“We have so many things in common, fighting domestic abuse and human trafficking and just oppression worldwide,” she said.
Heidi L. Sieck, a cofounder of the #VOTERPROCHOICE campaign who helped put together the march’s policy platform, said, “There was never a moment that this march wasn’t about reproductive freedoms.
Friday, January 20, 2017
ABORTION PILL Now Available as Canada Rolls the dice on women's health
Long-awaited abortion pill Mifegymiso makes Canadian debut
The Globe and Mail
Published Last updated
The abortion pill is finally available in Canada.
The first shipments of Mifegymiso arrived earlier this week at two women’s health clinics in Vancouver and Calgary, marking the beginning of a potential sea change in how women in Canada choose to end their pregnancies.
“We were over the moon,” said Celia Posyniak, the executive director of Calgary’s Kensington Clinic, the first place in the country to provide the medication to a patient.
“There’s a few of us who’ve been here for 25 years or more and we’ve been waiting for it for all that time. Canada was definitely a laggard.”
Mifegymiso is a two-drug combination that Health Canada approved in July, 2015, after an application process that took more than three years, an unusually long time for a medication that is already approved in more than 60 countries, including the United States, China and most of Europe.
Before that, pro-choice advocates spent years trying to find a pharmaceutical company willing to apply to sell mifepristone, the controversial first medication in the package, in Canada’s relatively small market.
(The second drug needed to complete a medical abortion, misoprostol, was already available in Canada.)
It’s too early to say how widely Mifegymiso will be sold in Canada, or whether family doctors who do not already provide surgical abortions will offer the medication to their patients, particularly in small towns and rural regions where abortion services are scarce.
But so far, the early adopters are prominent abortion clinics, as many expected.
The Willow Women’s Clinic in Vancouver, the second in Canada to receive a shipment of Mifegymiso, gave out its first two doses of the medication on Friday.
The Bay Centre for Birth Control at Women’s College Hospital in Toronto is gearing up to begin offering the medication soon; all of its doctors have already completed the six-hour online course required to prescribe and distribute Mifegymiso.
The Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada (SOGC), which helped design the educational materials, said on Friday that 36 physicians and pharmacists have passed the course and another 65 have registered to take it.
The course went live on Jan. 3, an SOGC spokeswoman said.
Completing the online training program is one of a slew of stipulations for prescribing Mifegymiso that Health Canada included in the drug’s product monograph, the long label that lays out how a medication should be used.
The monograph also says that doctors – as opposed to pharmacists – should give the pills directly to women, and that the pills should not be used in pregnancies that are further along than seven weeks.
Pro-choice doctors and activists have raised concerns that the physician-dispensing rule might discourage family doctors who do not specialize in women’s reproductive services from offering the pills.
Celopharma Inc., the Canadian distributor for Mifegymiso, has already applied to Health Canada to extend the upper limit of use to nine weeks, and to allow pharmacists to distribute Mifegymiso directly to women as they do with most prescription drugs, said Paula Tenenbaum, the president of Celopharma.
Meantime, some abortion providers have already decided to prescribe the pills “off-label” to patients whose pregnancies are further along than seven weeks, something Health Canada said is well within a physician’s purview.
“The stance with respect to this product is the same as other products,” said Supriya Sharma, chief medical officer for Health Canada. “Information that’s contained in the product monograph is really a reflection of the factual and scientific information that we’ve looked at to authorize the product. Should a practitioner want to go beyond that – the off-label use of that product – that is within the practice of medicine.”
Ms. Posyniak said her clinic in Calgary plans to stick to seven weeks, at least at first. The Bay Centre in Toronto has approved an upper limit of nine weeks and the Willow Women’s Clinic has settled on 10 weeks.
“The evidence is excellent and that is what the SOGC has on its guidelines, so that’s what we went with,” said Ellen Wiebe, the medical director of the Willow Women’s Clinic and one of the authors of the society’s guidelines on medical abortion, which were updated last spring.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration updated the product monograph for Mifeprex, as the two-drug combination is called south of the border, last year to declare the drug safe and effective up to 10 weeks after the first day of a pregnant woman’s last period.
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