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are you pre-pregnant? — Brooklynian

are you pre-pregnant?

Comments

  • carnivore
    carnivore

    Subject: Re: are you pre-pregnant?

    alafairnadia wrote: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/15/AR2006051500875.html

    irritating
    I think this is honestly conceived (excuse the pun) as a public health gesture rather than as some sort of insidious anti-choice plot. Just making sure that all women of reproductive age get enough folic acid would prvent many birth defects.
  • stacey
    stacey

    Subject: Re: are you pre-pregnant?

    Carnivore wrote: [quote=alafairnadia]http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/15/AR2006051500875.html

    irritating
    I think this is honestly conceived (excuse the pun) as a public health gesture rather than as some sort of insidious anti-choice plot. Just making sure that all women of reproductive age get enough folic acid would prvent many birth defects.

    I too felt a little "ticked off" reading that only because they tend to make light of most issues relating to women's health - here they have to tie it in to preganancy.

    Doesn't irritate me as much as some insurance companies cover viagra but not birth control.
  • sterling2000
    sterling2000
    Yeah, I'm a dude in my mid-30s and my doc has had me on folic for ten years. These guidelines seem like just health 101 that a lot of people don't follow.

    Now, about that not smoking thing....
  • quijibo
    quijibo
    i was thinking of inventing a folic acid mojito

    but unfortunately alcohol inhibits the absorption of folic acid :(
  • iowagirl
    iowagirl
    No, but I'm post-pregnant...
    I too felt a little "ticked off" reading that only because they tend to make light of most issues relating to women's health - here they have to tie it in to preganancy.
    What's also interesting about this is that various physician groups are suggesting that baby girls be immunized against the human papilloma virus since it can cause cervical cancer, but the feds and their wingnut supporters don't want it. Why? Because then teenage girls might become sexually active. "Hey, wanna get lucky? I'm not gonna get cancer!"

    So it's okay to assume that every woman will be someday be pregnant, but God forbid she should have sex before she wants that to happen. (Although everyone should get enough folic acid -- you need it regardless of your sex and pre/current/post-pregnancy status.)

    http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/002408.htm
  • sterling2000
    sterling2000
    quijibo wrote: i was thinking of inventing a folic acid mojito

    but unfortunately alcohol inhibits the absorption of folic acid :(
    What about a folic cigarette or bong hit?

    Mmmmmm...vitamin munchies...
  • alafairnadia
    alafairnadia
    I just think it's fucking obnoxious to (as other posters have said, and, obviously, the reason I posted this) make general good health issue a women's health issue. it's problematic and simplistic. and, as a single, not-interested-in-reproduction female, fucking insulting. I know how to use condoms, spermicide, etc. and I know how often MDs decry the importance of supplements. so the whole thing makes me mad.
  • iowagirl
    iowagirl
    It is fucking obnoxious, and it's so typical. The only legitimate women's health issues for these theocrats have to do with protecting the health or lives of the unborn, women be damned. These are the same guys who rejected the recommendations of the FDA committee charged with investigating a morning after drug. Remember "Plan B?" The committee said it was safe and should be made available without prescription, and then the Secretary said, "no." Too close to abortion. And don't even get me started on stem cell research. But I feel safe. They know best. After all, they want us to take our folic acid. If they really wanted us to be safe, they'd ban aspartame and stop worrying so much about babies and folic acid. Fuckheads.
  • alafairnadia
    alafairnadia
    iowagirl wrote: It is fucking obnoxious, and it's so typical. The only legitimate women's health issues for these theocrats have to do with protecting the health or lives of the unborn, women be damned. These are the same guys who rejected the recommendations of the FDA committee charged with investigating a morning after drug. Remember "Plan B?" The committee said it was safe and should be made available without prescription, and then the Secretary said, "no." Too close to abortion. And don't even get me started on stem cell research. But I feel safe. They know best. After all, they want us to take our folic acid. If they really wanted us to be safe, they'd ban aspartame and stop worrying so much about babies and folic acid. Fuckheads.
    LOL!! I don't know you, but I love you! awesome. yes. and. yes.
    actually, if things get bad, if the republicans keep up their disgusting agenda, I have a plan C to implement using doctors and pharmacists who don't give a fuck overseas. and they really want tom's of maine toothpaste with both flouride AND baking soda. we can trade for women's rights.
  • iowagirl
    iowagirl
    Mmmmm. Clove-cinnamon toothpaste. Not sure I can give it up, even for my rights. They can have the mint.
  • sweet tea
    sweet tea
    as others have noted, this is enraging. god forbid doctors be encouraged to take care of their patients. instead, they should focus on taking care of people who don't exist yet. because, you know, those little pre-fetuses just might grow up to be men, and we sure do want to make sure they're healthy. (at least until they're born. then we'll take a look at which ones chose poorly about what race to be and how much money to be born into, and we'll deal with them accordingly.)

    HOWEVER, may i point out, to any of you pre-pregnant lassies who happen to have both a man and a cat in the house a marvelous detail:

    Women should also make sure all vaccinations are up-to-date and avoid contact with lead-based paints and cat feces, Biermann said.
    that's right: you don't have to clean the litterbox anymore. in fact, you can't. it's his duty. you'd like to, of course, but, well, think of the pre-baby.
  • iowagirl
    iowagirl
    Yup, I got out of nearly 40 months of catbox duty. It was sweet. Tried to make my husband believe that nursing women shouldn't clean littterboxes either, but it didn't work.
    (at least until they're born. then we'll take a look at which ones chose poorly about what race to be and how much money to be born into, and we'll deal with them accordingly.)
    End abortion and protect the rights and the health of the unborn. Then there'll be an unending supply of cannon fodder. Everyone knows that babies who don't get mandatory folic acid in utero aren't strong enough to to be soldiers.
  • rah
    rah
    From the WaPo article: "While most of these recommendations are well known to women who are pregnant or seeking to get pregnant, experts say it's important that women follow this advice throughout their reproductive lives, because about half of pregnancies are unplanned and so much damage can be done to a fetus between conception and the time the pregnancy is confirmed."

    How about instead of the U.S. gov't focusing on women taking folic acid it started paying attention to the high numbers of unplanned pregnancies there are in this country.

    If the federal gov't wasn't so intent on pouring nearly a billion dollars into abstinence-only programs (programs which are only allowed to talk about contraception in terms of failure rates, misrepresent the facts, only discuss sex in terms of marriage, stigmatize LGBTQ students, and have yet to be proven effective) perhaps there wouldn't be so many unplanned pregnancies in this country.

    WaPo had a good piece on how the US fails when it comes to sex ed and the repercussions its failure has on teen pregnancy and std rates: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/15/AR2006051500713.html
  • stacey
    stacey
    RAH wrote: How about instead of the U.S. gov't focusing on women taking folic acid it started paying attention to the high numbers of unplanned pregnancies there are in this country.
    Oh how I wish this were so!!!
  • iowagirl
    iowagirl
    RAH wrote:
    How about instead of the U.S. gov't focusing on women taking folic acid it started paying attention to the high numbers of unplanned pregnancies there are in this country.


    Oh how I wish this were so!!!
    Me too. Everyone should consider that the upcoming elections in November are some of the most important of our lifetimes. We need to remind everyone we know to vote Democrat so we can get Congress back, even though most Democrats haven't done much to protect our rights recently. Talk to your friends and family, especially in other states and upstate. Support Democratic candidates whenever and wherever you can.

    I want my country back.
  • jaha127
    jaha127
    and when you're getting ready to vote, make sure you do your research. In some states they are taking away reproductive rights of teenage girls by enforicng parental notifcation for abortions and the morning after pill. Some teenagers have to go to court and ask legal permission to have an abortion w/o there parents permission even if they were raped/abused by a family memeber.

    Or the government will do the opposite, and force women on welfare to be sterlized or take Depro Vera (excuse spelling) shots, and if they don't they'll lose there welfare subsidies.

    Unbeliveable they are using our bodies for political and monetary gain... at what point do we truly own our bodies...

    Funny in college I attended the Women's Reproductive March in D.C and it was so impowering to see so many women and men out there fighting for our rights... but is it really helping? I feel with this current government that everyday there is a chance they we'd lose our "choice".
  • findcate
    findcate
    I'm of two minds, I mean it's just a recommendation.

    "Among other things, this means all women between first menstrual period and menopause should take folic acid supplements, refrain from smoking, maintain a healthy weight and keep chronic conditions such as asthma and diabetes under control."

    It's a little twisted that the author of the article seems to treat women as uteruses, but it seems like the bottom line would be good for women, no matter what. A little more attention to women's reproductive health could be a good thing... trying to convince people to not smoke & maintain a healthy weight definitely seems like a good thing. If they could put it in a mojito...that'd be cool.

    The USA has an infant mortality rate of 5 per 1,000, the same as Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and Malta. Of 33 developed countries, America is just above Latvia, the bottom of the group.

    Of course they have to choose the most simplistic way to address this, because our government is obviously retarded, but at least it's being addressed.
  • alafairnadia
    alafairnadia
    further ....

    http://citypages.com/databank/27/1329/article14389.asp by Dan Savage
    STRAIGHT RIGHTS UPDATE: After tossing nearly half of last week's column away on a straight rights update, it was my intention to give it a rest. In fact, every time I write one of these I think, "This is the last one. Banning abortion, evicting unmarried straight couples and their children, moving to ban birth control—things can't get any worse, can they?"

    Oh, but they can: Not satisfied with meddling in the lives of the relatively small percentage of women who are pregnant, the American Taliban is moving to regulate the lives of all American women.

    "New federal guidelines ask all females capable of conceiving a baby to treat themselves—and to be treated by the health care system—as pre-pregnant, regardless of whether they plan to get pregnant anytime soon," reports the Washington Post. "[T]his means all women between first menstrual period and menopause should take folic acid supplements, refrain from smoking, maintain a healthy weight and keep chronic conditions such as asthma and diabetes under control... [I]t's important that women follow this advice throughout their reproductive lives, because about half of pregnancies are unplanned and so much damage can be done to a fetus between conception and the time the pregnancy is confirmed."

    Color me paranoid, but ordering American women to regard themselves as "pre-pregnant" because they may harm a fetus they don't know they're carrying opens the door to prosecuting women who harm their fetuses by failing to regard themselves as "pre-pregnant." How long until "women should...refrain from smoking [and] maintain a healthy body weight" becomes "women must..." Does that sound paranoid? Well, so did a war on contraception once.

    Oddly enough, Bush's Centers for Disease Control and Prevention doesn't urge straight men to regard themselves as existing in a perpetual state of "pre-fatherhood." Smoking, obesity, asthma, and diabetes could seriously hamper a man's ability to do the heavy lifting that comes with fatherhood. But Bush's CDC doesn't seem that interested in regulating the behavior of all those fat, smoking pre-fathers out there.

    Gee. Isn't. That. Weird.

    There is a bright side in the CDC's announcement: If we're going to regard all females as pre-pregnant, then we can, as my friend Gomez points out, regard all virgins as merely pre-fucked.
  • alafairnadia
    alafairnadia
    I love it when gay men point out that someone is trampling women's rights in this country. and this just underlines my irritation further. the CDC may not mean any harm, but by putting this directive out there, they are causing harm to women's rights.

    as my friend elkay said when she pointed out this article:
    Nice girls don't drink, smoke, do drugs, try sex before marriage, or anything else 'bad', because it might harm the babies they may never have, and of course would challenge their eventual husband's ownership of their bodies and lives symbolised by the wedding ceremony and actualised by total complacency and indifference to reality.
  • iowagirl
    iowagirl
    It's probably time to re-read The Handmaid's Tale.
    There is a bright side in the CDC's announcement: If we're going to regard all females as pre-pregnant, then we can, as my friend Gomez points out, regard all virgins as merely pre-fucked.
    And if more people don't get politically active -- or at least begin to pay attention -- we're all fucked.
  • alafairnadia
    alafairnadia
    iowagirl wrote: It's probably time to re-read The Handmaid's Tale.
    There is a bright side in the CDC's announcement: If we're going to regard all females as pre-pregnant, then we can, as my friend Gomez points out, regard all virgins as merely pre-fucked.
    And if more people don't get politically active -- or at least begin to pay attention -- we're all fucked.
    totally.
  • livetotravel
    livetotravel
    Help Planned Parenthood keep reproductive freedom alive . . .
    http://www.ppaction.org/ppnyc/join.tcl

    Get pissed - contraception is basic healthcre . . .
    http://www.covermypills.org/

    Demand Emergency Contraception from your pharmacist . . .
    http://www.saveroe.com/fillmypillsnow/
  • livetotravel
    livetotravel
    One other thing - how do you all view requiring mandatory innoculation of school age girls with the newly approved HPV vaccine? The newly FDA-approved vaccine would help protect girls and women from contacting cervical cancer.

    http://www.plannedparenthood.org/pp2/portal/media/pressreleases/pr-060629-hpv2.xml
  • iowagirl
    iowagirl
    And while you're at it, take action to stop public funding of fake clinics:
    http://www.plannedparenthood.org/pp2/portal/getinvolved/takeaction/

    About HPV, here's a fact sheet from Planned Parenthood:
    http://www.plannedparenthood.org/pp2/portal/files/portal/medicalinfo/sti/fact-HPV-virus.xml#1097079599418::-301087798 9658196157

    It looks like virtually every woman who develops cervical cancer has HPV, but not everyone who has HPV develops cervical cancer.

    According to the fact sheet, "...large studies have found that HPV is present in more than 93 percent of cervical cancer tumors (NCIa)...
    Even though HPV is considered a cause of cervical cancer, only one out of 1,000 women with HPV develops invasive cervical cancer (ACOG, 2000). Most HPV infection never leads to the development of cervical cancer — even in the absence of medical intervention — and treating precancerous cervical lesions detected by Pap tests has greatly reduced the rate of invasive cervical cancer (Ho, et al., 1998; NCI, 1999a)."

    To vaccinate with a new vaccine is always a difficult decision for me. I have three sons but no daughters; I would probably wait a bit if I did just to see if there are any quirks that turn up in the first few years of administration. Then I'd probably do it, since HPV is implicated in nearly every case of cervical cancer. I trust Planned Parenthood, which applauds the development and administration of this particular vaccine. They've always done right by me, both personally and politically. And since the right-wing nutjobs think this is a bad idea, I'm naturally predisposed to liking it.

    What do others think about it?
  • steve
    steve
    Among other things, this means all women between first menstrual period and menopause should take folic acid supplements, refrain from smoking, maintain a healthy weight and keep chronic conditions such as asthma and diabetes under control.
    Sounds like good general health care to me. I'm not sure about the role folic acid play in anything offhand, but I know a smoker whose asthma and weight are out of control, and for all I know may have diabetes. He looks like absolute shit.
  • carnivore
    carnivore
    Sorry, everyone, but I've got to lock this thread, because I'm having to delete about a dozen spam comments a day that for some reason are targeting this thread alone. Banning IP's won't fix the problem because they keep changing.
    If anyone wants to continue the discourse, I encourage you to start a new thread (you can call it "Are You Pre-Pregnant Part 2." I really don't want to end the discussion; I just want to stop the spammers.
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