I scroll past articles with titles that just call to me constantly, and so rarely do I have the time to click through and explore them all more deeply! Well this blogpost gave me an excuse to give in to that urge to be distracted for a little while. 😊 And oh what interesting articles I stumbled upon! This also reminded me I need to construct a list of great FB pages for mamas to follow...

Rav's Repro:
All The Aches And Pains Of Pregnancy
posted by Doula Trainings International

Erin, 28 weeks pregnant shares her latest set of pregnancy symptoms and how she's dealing with them.

"While we’re talking about sleep — weird dreams? Check... I am always a very active dreamer... I have frequently dreamt about solving murders/crimes (I blame the abundance of true-crime TV and podcasts I consume). For what it’s worth, I am an excellent dream detective." Read more

The Historical Roots of Contemporary Violence Against Pregnant Black Women
posted by Black Women Birthing Justice

"Pregnancy is often thought of as a special, sensitive and sacred time. In general, our society treats pregnant people with extra care because of the impending new life they are bringing into the world. However, there are many who are routinely denied this care and compassion, including Black, Brown and Indigenous people, undocumented immigrants, incarcerated people, non-English speakers, people with disabilities and others." Read more

The Evidence on Doulas
posted by Evidence Based Birth

"Overall, women who received continuous support were more likely to have spontaneous vaginal births and less likely to have any pain medication, epidurals, negative feelings about childbirth, vacuum or forceps-assisted births, and C-sections. In addition, their labors were shorter by about 40 minutes and their babies were less likely to have low Apgar scores at birth." Read more

The Power of Talking to Your Baby
posted by Commonsense Childbirth

"Children whose families were on welfare heard about 600 words per hour. Working-class children heard 1,200 words per hour, and children from professional families heard 2,100 words. By age 3, a poor child would have heard 30 million fewer words in his home environment than a child from a professional family. And the disparity mattered: the greater the number of words children heard from their parents or caregivers before they were 3, the higher their IQ and the better they did in school. TV talk not only didn’t help, it was detrimental." Read more

Here's How Much A
Breastfeeding Mom's Salary Would Be
posted by Breastfeeding TBH

"When it's all said and done, the salary for a breastfeeding mom would range from $15,000 to $35,000 for one year if they were paid for the time they had to spend breastfeeding. While it would be amazing if nursing moms could see a paycheck every week for the time and effort they've spent feeding their child, that's never realistically going to happen. But it's worthwhile to do the math to see just how much work breastfeeding really is." Read more