Our Bodies Our Blog
Occasional posts examining the intersection between health, politics, and reproductive justice.
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A Reason to Celebrate Morning Sickness?
October 6, 2016
Morning sickness does not have a stellar reputation. You’d be hard-pressed to find a woman who recalls nausea or vomiting during pregnancy…
Vagina Dispatches: What Don’t You Know About Your Vulva?
September 29, 2016
Do you know what your vulva looks like? Could you, say, draw it if you were asked? What’s the difference between a…
New Study Says Maternal Health Needs a “Radical Reappraisal”
September 26, 2016
According to a first of its kind global maternal health series published by The Lancet this month, more women survive childbirth now than they…
Guidance for Interstitial Cystitis/Bladder Pain Syndrome
September 19, 2016
Interstitial Cystitis/Bladder Pain Syndrome (IC/BPS) is a poorly understood chronic pain condition estimated to affect between 2.7% to 6.5% of women in…
President Obama’s Push to Permanently Protect Planned Parenthood
September 15, 2016
Earlier this year, Congress was set to vote on a bill to fund anti-Zika efforts. Everyone agreed that the funding was needed…
A Farewell to Abstinence and Fidelity: Comments on the 2016 Political Declaration on Ending AIDS
September 12, 2016
In June, I took part in the 2016 United Nations General Assembly High Level Meeting on AIDS as part of the official Swedish government…
Students Welcomed Back to School with Free Tampons and Pads
September 8, 2016
When twenty students from Brown University’s Undergraduate Council of Students, including senior and president of the organization Viet Nguyen, returned to campus…
Teen Pregnancy Rates Decrease Because of More Contraception (Not Less Sex)
September 6, 2016
News flash: Contraception works. The teen pregnancy rate in the United States declined 25 percent from 2007 to 2011. The decline can…
August 24, 2016
Note: In 2009 and again in 2012, Our Bodies Ourselves posted two blog posts on the adverse effects and withdrawal symptoms that…
Bringing Pelvic Organ Prolapse Out of the Shadows
August 9, 2016
Recently, I was at a baby shower. I overheard a mother of two teenagers relay the story of her many postpartum surprises…
World Breastfeeding Week: Are We Doing All We Can to Support Mothers?
August 4, 2016
It’s been seventeen years since I sat on my bed, crying, holding my two-week-old son while feeding him formula from a bottle…
Fat-Talk Nation: Why Fat Is Still A Feminist Issue
July 26, 2016
By all accounts, America is facing a catastrophic obesity epidemic. A rising number of people are obese or overweight. The heavy burden…
#AIDS2016 Reveals A New Way for Women to Protect Themselves Against HIV
July 22, 2016
The AIDS epidemic is an ongoing crisis, particularly in places like Malawi, Uganda, South Africa and Zimbabwe, where the number of adults infected…
No Additional Zika Funding Puts Women’s Health At Risk
July 18, 2016
Congress has adjourned for the summer, with no additional funding in place to fight the Zika virus. Most Americans want more federal money devoted…
ACA Healthcare Coverage Gains Chip Away at Racial and Ethnic Disparities
July 13, 2016
Racial and ethnic disparities in health coverage and access to health care are shrinking as a result of the Affordable Care Act…
If Pelvic Exams For Healthy Women Aren’t Helpful, Why Do We Still Do Them?
July 8, 2016
Pelvic exams have historically been a routine part of healthcare for millions of women and as a midwife I have performed hundreds…
June 29, 2016
This week the Supreme Court ruled firmly in favor of protecting women’s access to safe, legal abortion care. It was a decision…
When Ideology Trumps Evidence: Abortion Access and Undue Burden
June 24, 2016
While state legislators are passing an ever growing number of laws restricting women’s access to abortion, it’s increasingly up to the courts…
In June, Dig Deeper Into Abortion Access for Low-Income Women
June 22, 2016
This month, two important discussions about abortion access and the impact of TRAP (targeted regulation of abortion providers) laws are happening in two…
We Need to Talk About the Role of Domestic Violence in Mass Shootings
June 17, 2016
This week’s massacre of forty-nine people at Pulse, a gay dance club in Orlando, has cast a shadow of grief over the…
Why Everyone Should Read This Young Woman’s Letter to Her Rapist
June 8, 2016
It’s hard to imagine a more exacting message about rape and rape culture than that in the letter written by the woman…
