Women to consider themselves 'pre-pregnant'

[samvara]

Forever Pregnant Reactions? Am curious here.

ED: Based on responses; I got this from jupitah.

1 comments, 2 more comments, 3 yet more comments, 4 extra comments and 5 commenty comments and and even more commenty comments.

Best article so far thank you maharetr. "So why did the WaPo misrepresent this report? Hell, they don’t even mention how important birth control is to this entire project except in passing at the bottom of the article. I think it’s because it’s a political hot potato to openly admit that the two most important steps towards reducing the infant mortality rate and improving the health of newborns in general is to get health care to every woman and to empower women with the knowledge and tools they need to get pregnant only when they want to."

Comments

[cricketk.livejournal.com]

OK, I'm jumping straight in before looking at other people's responses, but a couple of things stand out very clearly to me.

The value of a woman seems to be entirely dependant on ability to reproduce. It's another way of seeing human beings (women) as vessels in which to carry something that's actually important (babies). Related to this is the conception that we should only be interested in women's health as it relates to pregnancy and babies. I'm not averse to being concerned about weight, smoking, diabetes control etc. But I do find it abhorrent that we should only care about it for women who fertile. It's an extension of the sort of thinking that really riles me up in the abortion debate.

Even calling it preconception care scares me, because there is so obviously no interest in the health of the woman. It's not about us, it's about those things that are actually worth something - babies.

I don't ever want to live in the USA and be considered a thing, rather than a person.