Protecting Our Children - And Ourselves

I have two wonderful children. They were both born in July, both via Cesarian, both girls, both truly magical. But I have to say, honestly, being a mother to these girls is much different than being pregnant.

I have been pregnant four times. I lost the first one early, around 7 weeks, and the second one I lost at around 10 weeks. I say around 10 weeks because we didn't discover it was dead until 12 weeks when I had a severe kidney infection that required intravenous antibiotics and hospitalization. My doctor and I spoke at length, and we both felt it best to perform a D&C. Or, as Terry England of Georgia might call it, an abortion, on the dead fetus.

Terry England knows a lot about babies. He's delivered dead pigs. See his comments regarding delivering dead pigs and how it relates to women having abortions.
As a woman, it is my duty to protect my children. Part of protecting my children is protecting myself. 36 hours after my water broke with my first child, I still had not dilated past 3 cm. At that point, it was time to get the baby out before any harm came to it or me. My second child was born via c-section because of the same reason. My doctor once said to me "You are the type of woman that would have died during childbirth 100 years ago."

So tell me, at what point do we stop allowing women to protect themselves?
Allowing me to reproduce as God intended, I would have probably died 3 times. First from my daughter, then from the dead fetus that was infecting my body, and third from my second child.

I am going into very personal detail here to make a point. Right now there are a lot of people trying to make decisions for women based on the Word of God. They are saying women shouldn't have birth control options through health insurance, women shouldn't be able to abort fetuses, and women shouldn't be able to abort DEAD fetuses. Instead, reproduction should be totally natural as God intended. Dead fetuses should be born when they are ready to come out, poverty-stricken women should raise rape babies, and birth control should only be given to sluts that can pay 100% out-of-pocket.
If these things came to fruition, where does is stop? No c-sections? Women should be able to die during childbirth as God intended?
There also needs to be a flip-side to these debates. Condoms should be prescription and not paid for by insurance. If you want to have sex, you should get pregnant as God intended. Viagra is outlawed. If you can't get it up, leave it down as God intended. There should be no artificial insemination. Not for humans, not for livestock. Can you imagine taking away AI for couples trying to conceive??? What would happen if farmers couldn't artificially inseminate their livestock? People wouldn't eat! Is that what God intended?
This debate is insane. It is not about what God intended, it is about taking away women's ability to protect themselves and their children. We are sluts for using birth control. Giving birth to dead fetuses is what God wants us to do - just like pigs!

Haters

Math Proof

I like to FB while I go potty. It's true, and I know you all do it, too. This morning I saw the first posts for the KONY2012 video and spent the entire 30 minutes unable to move from my location. Which, needless to say, was not the best spot to watch the film. But it captured my attention and it should capture yours as well - just make sure you are comfortable when you watch it.

When I finished watching the video (and moved to a better spot), I googled "Kony 2012 Donate." I found a lot of criticisms about the charitable organization, ranging from their expenditures to their egocentric viral message. [See Jezebel.com] Invisible Children has published an answer to these criticisms on their own website. There will always be a better way to do certain things, but there will never be a better way to do something if you never do it.

My point is, you may as well donate. And I'll give you a mathematical proof as to why.

Let X=amount of money you could donate
You know at least (1/3)X goes to support central African programs
If X=0, then (1/3)X=0
Therefore, as long as X does not equal 0, MONEY WILL GO TO SUPPORT CENTRAL AFRICAN PROGRAMS.

There. Now you are empowered and have a mathematical proof as to why you can donate.

Finals

I am currently in grad school. I really enjoy getting back into the learning portion of school, as well as the peer-to-peer interaction. Although my courses are online, I feel there are ample opportunities for discussion and reflection. It also helps that I can think about the material 24/7 instead of just Tuesdays from 2-4.

Anyway, it's finals time, and I am in the process of taking part 1 of a 2-part final. (Hence the blog entry while I am supposed to be working on my final.) Part 1 is take home, and we can use open notes, open book, open Wikipedia, whatever. What I usually do to study for an exam is this:

My point is I expect material on the exam to be covered in the book. This exam is blowing my mind.

First Post

Why not start off the new blog with something funny? I saw this collage of wonderful images on the Ann Taylor webpage for work attire. My first thought was, "Really, AT?"