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modernstoneage reblogged guerrillamamamedicine
The image is from here.
It shows that despite spending more money per capita on healthcare than any other country, we rank 50th in the world for our maternal mortality ratios. To make matter worse, while care for childbearing women and newborns is the number one reason for hospitalization in the U.S., preventable deaths of both newborns and mothers in relation to childbirth are alarmingly high, especially for women of color.
Amnesty International found that African American women are 3 to 4 times more likely to die from pregnancy related causes than white women. Maternal mortality ratios are especially high for black, American Indian/Alaska Native and Asian/Pacific Islander mothers. However, no racial or ethnic group met the government’s Healthy People 2010 goal for reducing maternal mortality - in fact, the ratios were all 2 and a half times higher. […]
So why are moms of color dying in such high numbers in the U.S.? The reasons are varied: Aside from the issues of high costs and insurance coverage, lack of access also makes women of color more likely to die from pregnancy related causes. A shortage of health care professionals in the U.S., particularly specialists for women, creates a serious obstacle to timely and adequate maternal healthcare, especially those in rural areas and in inner cities. Gaps in family planning is also a major factor. Nearly half of all pregnancies in the U.S. are unintended, and rates are significantly higher for low-income and communities of color. Such pregnancies are more likely to develop complications and face worse outcomes for both mother and child.
This year’s federal budget cuts do not bode well for maternal health prospects on either of these fronts. There was a $317.5 million cut to family planning, and a $1 billion cut to community health centers - a crucial source of care and access to low income and communities of color —and medically under-served areas.
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modernstoneage reblogged strugglingtobeheard“I actually attack the concept of happiness. The idea that - I don’t mind people being happy - but the idea that everything we do is part of the pursuit of happiness seems to me a really dangerous idea and has led to a contemporary disease in Western society, which is fear of sadness. It’s a really odd thing that we’re now seeing people saying “write down 3 things that made you happy today before you go to sleep”, and “cheer up” and “happiness is our birthright” and so on. We’re kind of teaching our kids that happiness is the default position - it’s rubbish. Wholeness is what we ought to be striving for and part of that is sadness, disappointment, frustration, failure; all of those things which make us who we are. Happiness and victory and fulfillment are nice little things that also happen to us, but they don’t teach us much. Everyone says we grow through pain and then as soon as they experience pain they say “Quick! Move on! Cheer up!” I’d like just for a year to have a moratorium on the word “happiness” and to replace it with the word “wholeness”. Ask yourself “is this contributing to my wholeness?” and if you’re having a bad day, it is.”
— Hugh Mackay (via mindovermatterzine) Loading... -
modernstoneage reblogged this
PlayShotgun Seamstress #1 - A zine by and for black punks!
I’ve shared this link with a few of you and it’s been circulating on riot grrrl blogs, too, but I think it’s important to reiterate: Shotgun Seamstress is a great zine. The coordinator, Osa Atoe, started the zine in the Pacific NW. She’s now in New Orleans and also writes Shotgun Seamstress-related blog columns celebrating “the brown underground.”
On violence at punk shows, Atoe writes:
I grew up going to shows in a town where if certain people in the audience were making it impossible for the rest of the audience to enjoy the show by being violent or otherwise intolerable, certain bands would stop playing and wait for the idiocy to die down before they started playing again. That is punk to me: Creating the kind of atmosphere you want to have around you.
YES. Creating the kind of atmosphere you want to have around you: that is a big part of what being radical is to me.
Issue 1 of the Shotgun Seamstress zine highlights The Gories from Detroit (excellent garage rock blues-y track up top) and recent blog posts linked me over to Baton Rouge’s all-grrrl Kicktease. Oof, grrrls can WAIL. Also pretty into Trash Kit from the UK.
Trash Kit - Skin (Live @ Club Milk) from Charles Chintzer Lai on Vimeo.
“SHOTGUN SEAMSTRESS IS A ZINE BY AND FOR BLACK PUNKS, QUEERS, MISFITS, FEMINISTS, ARTISTS/MUSICIANS, WEIRDOS AND THE PEOPLE WHO SUPPORT THEM.”
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modernstoneage reblogged ubleproject
please download the .pdf file, print out, and post in your local area to spread the word!
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