Category: Reproductive Rights

In a nutshell – Hague Mothers

Hague expert and activist (and HM Australia team member) Gina Masterton was recently asked about the Convention. She has given us permission to publish her eloquent and comprehensive reply: I’m not opposed to the 1980 Hague Child Abduction Convention (HCAC) not being amended, as it works well for its original purpose i.e. cases involving fathers

I’m not opposed to the 1980 Hague Child Abduction Convention (HCAC) not being amended, as it works well for its original purpose i.e. cases involving fathers abducting their children over international borders. Those are the only cases that the HCAC should be applied to. It should NOT be invoked and enforced against mothers who flee abuse perpetrated against them and/or their children by their child’s father or his family, or in cases where children have witnessed abuse perpetrated by their father or his family against their mother.

However, if the HCAC is to continue to be applied in domestic violence related cases where protective mothers have rescued themselves and their child from abuse, then the exceptions embedded in the HCAC must be amended to focus on protecting abused mothers and children, not on persecuting them.

Source: In a nutshell – Hague Mothers

BBC defends ‘fair and robust’ Woman’s Hour interview after host Emma Barnett faced pile-on from trans activists for challenging transgender CEO of endometriosis charity about not using the word ‘woman’ | Daily Mail Online

The BBC this afternoon hit back after an endometriosis charity’s trans CEO complained about being pressed on using the word ‘woman’ to describe sufferers of the female-only disease.

Ms Barnett was lauded by prominent feminists including Julie Bindel and Kathleen Stock for robustly questioning charity boss Steph Richards after her appointment as CEO of Endometriosis South Coast.

Source: BBC defends ‘fair and robust’ Woman’s Hour interview after host Emma Barnett faced pile-on from trans activists for challenging transgender CEO of endometriosis charity about not using the word ‘woman’ | Daily Mail Online

We won’t get real equality until we price breastmilk, and treat breastfeeding as work

The Australian Women’s Economic Equality Taskforce delivered a major report last month drawing attention to what it called the “motherhood penalty” – the 55% cut in earnings for Australian women in the first five years after having a child.

The report makes many good recommendations, including extending paid parental leave to 52 weeks and providing universal high-quality affordable early childhood education.

Yet it mentions “birth” only twice, and “breastfeeding” not at all.

Women everywhere do disproportionate amounts of unpaid or informal work, meaning they generally work longer hours and have less time for rest and leisure than men.

The approach the Taskforce report adopts is a standard one to “recognise, reduce, and redistribute” the care work done by women.

But in a paper just published in Frontiers in Public Health we argue that breastfeeding is different from other care work: it can’t be redistributed, and shouldn’t be reduced.

We contend that breastfeeding ought to be recognised as a special category of “sexed” care work that should be supported rather than reduced or reallocated to others. We argue that to undermine women’s breastfeeding is profoundly sexist.

At present, a drop in breastfeeding rates that leads to increased commercial formula sales is counted as an increase in measured GDP – making it look as if it has made society better off. The cost to women’s health, children’s health and development and the environment is ignored.

The Mothers’ Milk Tool developed at the Australian National University is a step toward counting breastfeeding in the national food supply, as Norway does, and making it easy to calculate the value of the milk mothers and countries produce in gross domestic product (GDP).

The contribution that women make through breastfeeding is important. Brushing it under the carpet as part of a drive for equality in paid work harms them, their children and society more generally.

Source: We won’t get real equality until we price breastmilk, and treat breastfeeding as work

Social media offers new mothers support when society doesn’t. But is it always helpful? – ABC News

Postpartum care is often labelled the Cinderella sector of maternity care; the main event is over, the pregnant princess becomes the postpartum pauper, and she’s left to fend for herself.

It’s an emotive characterisation but it’s also the reality for most birthing mothers in Australia, where —unless you have continuity of care with a private midwife — you’ll be discharged from hospital or at-home midwifery care and won’t have a scheduled health appointment till your six-week check.

A high proportion of new parents in Australia are likely to be using Instagram; scrolling while stuck under a cluster-feeding baby is a common experience.

On Instagram you can also find education about the root biological causes of anxiety and stress in new motherhood; how maternal brain changes can make you more empathetic and responsive to facial cues and potential threats; and that the dark side of oxytocin is that it can also heighten hyper vigilance.

In the isolation of nuclear homes, we go in search of a virtual village for company.

While socials can offer connection and support, they can also pedal unhelpful ideals and unrealistic expectations, exacerbating a mother’s doubt and loneliness.

Body positivity in postpartum isn’t evident on Instagram and neither are realistic postpartum bodies; there’s a distinct lack of stretch marks, doughy bellies, caesarean scars and cellulite.

Re-emergence of an eating disorder is highly likely in the perinatal period with 70 per cent of new mothers dieting by four-months postpartum.

Source: Social media offers new mothers support when society doesn’t. But is it always helpful? – ABC News

UK: Trans-Identified Male Appointed New Endometriosis Charity CEO – Reduxx

A trans-identified male has been appointed as the new Chief Executive Officer for a prominent women’s health charity in England, prompting outrage from women’s rights advocates. Endometriosis South Coast announced on social media yesterday that “Steph” Richards had been hired as their new Chief Executive Officer.

According to the World Health Organization, endometriosis is a disease in which tissue similar to the lining of the uterus grows outside the uterus. This tissue thickens, breaks down, and bleeds with each period, but, as the blood has no way to leave the body, it becomes trapped. It is often associated with fertility complications and severe pain, and sometimes requires surgical intervention. By definition, endometriosis can only impact females, and it is estimated that more than 10% of women are affected.

But despite it being a sex-specific disease, the Portsmouth-based charity Endometriosis South Coast boasted appointing a male to its top role.

Richards, 71, is a women’s officer with the UK’s Labour Party and, earlier this year, received the Inspirational Women of Portsmouth Awards (Elder) 2023. He has repeatedly come under fire on social media for attacking women who express criticisms of gender ideology, with his most recent controversy occurring in October after he posting that he had accosted a woman in public for wearing a t-shirt displaying the dictionary definition of the word “lesbian.”

Source: UK: Trans-Identified Male Appointed New Endometriosis Charity CEO – Reduxx

Will scientists be able to get egg cells from men?

New technologies for creating genetically related children could transform family life, giving same-sex couples and infertile women more options for parenthood.

Earlier this year Japanese biologist Katsuhiko Hayashi said he believed it would be possible to create a human egg from skin cells within a decade. He and his colleagues already have turned skin cells from male mice into mouse eggs and used them to breed baby mice.

Conception Biosciences chief executive Matt Krisiloff has dozens of scientists working at a lab in California trying to make eggs outside ovaries. Such a technique could allow women to have biological children later in life.

Krisiloff, who is gay, says the technology, known as in vitro gametogenesis or IVG, also could help male couples have biological children without anyone else’s genes. Echoing the desire that has driven so many advances in reproductive technologies, Krisiloff says, “I want the chance to have biological kids with my partner.”

Source: Subscribe to The Australian | Newspaper home delivery, website, iPad, iPhone & Android apps

Artificial wombs have the potential to help premature babies, but does the technology threaten body autonomy? – ABC News

Artificial wombs have only been trialled on animals, but recent breakthroughs bring the technology closer for humans. Some experts have expressed ethical concerns.

[I]n late September, independent advisors to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) met over two days to consider the possibility of human trials in artificial womb research.

They discussed the technology’s potential to assist extremely premature infants born before 28 weeks gestation. A birth before 37 weeks is considered preterm.

“If gestation could take place outside the body, then perhaps a [person] only has a moral right to end the natural gestation, not to end the life of the foetus,” she tells ABC RN’s Big Ideas.

Catherine Mills, a professor of bioethics at Monash University, agrees that’s a risk.

She says there are concerns about the possible impact on access to terminations of pregnancy, and that “there would be a stronger pressure to use a technology, like an artificial womb, to extend a pregnancy”.

But artificial wombs are currently an experimental technology, so there are still questions to be answered about potential harms and long-term risks.

Source: Artificial wombs have the potential to help premature babies, but does the technology threaten body autonomy? – ABC News

A new petition calls for more parental leave for parents of premature babies

A new petition is calling on the federal government to introduce more paid parental leave entitlements for parents of premature babies in recognition of the extra weeks or months often spent in hospital.

Almost half of premature babies will spend between one and four months in hospital, with 48,000 babies requiring the support of a Neonatal Intensive Unit or Special Care Nursery every year.

Source: A new petition calls for more parental leave for parents of premature babies

Hospitals are for sick people, so I chose homebirth. Words can’t describe what happened next

A June federal government report on mothers and babies shows almost 312,000 women gave birth in Australia in 2021. Just 0.5 per cent, or 1560 babies, were born at home. It’s a small number but it’s almost double that of the year before, when 0.3 per cent of women birthed at home.

And Jackson believes even more babies would be born outside the hospital system if midwives could keep up with the demand.

Australia has 15 publicly funded homebirth programs, in all states and territories except Queensland and Tasmania. In July, the Victorian government announced plans to expand its homebirth program at the Royal Women’s Hospital. If not accessing a public program, women can pay for the services of one of only 234 private practice midwives who attend home births across Australia.
Government statistics show that in our hospital system in 2021, 38 per cent of women give birth via caesarean – and one Perth hospital has a C-section rate of 54.5 per cent – and 34 per cent by induction. The system is statistically stacked against women who want a “normal” physiological labour and birth.
The lowest incidence of birth trauma is among women who home birth with a
private midwife. Those women also have higher breastfeeding rates, lower rates of post-partum depression and anxiety, as well as the physical benefits of no or minimal intervention.
An independent Cochrane review of planned home birth versus hospital birth found complications are more likely to arise in hospital, where birth is sped up through interventions such as inductions and artificially rupturing membranes, or when pain relief is used.
The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RANZCOG) acknowledges “the outcomes for planned home birth are either similar to, or significantly higher than those reported hospital births for low-risk pregnancies”.

Source: Couriermail.com.au | Subscribe to The Courier Mail for exclusive stories

How shift work can change when you give birth

Four key lifestyle factors could dramatically change a pregnant woman’s due date and Melbourne researchers have revealed why.

A Monash University team found shift work increased a woman’s risk by 63 per cent compared to other workers, while a 40-plus hour work week was linked to a 44 per cent rise.

The review, based on data from more than a million women, found jobs that were physically demanding or caused “whole body vibration” – such as when driving construction equipment – also ­increased the risk.

But co-author, Monash’s Alex Collie, emphasised that employers and governments can make policy changes to reduce these risks, and said work overall had a positive impact on people’s health.

“We’re absolutely not saying that pregnant women should not work, that’s not the message,” Professor Collie, of Monash’s school of public health and preventive medicine, said.

The study, published in Public Health Reviews, defined shift work as working different hours across a roster, as opposed to someone who, for example, works the same night shift every time.

“It’s about your working hours changing and that means the rest of your life has to accommodate those things like sleep,” Prof Collie said.

First author and PhD student Haimanot Abebe Adane said their findings could be used to prevent preterm birth, which affects 15 million babies globally each year.

“This study is important because preterm birth has been linked with health complications for children such as diabetes, hypertension, lung and heart disease later in adulthood,” he said.

Source: Heraldsun.com.au | Subscribe to the Herald Sun for exclusive stories