When my girlfriend Emarie first told me that she’d attended two-hour-long group pre-natal check-ups with her OB, I had a million questions…
Leading with… “Say what?!”
The basics
Sharon Schindler Rising, a nurse-midwife, began offering group prenatal care called “Centering Pregnancy” in 1993 after realizing that she was answering the same questions over and over, but not necessarily getting the time with each patient to establish the sort of deeper discussions the mothers might be after. She appreciated the community the women developed but also: it’s estimated to cost roughly $2000 less per patient. More remarkably: the model was shown to reduce preterm deliveries by close to 30%.
The American College of Nurse-Midwives is encouraging all physicians and midwives to get training in group clinic situations, so I wanted to know more about this. Emarie was kind enough to answer all my questions, like… what if you don’t like your physician? Were you ever embarrassed? How was your husband involved? and Two hour appointments?! Did you ever feel like rolling your eyes? Keep Reading >
When you fly, do you like to check your luggage or carry it on?
This isn’t usually a choice I have—with small children along (i.e. two little people who seem to need an awful lot of stuff but who don’t carry their weight)—so it seemed like such a luxury to fly carry-on when I took a quick trip to New York for My Austrian Evening last month. It seems like the preference of most less-encumbered travelers: no baggage fees, no risk of missing bags, a quick exit when one gets to skip the carousel… etc. But Aron loves to check our bags, and I get why. The upshot is walking through the airport with only a jacket and a tote (with true essentials—like a bathing suit for a beach trip), and boarding at the very last minute because ‘who cares about overhead space’? It’s really freeing.
I was surprised to read here that Anthony Bourdain prefers to check. “I do not want to be one of those annoying people who can’t fit their carry-on into the overhead. …[But] I’m prepared for things to go wrong because they do go wrong all of the time.”
However, I loved rolling through the airport with nothing but a carry-on this time. (It was a bit dangerous to go to a city with such great shopping and no kids—but, thankfully, Madewell actually shipped home the sweaters I bought at no charge).
Pictured: Henley and Coat from Anthropologie; Shoes (past season, similar) and Denim from Madewell. Lipault Foldable Packing Case (courtesty of Lipault): Lipault had offered that I try one of their featherweight foldables (that slides even under our very, very low bed once collapsed)—verdict: very nice!
Have you seen Robin Roberts interviewing Michelle Obama at the White House Working Families summit? One clip, where they talk about the balance of family and work—and in which the First Lady candidly shares an anecdote about bringing Sasha to an interview (for VP of the University of Chicago Hospital) as a “breastfeeding mother of a four-month-old” without a babysitter—has been widely shared.
I recommend watching from 5:30 to 12:30 of the interview, in particular (embedded below), but I really loved a lot of what she had to say.
She speaks from a place of privilege: “We live in the White House now. This is not about us.” But I am especially impressed by how she articulates the pitfalls of going part-time as a means to “having it all” without—I think—saying anything that might alienate working or stay-at-home parents, or should put anyone on the defensive.
Red, blue, whatever: Now that’s a minefield, right?
