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LARA FREIDENFELDS

Historian of Health, Reproduction, and Parenting in America

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    • The Myth of The Perfect Pregnancy
    • The Modern Period
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    • All Posts
    • family
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    Lara Freidenfelds
    • Apr 7, 2021

    The problem with 'bereavement' leave after pregnancy loss

    Last month New Zealand broke new ground with a national policy of "Bereavement Leave" following miscarriage. This is a welcome...
    34 views0 comments
    Pregnancy and Miscarriage on Social Media
    Lara Freidenfelds
    • Oct 6, 2020

    Pregnancy and Miscarriage on Social Media

    New Metaphors to Make Miscarriages Easier to Talk About, and Easier to Bear For someone who has been trying for a pregnancy, it is...
    63 views0 comments
    Lara Freidenfelds
    • Sep 23, 2020

    During Covid, We Need to Grieve, Find Perspective, and Seek Safe Connection and Fulfillment

    I wrote this letter to the editor of my local newspaper after my community experienced a Covid outbreak from a teen party, resulting in a...
    55 views0 comments
    Lara Freidenfelds
    • Mar 14, 2020

    Sperm Donor Siblings Speak Their Truths

    In Random Families: Genetic Strangers, Sperm Donor Siblings, and the Creation of New Kin, sociologists Rosanna Hertz and Margaret Nelson...
    46 views0 comments
    Lara Freidenfelds
    • Jan 1, 2020

    How Did We Get Here? An Interview with Lara Freidenfelds (by Shannon Withycombe)

    Lara Freidenfelds’s new book, The Myth of the Perfect Pregnancy: A History of Miscarriage in America, explores the history of pregnancy...
    14 views0 comments
    Lara Freidenfelds (Admin)
    • Oct 23, 2019

    In Vitro Fertilization: From Science Fiction to Reality to History

    It was not that long ago that “test tube babies” only existed in science fiction. I remember my shock when, in 2007, one of my students...
    38 views0 comments
    Lara Freidenfelds (Admin)
    • Nov 22, 2018

    Give Thanks for Crossing Guards

    “Wait on the curb, kids. Wait until I say you can cross.” Janice, the crossing guard at Fairmount Avenue, stepped briskly into traffic,...
    6 views0 comments
    Lara Freidenfelds (Admin)
    • Nov 16, 2018

    Washington Post op-ed: What Michelle Obama’s Miscarriage Teaches Us About Modern Pregnancy

    “In her new book, “Becoming,” Michelle Obama reveals that she miscarried her first pregnancy, and went on to conceive her two daughters...
    14 views0 comments
    Lara Freidenfelds (Admin)
    • Sep 6, 2018

    A View from Inside the Suburban Mom Movement

    Before 2016, conversations at school pickup time in my affluent suburb nearly always revolved around kids’ activities and home...
    7 views0 comments
    Lara Freidenfelds (Admin)
    • Aug 23, 2018

    Are Our Smart Devices Turning Us into Dumb Humans?

    Are all of our “smart” devices training us to be “dumb” humans, too-often indistinguishable from mere machines? As click-through...
    4 views0 comments
    Lara Freidenfelds (Admin)
    • Dec 25, 2017

    Let’s Say “Happy Holidays” and Share Hope, Joy, and Light in the Darkness

    “Merry Christmas!” It was the standard December greeting in the New Jersey town where I was raised. New Jersey is diverse as a whole, but...
    5 views0 comments
    Lara Freidenfelds (Admin)
    • Nov 17, 2017

    Let’s Question All Versions of the Myth of Perfect Motherhood

    I would call it a “pet peeve,” but the stakes are higher: I can’t stand policy arguments based on inaccurate or misrepresented historical...
    9 views0 comments
    Lara Freidenfelds (Admin)
    • Oct 23, 2017

    Pornography on the Playground

    When I was 19, I had a summer job supervising a playground. It was a pretty lame job. It paid $5 an hour, and it was outside in the...
    9 views0 comments
    Lara Freidenfelds (Admin)
    • Sep 22, 2017

    Face to Face with Sharrona Pearl

    I recently had the pleasure of speaking with Sharrona Pearl about her new book, Face/On: Transplants and the Ethics of the Other. Below...
    2 views0 comments
    Lara Freidenfelds (Admin)
    • Jun 15, 2017

    The Baby as Scientist and the Parent as Gardener: Alison Gopnik’s Inspiring Views on Childhood

    One of my favorite books to recommend to new parents is The Scientist in the Crib: What Early Learning Tells Us About the Mind. In it,...
    4 views0 comments
    Lara Freidenfelds (Admin)
    • Feb 8, 2017

    Referendum on a Life in the Woods

    For three decades, my dad’s brothers framed houses. The three of them had a small construction business in rural Connecticut. The eldest...
    2 views0 comments
    Lara Freidenfelds (Admin)
    • Dec 23, 2016

    Nurse-Midwives are With Women, Walking a Middle Path to a Safe and Rewarding Birth

    In childbirth politics as in all politics, extreme viewpoints make the news, and sensible centrists are ignored. A couple of years ago,...
    2 views0 comments
    Lara Freidenfelds (Admin)
    • Oct 18, 2016

    Are We Free to Be President Yet? The Legacy of Pat Schroeder and 1970s Feminism

    I was born into 1970s feminism. I came into the world in 1972, the year Free to Be You and Me came out. It must have made a big...
    4 views0 comments
    Lara Freidenfelds (Admin)
    • Oct 11, 2016

    Diversity Works, but Only if We Can Forgive One Another

    “We are a divided nation,” Donald Trump repeats again and again.  And then he makes plans to divide us still further: registration of...
    4 views0 comments
    Lara Freidenfelds (Admin)
    • Aug 25, 2016

    Playwright Alice Eve Cohen Asks Us to Reconsider What We Think We Know about Pregnancy and Motherhoo

    “What makes a mother real?” asks writer and performer Alice Eve Cohen in her newly-published play, What I Thought I Knew. In 1999, Cohen...
    4 views0 comments
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