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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
    • law
    • abortion
    • dance
    • assisted reproduction
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    • pregnancy
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    • miscarriage
    • birth control
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    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
    • 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
    Journey Into Mothering with Historian Sarah Knott
    Lara Freidenfelds (Admin)
    • Jul 23, 2019

    Journey Into Mothering with Historian Sarah Knott

    In Mother Is a Verb, Sarah Knott takes her reader on a historian’s journey into motherhood. It is a sort of train travelogue, riding...
    12 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)
    • 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)
    • 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)
    • 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
    Lara Freidenfelds (Admin)
    • Jul 13, 2016

    The Problem with Fat-Talk at the Pediatrician’s Office

    “His BMI is on the high side of normal. See?” The pediatrician showed me a chart. “This is something we need to keep an eye on.” I had...
    2 views0 comments
    Lara Freidenfelds (Admin)
    • Apr 15, 2016

    Enforcing Death Rituals after Miscarriage is Just Plain Cruel

    The Indiana legislature claims it wants to protect unborn children and their parents. Last week Governor Mike Pence gave his blessing to...
    9 views0 comments
    Lara Freidenfelds (Admin)
    • Mar 3, 2016

    Clio Talks: An Interview with Historian Jessica Martucci

    This week I had the pleasure of interviewing historian Jessica Martucci at length about her new book, Back to the Breast: Natural...
    2 views0 comments
    Lara Freidenfelds (Admin)
    • Nov 14, 2015

    Yes, I’m a Wife, But You Can Call Me the “Current Supporting Spouse”

    The year my second son was born, I went to work, and my husband stayed home. It was the most luxurious year of my life. In the mornings,...
    6 views0 comments
    Lara Freidenfelds (Admin)
    • Sep 29, 2015

    Average-looking Married Couples Having Caring, Respectful Sex

    A friend of mine recently lamented that when he sat his teenage son down to have “The Talk,” he had to focus on the internet instead of...
    15 views0 comments
    “Cherish Every Moment” of Parenting?
    Lara Freidenfelds (Admin)
    • Apr 7, 2015

    “Cherish Every Moment” of Parenting?

    “Cherish every moment!  It goes by so fast.” A well-meaning stranger admired my teeny tiny 3-week-old son, as we searched for baby wipes...
    27 views0 comments
    Lara Freidenfelds (Admin)
    • Aug 20, 2014

    Whose Sperm Counts?

    Recently, a Canadian fertility clinic made the news because it refused to allow a white client to be impregnated with sperm from a donor...
    0 views0 comments
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