Lara FreidenfeldsOct 6, 2020Pregnancy 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...
Lara FreidenfeldsMar 14, 2020Sperm Donor Siblings Speak Their TruthsIn Random Families: Genetic Strangers, Sperm Donor Siblings, and the Creation of New Kin, sociologists Rosanna Hertz and Margaret Nelson...
Lara FreidenfeldsJan 1, 2020How 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...
Lara Freidenfelds (Admin)Jul 23, 2019Journey Into Mothering with Historian Sarah KnottIn Mother Is a Verb, Sarah Knott takes her reader on a historian’s journey into motherhood. It is a sort of train travelogue, riding...
Lara Freidenfelds (Admin)Nov 22, 2018Give 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,...
Lara Freidenfelds (Admin)Nov 16, 2018Washington 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...
Lara Freidenfelds (Admin)Sep 6, 2018A View from Inside the Suburban Mom MovementBefore 2016, conversations at school pickup time in my affluent suburb nearly always revolved around kids’ activities and home...
Lara Freidenfelds (Admin)Nov 17, 2017Let’s Question All Versions of the Myth of Perfect MotherhoodI would call it a “pet peeve,” but the stakes are higher: I can’t stand policy arguments based on inaccurate or misrepresented historical...
Lara Freidenfelds (Admin)Oct 23, 2017Pornography on the PlaygroundWhen 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...
Lara Freidenfelds (Admin)Jun 15, 2017The Baby as Scientist and the Parent as Gardener: Alison Gopnik’s Inspiring Views on ChildhoodOne 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,...
Lara Freidenfelds (Admin)Oct 18, 2016Are We Free to Be President Yet? The Legacy of Pat Schroeder and 1970s FeminismI 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...
Lara Freidenfelds (Admin)Oct 11, 2016Diversity 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...
Lara Freidenfelds (Admin)Aug 25, 2016Playwright 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...
Lara Freidenfelds (Admin)Jul 13, 2016The 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...
Lara Freidenfelds (Admin)Apr 15, 2016Enforcing Death Rituals after Miscarriage is Just Plain CruelThe Indiana legislature claims it wants to protect unborn children and their parents. Last week Governor Mike Pence gave his blessing to...
Lara Freidenfelds (Admin)Mar 3, 2016Clio Talks: An Interview with Historian Jessica MartucciThis week I had the pleasure of interviewing historian Jessica Martucci at length about her new book, Back to the Breast: Natural...
Lara Freidenfelds (Admin)Nov 14, 2015Yes, 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,...
Lara Freidenfelds (Admin)Sep 29, 2015Average-looking Married Couples Having Caring, Respectful SexA 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...
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...
Lara Freidenfelds (Admin)Aug 20, 2014Whose 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...