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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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    • birth control
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    Lara Freidenfelds (Admin)
    • May 2, 2018

    The Obstetrician Who Cried “White Privilege”

    In December of 2016, I wrote an essay for Nursing Clio called Nurse-Midwives are With Women, Walking a Middle Path to a Safe and...
    8 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...
    10 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)
    • Aug 2, 2017

    Eighth-Grade Innovator Helps Girls Focus on Class Periods, Not Menstrual Periods

    “If men could menstruate,” Gloria Steinem observed wryly in an iconic 1978 essay for Ms. magazine, “[s]anitary supplies would be...
    7 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)
    • Jun 10, 2017

    I May Not Heal, But I Will Live Better Thanks to Occupational Therapy

    Last year I learned how to chop a carrot with my eyes closed. While being filmed. Sounds like one of those crazy reality cooking shows,...
    5 views0 comments
    Lara Freidenfelds (Admin)
    • Feb 13, 2017

    That Time of the Month in Victorian America

    The National Museum of Civil War Medicine asked me to write a blog post about how women handled menstruation in the nineteenth century,...
    6 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)
    • Nov 30, 2016

    Is Your Doctor Experimenting On You?

    My friend’s father is in the hospital, and it’s been rough. His cancer treatment did not go as expected. “He’s suffering so much!” my...
    3 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...
    5 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...
    5 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...
    5 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)
    • May 26, 2016

    I Could Wrestle with my Disability, but I Think I’ll Dance Instead

    A year and a half ago, I gained a permanent dance partner. That’s what I’ve decided. That’s how I need to think about the damage to my...
    17 views0 comments
    Lara Freidenfelds (Admin)
    • May 3, 2016

    Sorry, I’m Disabled. Oh, Wait, I’m Not Sorry, Just Disabled.

    “Sorry,” I say, “Sorry, but would you mind giving me the directions again a little slower? I have a visual impairment and I didn’t see...
    5 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
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