Lara Freidenfelds (Admin)May 2, 2018The 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...
Lara Freidenfelds (Admin)Dec 25, 2017Let’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...
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)Sep 22, 2017Face to Face with Sharrona PearlI recently had the pleasure of speaking with Sharrona Pearl about her new book, Face/On: Transplants and the Ethics of the Other. Below...
Lara Freidenfelds (Admin)Aug 2, 2017Eighth-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...
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)Jun 10, 2017I May Not Heal, But I Will Live Better Thanks to Occupational TherapyLast year I learned how to chop a carrot with my eyes closed. While being filmed. Sounds like one of those crazy reality cooking shows,...
Lara Freidenfelds (Admin)Feb 13, 2017That Time of the Month in Victorian AmericaThe National Museum of Civil War Medicine asked me to write a blog post about how women handled menstruation in the nineteenth century,...
Lara Freidenfelds (Admin)Feb 8, 2017Referendum on a Life in the WoodsFor three decades, my dad’s brothers framed houses. The three of them had a small construction business in rural Connecticut. The eldest...
Lara Freidenfelds (Admin)Dec 23, 2016Nurse-Midwives are With Women, Walking a Middle Path to a Safe and Rewarding BirthIn childbirth politics as in all politics, extreme viewpoints make the news, and sensible centrists are ignored. A couple of years ago,...
Lara Freidenfelds (Admin)Nov 30, 2016Is 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...
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)May 26, 2016I Could Wrestle with my Disability, but I Think I’ll Dance InsteadA 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...
Lara Freidenfelds (Admin)May 3, 2016Sorry, 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...
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...