This is a quick guide after today’s Supreme Court decision overturned the constitutional right to abortion care. I’ll keep adding to this as information becomes available in the next few days. To keep following along, subscribe to my free newsletter here, which includes a twice monthly abortion update issue. - Stephanie Want to support people in your life and community seeking an abortion right now? Visit ineedana.com to find abortion care right now - another resource is AbortionFinder.org for state abortion laws, statewide and regional resources, and info on finding a verified nearby provi ..read more

West Alabama Women’s Center Logo Abortion is Still Legal In Alabama And We Are Here to Help! Read below for more. Or, tl;dr - donate here! About West Alabama Women’s Center and Leadership Team West Alabama Women’s Center, Inc. is a Tuscaloosa, Alabama medical center specializing in elective abortion and reproductive health care, including gender affirming care. Established in 1993 as a for-profit clinic, the Yellowhammer Fund purchased it in May of 2020 and is the sole stockholder. The clinic is currently re-establishing itself as a not for profit organization in order to better serve its cli ..read more

On Tuesday, an absolutely lovely thing happened. I won the Excellence in Leadership and Innovation award from the American College of Nurse Midwives (ACNM) I’m so honored to share this award with many midwives whose innovations and revolutions are inspirations to us all - see the previous award winners here. I’m deeply in love with midwifery and being a midwife. I’m so grateful to do this work alongside so many. And I am beyond proud to have started Feminist Midwife almost ten years ago. It’s really special to be recognized by my own community in this way. Here is the speech I wrote and read ..read more

AWHONN recently quoted my article “Consent in Pelvic Care.” In my article I reference ACOG’s “Sexual Misconduct” Committee Opinion. For practices who’ve implemented a chaperone policy for intimate examinations, I hope the following scripting about documentation is helpful for patients and providers. And I hope a forthcoming feminist bioethical critique is helpful for others seeking to push back on opt-out mandates of this nature. Looking forward to your thoughts on this suggested scripts ..read more

This post originally appeared on the Feminist Midwife blog February 10, 2017. “Every woman has a well-stocked arsenal of anger potentially useful against those oppressions, personal and institutional, which brought that anger into being.” - Audre Lorde, National Women’s Studies Association Keynote Speech, 1981 Recently, I overheard fellow providers refer to a laboring person as a bitch. Before we get into all of the ways this is problematic, and there are many, let's run through two values clarification exercises. Focus foremost on your initial reaction to the prompt "a provider called a ..read more

One of my classes this semester is “Autoethnographic Research Methods.” I’d never heard of autoethnography before, and I’m still delving into what it is, what it can be, and what it might be for my work. What I do know so far: autoethnography could be a transformational space in midwifery. I think it’s what I’ve been looking for in writing, while ethics is what I’ve been looking for in midwifery and feminism. Here is an example of an autoethnography for others also new to the concept (written by my professor for this course): Confessions of a Video Vixen: My Autocritography of Sexuality, Desi ..read more

Original script written 8/2016, slight edits for updated language 10/2021: There are innumerable times when I’ve received report, or over-heard discussion, about someone having "difficult exams," or someone who is "unable to tolerate exams," or someone having "painful exams" during labor. At my prior hospital, other providers would request my help in "checking" someone during labor, because somehow I was able to complete an exam without pain or "difficulty," or at least minimally less so. At my new hospital, it seems standard to offer people either IV or epidural medication to allow them to b ..read more

Given that it’s the season of school applications, below I’m sharing the personal statement I wrote for my PhD programs. I love how it tells the story of where I am as well as the story of where I am going. As I learn more about ethics and theory, and truthfully as I learn more about how much I still have to learn, this statement is a fantastic example of where I began ethics in this place, and in this time. I also welcome others using this as a draft framework for their own statements, because sometimes writing about who we are and what we want is one of the hardest things to do. This piece o ..read more

dear all, it’s been a while. a long, long while. i’m glad to meet you back here for a few moments. thank you for being here with me. how are you? how are the soft spots under your eyes? how is the tension in your wrists? what is in your to-do stack that you’re truly looking forward to getting back to? what soothing song or thrilling game awaits you once you take a breath and move on from whatever it is you’re doing? what pieces of your heart are scattered elsewhere right now, by your own choice or by the ways of the world? this month’s picture is from a corner in my home office. i hang art fr ..read more

Many thanks to all the University of Michigan midwifery students for letting me know that content and images from this post were shared in this week’s lectures! Re-posting for this week’s #tbt. Originally posted November 2016. … A couple of years ago I wrote a post entitled "12 Ways to Be A Feminist Healthcare Provider." In that post, I made a quick reference to the fact that I no longer use the foot pedals/stirrups during GYN exams. This includes including vaginitis checks, pap smears, bimanual exams, IUD insertions or removals, rule out rupture of membranes in triage, cervical exams in labor ..read more