Yeah. The advice in the article is pretty awful - read the comments, there's a lot of useful info there. Use sterile soil (seedling soil), not soil from your garden; for a newbie gardener, peas, radishes, lettuce, _maybe_ tomatoes are good to start with (not brassicas - cabbage, cauliflower); etc. Don't use peat pots,…

Yes! Every time I tried to use them, they'd fuck something up, or put the order on hold...at one point I ended up screaming at some clueless rep that "IF I GET PREGNANT BECAUSE YOU DENIED ME MY MEDICATION, IM SUING YOUR COMPANY FOR CHILD SUPPORT!"

Yes! And they also mailed it in a marked package that made it really obvious that drugs were inside. As a victim of mail theft, it made me really leery and I'm genuinely surprised they were never stolen out of my mailbox.

My insurance is like this too. It's bullshit. On one hand it's nice to have three months supply in one go, but it's bullshit that I can only get it for free if I go through the mail order pharmacy. It's supposed to be free, not free only if I go through their routes. I was switching around birth control to find a…

I feel you! My plan really pushes their mail order pharmacy, but the last time I tried I had to make them relinquish my prescriptions after they fucked it up for months so I could just use my regular pharmacy. Of course my regular pharmacy is not included in the free BC providers for my plan...

I feel you. I had to get my BC mailed to me in 3 month supplies, but at least I always had it, and got regular reminders to refill/renew.

My insurance pulled this scam, too. Basically, you could only get free birth control (generics only) if you used their shitty "meds by mail" option. If you wanted the "privilege" of going to a local pharmacy, the cost was $30 or so. So, they could claim they "offered" free bc but only on the most annoying,…

As a labor and delivery nurse I feel comfortable saying doulas are useless when two conditions are met:
1) the laboring woman has a supportive partner/close friend who stands by them, respects them, and is generally interested in the woman having the healthy experience she wants
2) the nursing staff caring for the woman…

When I was a first-time mom I would've loved to have had a doula. The hospital was bewildering and full of people coming in and out who I didn't know. My husband was wonderful but it was his first time too and he was as scared as I was

Yes, I know someone who is pregnant and lives far away from family; the father is not in the picture so she is looking into a doula so she won't be alone in the delivery room. It is a BIG ask to expect some friend of yours to sit in the delivery room with you, this will likely be a lifesaver for her.

I have a number of friends who've both been and become doulas, and the one thing that really sticks out to me as an outside observer is just that they're the cool head in the room. They're a patient advocate, basically. In situations where husbands are becoming hysterical, mothers are getting overbearing, and doctors…

Yeah, the most persuasive feature of a doula to me would be the idea of having someone there who's accustomed to the experience and can therefore be a dogged, clear-headed advocate for me, whatever my wishes. (Although it's a moot point because no way in hell would I fork over another two grand for an already horribly…

I think that the real issue here is hospitals and how so many of them make birth into a dehumanizing experience, which is probably what is pushing the uptick of doulas (and, for that matter, home births). From what I've seen (I'm in Brooklyn, so, y'know, trendy moms abound), the doulas pick up slack where hospitals…

So I don't think anyone I know would describe me as a hippie (think boring lawyer nerdy type :-)), and I found my doula so helpful. My husband and I were both first time parents living far from family and I ended up with a long birth. The reassurance of a knowledgeable person who stuck with us the entire time (the…

A doula is basically a professional birth assistant. They're generally trained to some degree in the things that a laboring woman needs or might want. The biggest thing about them is that if you have one, they will remain with you throughout the entirety of the labor (usually). A nurse or doctor cannot do that.

I know someone who used one and was very happy with it. Her doula was the functional equivalent of a wedding planner wielding the checklist/clipboard; my friend and her husband met with her before the birth and went over their preferences for several different contingencies. The birth ended up being totally normal and…

Less connection with a community of women familiar with the birthing process, nursing and early home care of a child? It seems as though up until my grandparents generation (and my poor, rural, southern grandma birthed most of her kids at home) women had babies in the company of family, usually mothers, grandmothers,…

If we're talking about a raised bed (as this article is clearly doing) I'm not sure there is any benefit to following the contours of the land? With raised gardens you usually have some sort of separation ( wood, mesh, something ) keeping your garden soil separate from your actual lawn.

It actually sounds like they're talking about rounding the dirt mound inside the beds to create more surface area, not the ends of the beds themselves.

I missed out on the dress-shopping experience, as I made my own for the ceremony and bought something off ModCloth to dance in.