Scott Simon is a mensch, and the love he has for his mom, and her love for him, is so touching.

Thank you for sharing this. I'm having a stressful awful day and this put things into perspective. It also gave me the cry I so desperately needed.

Oh, don't listen to humble. You are just telling the truth about yourself. It's not a brag — it's just your story. Some people like to be nasty — ignore them. Humble is a total jerk for saying what s/he did. It was totally unnecessary and not true.

Yeah I demand that complex health care decisions be made by a faceless corporation beholden to stock holders.

Yes, this.

I think one should strive to be picky (intensely picky) about the relationship, not the person. There will certainly be overlap, but less than you'd think.

This used to be a deal breaker for me, but then I met the love of my life and I was totally willing to take the train for an hour from the city to his place. Later he would find a job in the city to be closer to me and now we live together. A year of long train rides was totally worth it. I think it's easy to tell…

Let's go back to Econ 101. When you *can't* pay for it (oh, I don't know, because Republicans cut education/food/welfare programs designed to help people get back on their feet) society ends up picking up the tab. Unplanned pregnancies cost the US around $11 billion per year. Whether you like it or not, you're already…

The thing is, if you don't allow affordable health care (birth control, abortions, etc) to poorer women who need it, you're going to end up with a lot of kids they can't afford, and will need to be subsidized by the taxpayer. Ie. you. And it will cost more. A lot more.

WE WANT MIDWIVES!

Thank you for posting this. As a new midwife (just received my masters this spring and am studying for the boards now) I am glad that midwifery is all the rage amongst the hipsters (cuz I need a job!), but the truth is that midwifery is so much more than a status symbol. Midwives provide primary health care to all…

Thanks for this article. It's a hugely important issue. Maternal mortality is a true human rights tragedy. Training midwives and birth attendants in developing countries, especially ones marred by conflict or eenvironmental catastrophes, is a proven way to save lives, not just of laboring women, but also of the…

Let's let Hermione have the honor...

I went to nhs.uk to see if they provide info on birth costs in the UK and when I typed in the search terms birth and cost I got an article about how home births are more cost effective than hospital births. Yet here (in the US) people act like you're trying to kill your baby if you consider a homebirth and a midwife.…

The article is only comparing vaginal births. I think the real reason for the disparity is (obviously) medical price gouging in general and MDs here make a fuck lot more than Dr's in England. That's one reason there are no PA's there, because PA's here are popular as a cheaper alternative to MD's. They don't really…

Batzimman. Bammerman. Zimbatman.

He's part stingray, obvs.

Part of me sincerely hopes that Kate had the baby this week at her parents' house (home birth!) and has been faking out the press all this time.

I just feel like I'm going to be out of the loop all weekend, like I normally am, and I'll miss the whole thing.

That is a phenomenal observation!