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cloth pads...response to a survey from reddys

Judith — Fri, 04 May 2007 21:45:48 GMT

hi everyone...it's been quiet here. I got a short survey letter from Ashley Reed of Reddys Reusabe menstrual pads asking for inout on how using cloth pads has changed my relationship to my cuycle. here is my response thus far...will post her questions later for any to answer.

here goes.....Judith

hi Ashley...I'd love to read your paper in any form when it's ready,
no pun immediately intended. I'd also like to read the proceedings
of this conference if they are available. I'm very busy at present
(about to start an intensive science course of study in rpeparation
for naturopathic medical school in 2008)

I try to stay well-informed in the field
of natural health promotion, especially as to alternatives in
reproductive health. I moderate a few discussions on the Inbternet
related to these tothese topics, and will forward, under separate e-
mail cover, some of the interesting conversations we have had,
especailly about adolescent girls and introducing them to
reusables. (my guess is that children who were
raised my mothers who use washable diapers for their children and
washable pads for their menstruation comfortably will have a much
more natural,if you will, transition to the use of cloth pads
themselves...my own daughter
is 12 and a half, on the "later" end of the sprectrum in terms of
secondary sexual development, and I've been thinking of ways to make
it easy for her
to just grab a cloth pad when she needs one, the way I do.)

see if the following thoughts are of any help to you in formulating a
presentation. I'd be really happy to receive a new lunar calendar,
or any
other "perks" that may be included...a brief acknowledgement in your
paper if you use any of my contribution would be fine, actually (i'm
a trainedsocial scientist and like being a collaborator in this way)

it's been so many years since I used any disposable menstrual
products,
except in "emergency" situations (e.g., period starts early at a
county fair and I have no supplies, thus get a pad from first aid
booth until I can get back to my car and find a suitable rag)that
it's hard to say whether any changes such as how my flow feels or
how much I enjoy it are due to using cloth pads. I honestly can't
imagine "enjoying" my moontime without some form of confortable,
washable pad.

I'm 50 and still having regular, apparently ovulatory cycles, though
they have shortened a bit in the last year or two. my cycles only
became anything even close to predictable and regular after having a
baby naturally at
age
38. (not the usual pattern...even with extended, on-demand, and
unsupplemented breastfeeding and no separation from my baby, I
started
having regular periods at 8 weeks postpartum! apparently conceiving
and
birthing and nursing my baby naturally "showed" my body how to act
like
a
fertile woman...that's the only explanation I can make.)

using cloth pads, as I had done for many years in the past, just
seemed themost logical extension of the low-environmental-impact,
high-attention-to-personal-and-plaentary-health ways I cared for
myself and my baby. when I
was in my late teens and early twenties, I used natural sponges as
tampon
substitutes, for the same environmental and personal reasons that I
now
use
cloth pads. the "toxic shock" stories had not yet broken, and I
liked
the
closeness to my cycle that rinsing and caring for the sponges gave
me,
but
eventually I became concerned that sponges, too, might absorb more
fluid
than was necessary, could abrade the lning of my vagina or cervix,
etc.
I
also used a diaphragm, of the birth-control type, to collect
menstrual
flow
for a while, and also liked the contact with my menstrual flow and
low
environmental impact it involved...and I can't say I ever had
problems
with
this, but honestly with all the growing atention paid to latex
allergy,
I
felt it safest to go back to external cloth pads isntead of any of
these.

Seeing that cloth diapers were not such a big deal in terms of
hassle made it REALLY easy to transition to the exclusive use of
washable cloth menstrual pads. I was washing plenty of cotton
anyway...a folded piece of
flannel a few times a day,m a few days a month really isn't much
compared
with two or three years of several diapers a day on average (not to
mention
the twenty to thirty wet diapers a "leaky" newborn can give you for
several
months!!!)

I feel good about not adding to the cradle-to-grave parade of toxic
pollution thatdisposable products necessarily entail. I've worked for
environmental information agencies, and know that the production of
disposable paper-based, or even cotton-based, products involved
numerous
questionable environmental practices, and that their eventual
disposal
is
worse, and that along the way, it is our bodies that are exposed to
the
bleaches, finishes, pesticide residues, and other potentially
hazardous
aspects of these products. I know women who say that their
endometriosis
improved greatly after switching away from disposable menstrual
products,
which makes total sense to me. Additionally, I have talked to many
plumbers who note all the flushed tampons, panty liners, pads, baby
wipes,etc that are part of their daily life as the cleaners of
clogged
sewage lines. every person who chooses to cut down on the amount of
treated
paper goods she or he throws into our water suppply is making for a
somewhat easier time not just for all species on the planet, but for
the
workers among them who clean up after our daily necessities of
elimination.

I'm a person who believes in worker safety, low-cost preventive
ehalth
for
all, and the preservation of speciaes in the best health possible.
as
I
near the last of my menstrual eyars, I can't imagine any other way
to
honor
my cycle than by using simple, comfortable, washable menstrual
pads.
I'm
not highoy inclined toward formal ritual as spiritual practice; I
don;t
plan on having a "Croning" ceremony for myself or a "Mooning"
ceremony
for
my daughter. SO, the best way we can honor the spiritual side of our
cyclic fertlity, in our home, is to choose to use cloth pads that are
compatible with our intellectual and spiritual beliefs about caring
for
the
ewarth and for ourown ehalth, and respecting ourselves as females
rather
than being angry at this beautiful expression of our cyclic
fertility.

thanks for reading and again, I hope this is useful to you...

Judith Gips

PO Box 14231
Berkeley CA 94712

posted in Birthkeepers - 2 replies

intersting sociological book on the menstrual industry...

Judith — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 22:31:25 GMT

just breezed through this at the public library and think it's worth looking at...

"Capitalizing on the Curse: The Business of menstruation" by Elizabeth Arveda Kissling.

chapters include "marketing menstruation", "pills, profits, PMS, and Pmdd", "manipulation menstruation for fun and profit" (a lot here on chemical "menstrual supression!", "tampon safety debates and product alternatives". also suggestions for action and reflection, "how to rbeak a curse."

the chapter on "the menstrual counterculture" was a little disappointing to me, as I hoped there would be more on the reclaiming-outr bleeding celebrations that Tamara, jeannine, olara owen, and many others have pioneered...probably too much for one small-ish scholarly book, and not an anthology.

recommended reading, a lot of good information and generally body-supportive outlook, including lots of stuff on products, diagnoses and procedures that this Luddite-ish gal who tears up old flannel sheets for menstrual rags has never heard of.

enjoy!

Judith

posted in Birthkeepers - 0 replies

Questioning Circumcision: A jewish perspective

Judith — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 22:29:36 GMT

I picked up a copy of Ronald Goldman's book "Questioning
Circumcision" today at the NO CIRC booth at Pride Day street fair in
downtown SF.

he's a psychologist who chairs the Circumcision Respurce Center in
Boston. the book is relatively short (134 pages in a paperback
including an index and some great addpeices, including alternative
rites for baby blessing for boys AND girls) but quite thorough and
very readable. chapters include origins and background of jewish
ritual circumcision, asumed benefits and understated risks, ,
unrecognized (or underrecognized) consequences, , many types of
personal experience, and s chapter onconflicts and questions. many
interviews and quotes appear in the bok, including those from several
thoughtful rabis who have serious midgivings about the tradition of
ritual circumcision. another appendix includes transcipts from
Tikkun Jewish Renewal conference in New York in 1994, where several
conference participants joined a discussion following a presentation
about circumcision and reasons against it by the book's author.

this book as a valuable addition to any health activist'slibrary,
especailly one woh is working with his/her own jewish roots or who
wants to communicate well and compassionately with those who ARE
jewish and feel conflicted about "the covenant" as they understand
it.

in my own experience, there is a real need for something FROm someone
who is proud of his or her jewish heritage who can speak hnestly and
clearly about why not to circumcise. Dr. Goldman fills this niche
wonderfully, and I'm grateful for his book wonder if an update is in
the works? pubication date was 1998..)

to contact them directly: Circumcision Resource Center
Box 232
Boston MA 02133
(617)523 0088

posted in Birthkeepers - 0 replies

an intro from judith...mooning and croning

Judith — Thu, 27 Jul 2006 23:23:10 GMT

this is a post I originally put into the GBirthkeepe.com forum called The Dancing Triple Goddess, last February, just after jeannine's death , well, two months after.

hope it'll both serve as introduction and get some interesting discussion going. tell your friends...men welcome too as long as they are Cool with this kind of energy!

love Judith

I'm 50 now, dancing those last years of the fertility dance while raising my daughter who is a slender 11 year old. started honoring the moontimes three years ago when I thought these were the fnal eyars, wound up with a stack of neatly folded paper towels stained with what I thought was the last of my menstrual fluid.

well, my life has been a set of surprises when it comes to fertile sexuality and I'm still having the predictably regular cycles that really only statted being even close to predictable after I birthed my little treasure at age 38, after 17 eyars of trying or praying or hoping....weird thing is, this was at 8 weeks postpartum, with nursing all around the clock, baby-carrying, cosleeping, no suplemental food or water or fingersucking or ANYTHING. so much for the "lactationl amenorrhea" business. I was still bursing and still in milk until Lia was 5, and still could squeeze out a little milk for anothr year or so (probably a year and a half?)after that.

my estimate based on everythng I've observed and my own intuition of these things is thatthe real "pause" is still years away. my small-ish, agile eleven eyar old hasn't even a hint of breast buds or pubic hair yet and probably won't for a few years...I too was 13 bfore anything even started to change and 14 before I had any moonflow, and I suspect, based on her size and shape and how much she's like me physically, I'm looking at the same.

so I don't know where it's going. that, of course, is mostly in the hands of a oving goddess who gives each of us a different relationship with ehr own fertility and moontimes.

I take herbs allies into me, to ease some of the minor discomforts...premenstrual moodiness and achiness and prone-ness to headaches...enjoy my moontime and the simple rags I fold into my underwear (I have to laugh a bit walking through the pharmacy and seeing box after box of tampons, disposable pads, all that mess I don;t spend a dime on creating or perpetuating... find that rather than retreating into all=womanspace around then, I feel best with the right kind of male energy around me for balance, especially at moontime (I'm there now.)

I'd always ientified with people five to 15 years older than me (early Boomers for this late Boomer and someways Late Bloomer?), for the first time in my life, I'm ready to love a younger man. there's one in my life now, the same friend who came with me to see Jeannine last August, who shares my bed often but hasn't been sexual with me (or anyone else as far as I can see) for a month or two. which isn't always easy...

he's got his issues with retreat from sexuality just now so again, only those deities and energies, male and female and both or neither, relly know where it will lead. I've long wanted to be some kind of elser but I'm not moving "gacefully" or otherwise into croning just yet. fantasize one last-chance baby. look at how my life runs in twelve-year cycles and my loved one is twelve years younger than I. crave loving touch, not just sex, but worshipful fingertip prayer.

as I write, it is exactly twelve years since I became pregnant with my beautiful daughter. she plays hard, thinks a lot, observes keenly,moves gracefully, happy being a child, sharp adolescent mind in her lithe, rather androgynous 60-pound body. she needs me more as mother than as crone/elder for now, and it seems the beings unseen are in accord.

I stand just close enough to catch her if she falls, as a Wiccan woman I met in Santa Cruz suggested was fit for these times in my mothering journey. laugh as I change my old flannel pads. hope her transition to mooning will be joyous too, and that I can stand beside her.

Judith

posted in Birthkeepers - 0 replies