Parenting is full of decisions — starting the moment you learn you’re pregnant (sometimes before) and continuing indefinitely. For the past decade, Emily Oster ...
ParentData Presents: The Lonely Palette's "Mary Kelly's Postpartum Document (1973-78)"
Today is Thanksgiving in the U.S., and after a fall – and a year – of divisiveness, could all use a holiday in which Americans are united in the task of consuming too much pie. More broadly, this holiday, more than really any other, is something Americans tend to do together. And so is parenting. Especially the beginning. The experience of having a newborn – the sleeplessness, the disconnection from reality, the wonder….it feels magical and unique, and yet also like a line connecting us to billions of people through the past. Today on ParentData, we're featuring an episode from another podcast, The Lonely Palette, that addresses this contradiction and the many others that just go hand-in-hand with parenting. It’s made by our producer Tamar Avishai; before she came to ParentData, she created this independent art history podcast, and this episode, about a 1970s feminist artist named Mary Kelly, felt perfect for the ParentData audience. Kelly meticulously tracked every data point from her son’s birth until age five (diaper stains, scribbles, first babbles, etc.) as a way of both coping with the lack of control mothers feel, and, just maybe, to try to hold on to something so fleeting. This episode combines Tamar's love of art history, Emily's love of data, and their shared love of parenting. Enjoy, preferably over another slice of pie.
See the images discussed in the episode.
Subscribe to The Lonely Palette
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46:44
It’s Not Hysteria: How women’s health gets overlooked
We don’t all get to learn about vaginas in school or from our families or from creating a reputation as the "Vagina Economist." And quite frankly, this is to our detriment. But today on ParentData, we’re trying to make some progress on that. We're joined by Dr. Karen Tang, a minimally invasive gynecologic surgeon (think: disorders like endometriosis and polycystic ovary syndrome), who is tearing up social media with her women’s health education. Her book, It’s Not Hysteria: Everything You Need to Know About Your Reproductive Health (but Were Never Told), and it’s exactly what it sounds like — a user manual for anyone with a female reproductive system. In this conversation, we discuss how to talk to your doctor and how to make the most of your time with them, the lack of data on women’s health, why Karen feels strongly about reclaiming the word “hysteria” when it comes to health for women, and what it means to study women’s pain as opposed to...pain (?).External links:
The Menopause Society
WPATH
Childfree Subreddit Doctor Recommendations
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45:59
It's The Placenta Episode!
Pop quiz: what’s the only organ that you grow from nothing and then casually discard, that magically bosses around your hormones, and actually your entire body, and that is actually made up of two different people’s cells? Obviously it’s the placenta. Less obvious is how completely awesome it is. We're all wrapped up in this new baby on our chest, and since the placenta is so easy to deliver, relatively, and so gross to look at, we forget how incredible it is, and how absolutely crucial for the health of your baby.So today on ParentData, we’re going to finally give it its due. We've invited Dr. Gillian Goddard back for a mini episode to talk about all things placenta. We’re going to follow its journey through conception to pregnancy to delivery and - if you’re so inclined - beyond, and answer any of the questions you might have about this truly magical and sadly ephemeral organ. Subscribe to ParentData.org for free access to new articles every week on data-driven pregnancy and parenting.
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29:28
Racial Disparity in C-Section Rates: Unpacking bias in the medical system
When we talk about C-sections, it’s often prefaced with “unplanned” or “emergency.” About a third of all the deliveries in the U.S. are cesarean sections, and only about 16% of those are planned. And that leaves a lot of mothers in a position where they’re delivering differently than they planned or intended to. And in the U.S., a disproportionate number of those are being performed on black women. So how are we going to get to the root of what's going on? Today on ParentData, we're joined by Molly Schnell, whose paper “Drivers of Racial Differences in C-Sections” explores this phenomenon. Molly is an assistant professor of economics at Northwestern University and her paper found that black mothers with unscheduled deliveries are 25% more likely to deliver by C-section than white mothers. And she argues that implicit racial bias among providers or possibly even a financial incentive in hospitals to fill their operating rooms may play a role in this racial gap.Subscribe to ParentData.org for free access to new articles every week on data-driven pregnancy and parenting.ParentData is generously supported by Honeycomb.
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39:41
Ultra-Processed Foods: What they are and whether we should worry
There is nothing in the world of nutrition more confusing than ultra-processed foods. Seemingly every week, there is a new headline about the dangers of ultra-processed foods and their links to things like heart disease, dementia, and death. Today on ParentData, Emily reads her recent article on ultra-processed foods and provides some tips for smart food - and headline - consumption.
The article at ParentData.org
Photos of the meals from the study
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Parenting is full of decisions — starting the moment you learn you’re pregnant (sometimes before) and continuing indefinitely. For the past decade, Emily Oster has been a guide through the challenges of pregnancy and parenthood using data. She translates the latest scientific research into answers to the questions people have in their day-to-day lives. ParentData brings Emily together with other experts in areas of pregnancy and parenting to talk about some of the most complicated of these issues, from labor induction to food allergies to parenting through a divorce. Each conversation brings us closer to Emily’s mission: to create the most informed generation of parents by providing high-quality data that they can trust, whenever they need it.
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