Dollar-Free Donations
Many people understand the plight that uninsured pregnant women face, before and after delivery. Some of those people want to help; and some pregnant women are lucky enough to receive charitable donations that help them survive during economically tumultuous times.
Non-profit organizations like Maternity Health award scholarships for maternity care expenses, funded by monetary donations. Unfortunately, not everyone can donate money – especially during a recession.
But just because you don’t have the extra cash doesn’t mean you can’t donate meaningfully, or that your gifts won’t be graciously accepted. Dollar-free donations for uninsured pregnant women come in many forms and from many different sponsors: businesses, individuals, families, foundations and others can always find items to donate to pregnant women. And women who recently received charity during their own pregnancies are encouraged to pay it forward by passing along unused baby supplies to newly-pregnant women.
Take a quick look through your pantry, attic or nursery to see if you can donate:
- Maternity clothes
- Blankets
- Pillows
- Beds/Cribs/Bassinets
- Diapers
- Baby shampoo/soap
- Changing table
- Baby swing
- High chairs
- Car seats
- Books on raising babies/children
- Gift certificates
- Food
- Toys
Your donated items can save pregnant women a lot of money and help ease their struggles. Several maternity charity organizations exist that can pass your donations along to uninsured pregnant women, or you can give personalized donations to families in your area. You can often find a local outpost – try contacting your Chamber of Commerce for ideas – or you can donate your items to a food pantry to resell in order to pay for food for needy families. Many of these organizations allow your donations to be earmarked for pregnant women and women with young children, so you can make sure your donations are going to the people you intend.
Dollar-free donations are easy, can help you clear clutter and make you feel good about helping those less fortunate. Most importantly, your donations can reduce financial stresses and bring satisfaction, security and joy to pregnant women and their children. Donate dollar-free today!
Do We Need Pregnancy Discrimination Laws?
Pregnancy discrimination is a terrible thing, especially when hard-working women are punished in the workplace because they are pregnant. That’s why we need pregnancy discrimination laws – or do we?
In a recent ABC News piece (http://abcnews.go.com/2020/Business/Story?id=7479662&page=3), Carrie Lucas from the Independent Women’s Forum wonders if the Pregnancy Discrimination Act, which makes it illegal to fire or refuse to hire a woman because she is pregnant, has actually made it more difficult for women to find and maintain employment.
The irony is thick: anti-discrimination laws breeding discrimination? But Lucas might have a point – since the PDA was enacted, more women have filed discrimination complaints, and employers might be afraid to fire women who are not doing a good job, viewing them as potential lawsuits. Just because the law says employers can’t fire or not hire a woman because she is pregnant, doesn’t mean they can’t find another reason to justify their decisions.
On the other hand, perhaps the law has no teeth – employers are actively practicing pregnancy discrimination because they think it can’t be proven, and they therefore can’t be penalized. This is not a case where you say, “Oh, the law’s not working – they’re still discriminating, so we might as well repeal it.” Instead, the law needs some teeth. But it also needs to be fair – frivolous lawsuits should be tossed; those with merit should be adjudicated.
For large corporations, it might be easy to track and survey with accuracy the number of pregnant women per capita, and their perception of how their firm treated them during their pregnancies. For small businesses, especially those with fewer than 100 employees, this would be impossible to do.
If pregnancy discrimination laws put women at a disadvantage, it is because the laws are not being enforced – NOT because the laws shouldn’t exist.
Crisis Pregnancies On The Rise… Really?
Officials nationwide have reported an increase in assistance requests for so-called “crisis” pregnancies – unplanned pregnancies that leave many women wondering how they will afford prenatal care, delivery and beyond.
I don’t like the term “crisis pregnancy.” The term is entirely inappropriate. A pregnancy does not become a crisis on its own, through conception only. The crisis is dependent on socioeconomic factors.
The recent increase is not because pregnancy in and of itself has become more difficult. It’s because the socioeconomic factors that must be weighed during the decision-making process have destabilized. When pregnant women are laid off, out of work, have lost insurance, cannot get insurance or are otherwise disadvantaged, pregnancies become crises.
It is the impact of a “crisis economy” that has increased. It makes it more difficult for women to make sound decisions based on their beliefs; for example, women who would not otherwise abort are doing so in order to afford to care for their older children.
When money dictates life – and death – our country does indeed have a crisis to overcome. But it is not a pregnancy crisis. It is an economic crisis. It is a crisis of inequality, of disenfranchisement, of money, career and home. Pregnancy is only a crisis when care is inaccessible and unaffordable.
These crises cannot be solved at the family level – they’re solved by government and community. Righting the wrongs faced by pregnant women will take enormous effort, and individual women can’t do it all alone. Legislative and policy changes must be instituted to turn crises into opportunities.
Please, don’t label your pregnancy a crisis. If you feel that your pregnancy is a crisis, ask yourself whether you’re a victim of socioeconomic disadvantages. Before you make decisions that could ruin your finances – or decisions that you might regret for the rest of your life – consult with qualified, unbiased experts to fully understand your options for affording pregnancy and child care.
The $50,000 Baby
The cost of a newborn baby can be as much as $30,000 (http://www.lansingstatejournal.com/article/20090426/LIFE03/904260512/1079/LIFE).
The cost of prenatal care and delivery can be anywhere from $10,000 to $60,000 and beyond.
The median household income in the United States is $50,000 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Household_income_in_the_United_States).
If you have an uncomplicated pregnancy with a normal vaginal delivery, and have two working parents in the household who earn “median” wages but do not have maternity health care coverage, that leaves you with about $10,000 to get through the year. If you have an “average” C-section, that leaves you with $0. And if you have a complicated pregnancy, you could be left $40,000 in debt. And if your baby needs intensive neo-natal care, you might be stuck with a bill of over $200,000.
Putting things in perspective, why should so natural as bringing a new life into the world cost $50,000+?
Another Victory FOR Pregnant MOMS!
On May 11, Moms in the Middle celebrated another victory when the 7th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled in favor of Kathleen Ryl-Kuchar, a woman whose employer, Care Centers, retroactively canceled her health insurance when she filed for leave to care for her newborn triplets under the Family Medical Leave Act (http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=7th&navby=title&v1=Kathleen+Ryl-Kuchar). Judge Terence Evans wrote that sufficient evidence existed to prove that Care Centers had canceled the insurance as retribution for Ryl-Kuchar’s leave and the Court upheld an earlier ruling that ordered Care Centers to pay Ryl-Kuchar $30,000 to cover her medical bills. Amen!
This is a victory that can be savored, but only temporarily. We can rejoice that the court protected the rights of a Mom in the Middle; but at the same time we must lament the fact that it is so easy for women to be discriminated against. Ryl-Kuchar’s battle was hard-fought and spanned five years of litigation – no easy task, especially if you have no job and three young children to care (and pay) for.
There’s still much work to be done if we’re to prevent pregnancy discrimination where it starts – in the workplace – before it has to go to court. Bearing the burden of proof can seem an extraordinary challenge to Moms in the Middle who fear facing the legal teams Big Business can bankroll. Modern media has many convinced that you can’t win in court against financial powerhouses. But this is an insult to respected justices who can judge a case based on its merits rather than its rhetoric.
Employers and insurance companies must practice equitable treatment. Legislation might protect women from pregnancy discrimination; but only if they take action against it. To maximize the impact potential of law, courts should impose hefty penalties on organizations that practice pregnancy discrimination. If companies do not pay taxes, the government will put them out of business; if companies discriminate, the livelihood of their businesses should likewise be at stake. Operating illegally is breaking the law, no matter what the infraction is.
Let’s hope that would-be discriminators hear about Ryl-Kuchar’s case against Care Centers, and understand that a similar outcome awaits any organization found guilty of pregnancy discrimination.
Another Glimmer of Hope For Pregnant Women
Remember the huge March of Dimes Report Card that shed light on the pervasive premature birth problem in the United States? You know, the one that put in indisputable figures the dismal state of our maternity health care system… the one that found that one of the leading factors in the U.S. premature birth rate is a lack of prenatal care?
While legislators finally begin addressing the overwhelming need for proper and affordable prenatal care, some institutions have been offering affordable prenatal care to pregnant women for years. And the results are just as stunning as the figures in the March of Dimes report.
Take Dallas’ Parkland Memorial Hospital, which last week announced that it had cut premature rates almost by half in the last two decades (http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/localnews/stories/DN-babies_28met.ART0.State.Edition1.4a5c74e.html).
The information published by Parkland validates the assertion that prenatal care is vital to healthy, timely delivery. Two paragraphs say it all:
“Dallas County’s public hospital, which operates one of the nation’s busiest maternity wards, cut its rate of premature births nearly in half – to 4.9 percent in 2006 from 9.4 percent of births in 1988.
Parkland officials credited comprehensive prenatal care for improving the outcomes of 16,000 births annually at the hospital, which has the second-highest number of deliveries in any U.S. hospital.”
The statistics are amazing, especially for a high-volume hospital such as Parkland. And to what does Parkland owe its stellar premature birth rate record? PRENATAL CARE!
What’s more, Parkland officials say most of their maternity patients are low-income women who either pay affordable $50 co-payments per visit or qualify for government assistance and pay little to nothing at all.
With these figures, it’s no surprise that Parkland is ranked among the nation’s best gynecological hospitals (http://www.usnews.com/listings/hospitals/6740950). And because Parkland is a PUBLIC HOSPITAL, the hospital’s success in reducing instances of premature births lends credence to the notion that publicly-funded medicine can and does work!
Let’s hope that the news doesn’t fall on deaf ears, that Congress learns from the successes of others and works to provide proper prenatal care to all women, regardless of socioeconomic factors, so America’s future is invested in healthy children.
Women’s Health Insurance Fairness Act: A Step in the Right Direction
The Women’s Health Insurance Fairness Act, a bill proposed by Senator John Kerry, would prohibit health insurance companies from charging women higher premiums than men for the same coverage and prevent insurers from setting rates or denying coverage to women based on past, current, and future pregnancies and their chosen methods of delivery (including C-section). http://www.emaxhealth.com/1024/72/30944/women%E2%80%99s-health-insurance-fairness-act-introduced-senator-john-kerry.html
It would also require all plans to cover the entirety of maternity, lend the government the ability to impose fines for infractions, and require the Government Accountability Office to issue a report about problems women face in the health care industry. The measure would make it easier for uninsured pregnant women to access individual and family health care insurance plans – and so we must applaud Mr. Kerry for introducing and sponsoring this bill. If passed, it will help uninsured pregnant women gain access to the maternity coverage they need; and if done right, the report alone will help legislators understand and address the plight of Moms in the Middle.
Hey, Government Accountability Office – give me a call! We already know the trials and tribulations endured by America’s mothers, especially when it comes to health care coverage and medical billing. We can do your report for you!
Though I support the bill, I also know it is a single step in the right direction and not a be-all-end-all solution. Many more uninsured pregnant women will still be unable to access medical insurance coverage because they simply can’t afford it. When will our legislators address that problem?
Government-sponsored/government-subsidized health care is viewed as the solution by some; while others believe it will corrupt our capitalistic society. In an attempt to dissuade legislators from offering public health care, private insurance companies have proposed several industry regulations (http://www.modernhealthcare.com/article/20090505/REG/305059942) that will help keep them “honest.” What they want is for the people to trust them, or rather trust the government’s ability to regulate them.
But if we haven’t been able to trust the insurance industry in the past, how can we be expected to do so now? And if the government (the American people) must supply regulatory resources, shouldn’t it have a say in how services are distributed?
The Women’s Health Insurance Fairness Act is one piece of a very large puzzle. Let’s hope Congress can figure out where it fits so we can get it on the board. Uninsured pregnant women must be able to become insured pregnant women, and this is a key move toward that end.
Want to stay on top of key maternity and pregnancy related legislative developments? Go to www.govtracker.us!
Deadbeat Dads… Here’s What The Good Guys Do
We hear a lot about deadbeat dads. Here’s a story about one of the good guys:
Macon.com published an interesting article about Kevin Lyons, a baker who, after work, spends a few hours selling drinks to motorists before going home to see his family (http://www.macon.com/news/local/story/632114.html). Why does he do this? To afford health insurance for his family.
Kevin’s wife lost her job after missing too many days during her high-risk pregnancy (pregnancy discrimination, anyone?), and she has struggled to find another since the couple’s daughter was born. So Kevin began moonlighting to earn about $20 extra a day – which he says is just about what health insurance costs.
Uninsured and underinsured pregnant women are often left alone to struggle with locating access to affordable maternity care. Too many deadbeat dads leave the family or refuse to help – but there are so many more who work hard to provide for their families. Heroes like Kevin can be found in every nook and cranny in this great nation, though often unsung.
Some might think that peddling Gatorade on the streets is humiliating or demeaning, but not me. I think that Kevin Lyons is on an admirable quest and is providing for his family. He should be very proud – no doubt his family is.
You Can Get Pregnant Playing Video Games…SERIOUSLY!!!
A More Realistic SIMS, Please
If you’re at all familiar with the gaming world, you’ve undoubtedly at least heard of the SIMS, a role-playing game where you live the life of an on-screen character. One of the goals of the SIMS’ developers is to make the game as realistic as possible – which is why the SIMS 2 (and the upcoming 3) characters can become pregnant and have babies (http://kotaku.com/5149307/knocked-up-a-look-at-pregnancy-in-video-games).
According to the Kotaku article, the SIMS characters become pregnant, are housebound, go into labor writing in pain, and then a baby is born.
Pregnancy Magazine Managing Editor Clary Alward doesn’t think that pregnancy in the SIMS is very realistic: “It’s like Guitar Hero… You play Guitar Hero and it’s nothing like playing guitar.”
Some worry that misrepresenting pregnancy in video games could have a negative impact, especially for young mothers-to-be. If pregnancy and child rearing are depicted as being easy, the gravity of responsibility could be lost. Conversely, if pregnancy and child rearing are depicted as too painful, difficult or frightening, it could cause pregnant women to fear maternity and childbirth and cause undue anxiety.
While video game creators are free to depict pregnancy, or anything else, as they’d like, if the goal is to make a game as realistic as possible then pregnancies should be depicted with realism.
How about necessary prenatal care for a healthy child? Or what about the inability to get insurance or to afford treatment, or being forced to compromise your dignity just to get care for your character and her unborn child?
If the SIMS was more realistic when it came to pregnancy, many women would struggle just to get the care they needed for their characters and digital babies to live healthy and prosper. In fact, many players would get quite the opposite: game over.
Could Yahoo! and Others Be Liable For The Proliferation Of False Medical Information?
The proliferation of incorrect medical information not only contributes to poor consumer decisions, it can end in disastrous, even fatal, results. Take a look at this Yahoo! Answers question in which a user asks about the safety of drinking alcohol while taking the antibiotic Bactrim (http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20071019184623AAsptBu). The “Best Answer” says that as long as there is no label indicating otherwise, it is safe.
But this is not true. Not all drug interactions are listed on labels. This information is often contained within the accompanying literature. The sad thing is that some people are likely to read this answer, pop a Bactrim and go on a drinking binge.
Bad idea, according to the Mayo Clinic: “Drinking any amount of alcohol with [Bactrim] can result in side effects such as flushing, headache, nausea and vomiting, rapid heart rate, and shortness of breath.” (http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/antibiotics-and-alcohol/AN01802).
Or how about this example, again from Yahoo! Answers, in which the majority of the respondents declare that it is indeed safe to drink small amounts of alcohol during pregnancy (http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=Aui4gyeWKzLaUhUxWKftZpIjzKIX;_ylv=3?qid=20080803101610AAIgvqr). The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention strongly disagrees: “There is no known amount of alcohol that is safe to drink while pregnant.” (http://www.cdc.gov/Features/AlcoholFreePregnancy/).
No one, especially pregnant women, should take medical advice from anyone who is not a properly trained and qualified expert. Doing so puts your health – and your baby’s life – at severe risk.
I wonder if Yahoo! and similar publishers have considered the potential liabilities associated with publishing incorrect medical information?
