Not menstruating while nursing a baby: how did people explain that in the past?
A friend of mine is looking for cultural (not medical) information in regards to the return of menstruation after childbirth and/or during breast feeding. We all know the stats on when it returns and why is returns (why it is absent for months after birth, etc.) but can find nothing about how this occasion has been viewed and celebrated around the world throughout the ages including present day. Would you have any information on this? [During medieval and Renaissance times in Europe, a common belief, which both Leonardo da Vinci and the great anatomist Vesalius indicated in their drawings, was that mother's milk was menstrual blood that had been diverted from the uterus, preventing the woman from menstruating. Mail her and me for other theories. This is discussed in Lana Thompson's book The Wandering Womb: A Cultural History of Outrageous Beliefs About Women (Prometheus Books, 1999)]
Thanks again!
~May your God, Goddess, Gods or total lack thereof bless, curse or ignore you in accordance with your wishes and beliefs.
She needs your help with prints
Hello,
I have found your site at a perfect time. I am a sculpture grad at ****** University. I have started a project titled Blood Prints. I am trying to find a way to find 28 women who would be willing to bleed on sheets I would prepare and send them and then return them to me to be dealt with as prints. Is there a way I could place an ad with your site or would you personally know women who would be willing to become a part of this art piece?
[Write her if you can help.]
Thank you
See a film about Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome, in New York City
Hi,
Please join me on Tuesday night for a screening of my documentary "Scrambled: A Journey Through Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome" at a great independent women's bookstore on the Lower East Side called Bluestockings.
I hope you are finding some peace and comfort during these sad and confusing times. I look forward to seeing you.
- Randi
The Details:
Scrambled: A Journey Through Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome
Tuesday, October 23, 7 pm at Bluestockings bookstore (172 Allen St. on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in New York City)
Admission: ($3)
Closest subway trains:
F train to 2nd Ave.
J train to Delancey/Essex St.
Bluestockings Phone: 212-777-6028
Bluestockings invites you to an evening with New York's strongest women's filmmakers organization, Women Make Movies, featuring Randi Cecchine, screening "Scrambled, A Journey Through Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome." This 41-minute video documents the story of the filmmaker's own experiences living with polycystic ovarian syndrome, and incorporates the stories of 11 other women also living with this complex medical condition. [See the item at the bottom of this page. The filmmaker will be present for feedback and Q&A session following the screening. Films by Women Make Movies screen every third Tuesday of the month. ($3)
For more information about Scrambled http://www.scrambledthewebsite.com
Bluestockings Mission Statement
Bluestockings, an independent women's bookstore and cafe of New York City's Lower East Side, promotes the empowerment of women through words, art and activism. We work to be an intersection of dialogue and information exchange, providing women-focused books, events, workshops, and a meeting and gathering place. Recognizing the links between oppressions, our goal is to be trans-inclusive, multi-lingual, open to all sexualities and spiritualities, intergenerational and to challenge racism, classism, ablism, sexism, ageism and sizism. We have adopted a collective structure, and we strive to be an organizing site in the struggle for social, economic, and environmental justice.
For more information about Bluestockings: http://www.bluestockings.com/
Women's Health Online
Dear Harry,
You have a great site, and I enjoyed my visit. I wanted to suggest that we create reciprocal links. I am the editor of Women's Health Online and felt that our topics are mutually compatible.
I hope to hear from you soon.
Sincerely,
Sheri Waldrop
Editor, Women's Health Online
Natural health food store
To Whom It May Concern,
We are an all natural health food store and receive thousands of hits weekly. We were recently featured in the July/August issue of Nutraceuticals World Magazine.
Name: Aim This Way for Natural health
Description: Distributors of the highest quality all natural herbal products on the market today. See our "Special Offer" !!!
Web address: http://www.aimthisway.com
Email: info@aimthisway.com
Subject: Alternative health/Herbal products
Thank you for your consideration in advance,
Larry Brogan
Did your mother slap you when you had your first period?
If so, Lana Thompson wants to hear from you.
The future MUM museum
Dear Mr. Finley,
Thank you for your fantastic Web site. I found it by accident looking for information on The Keeper.
I agree with you [I talk about the future museum here.] Your museum should not be at a medical school or facility of any kind. I do not object to you running the museum as a director. I think we should forget technicalities.
It needs to be in a place as you say where everyone can enjoy it - especially those from around the world. If you do set up a new facility I would love to visit, although I am from Ontario, Canada. I think you should appeal to anyone who can afford to offer an "in kind" donation of a building on a long term basis. Have you considered appealing to a local business owner who has such a facility? [It would take a really special business person - most likely a woman - to donate space. Not, for example, a hamburger joint or a church. But it's a good idea.]
Yours,
Book about menstruation published in Spain
The Spanish journalist who contributed some words for menstruation to this site last year and wrote about this museum (MUM) in the Madrid newspaper "El País" just co-authored with her daughter a book about menstruation (cover at left).
She writes, in part,
Dear Harry Finley,
As I told you, my daughter (Clara de Cominges) and I have written a book (called "El tabú") about menstruation, which is the first one to be published in Spain about that subject. The book - it talks about the MUM - is coming out at the end of March and I just said to the publisher, Editorial Planeta, to contact you and send you some pages from it and the cover as well. I'm sure that it will be interesting to you to have some information about the book that I hope has enough sense of humour to be understood anywhere. Thank you for your interest and help.
If you need anything else, please let me know.
Best wishes,
Margarita Rivière
Belen Lopez, the editor of nonfiction at Planeta, adds that "Margarita, more than 50 years old, and Clara, 20, expose their own experiences about menstruation with a sensational sense of humour." (Later this month more information will appear on the publisher's site, in Spanish.)
My guess is that Spaniards will regard the cover as risqué, as many Americans would. And the book, too. But, let's celebrate!
Two weeks ago I mentioned that Procter & Gamble was trying to change attitudes in the Spanish-speaking Americas to get more women to use tampons, specifically Tampax - a hard sell.
Compare this cover with the box cover for the Canadian television video about menstruation, Under Wraps, and the second The Curse.
An American network is now developing a program about menstruation for a popular cable channel; some folks from the network visited me recently to borrow material.
And this museum lent historical tampons and ads for a television program in Spain last year.
Now, if I could only read Spanish! (I'm a former German teacher.)
Irregular menses identify women at high risk for polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), which exists in 6-10% of women of reproductive age. PCOS is a major cause of infertility and is linked to diabetes.
