A professor at East Tennessee State University is conducting a study examining women’s experiences during the postpartum period. We are interested in collecting information from new moms who has given birth within the last 12 months that are over the age of 18 and are currently living in the United States. As this survey is interested in topics such as postpartum experiences, reproductive health complications, and history of trauma, you may be asked sensitive questions related to these topics. If at any point you feel discomfort or are distressed by the survey questions, appropriate resources are provided below and will be made available to you at the end of the study as well. If you are over 18, living in the US, and have given birth within the last 12 months, you are eligible to participate. We are hopeful that this research will allow us to better understand the experience of motherhood, especially during postpartum. The survey should take approximately 30-75 minutes to complete, but you can save your place and come back to it several times if needed. If at any time you wish to discontinue participation, you may exit and leave the survey. If you have any questions or concerns about this study, please feel free to contact the principal investigator, Julia Dodd, PhD, at doddjc@etsu.edu. Thank you for considering participating in this research.  

Please click the following link if you wish to be taken to the survey:  

https://etsuredcap.etsu.edu/surveys/?s=8PMKLDX7XX

Resources that may be of interest: 

• Crisis Hotline: 1-800-273-8255 
• Crisis Text Line: Text CONNECT to 741741 
• Resolve, The National Infertility Association: 866-668-2566, https://resolve.org
• Postpartum Support International: 1-800-944-773 
• National Sexual Assault Hotline: 800-656-4673 
• National Alliance on Mental Illness: 800-950-6264 
• National Domestic Violence Hotline: 800-799-7233 
• Solace for Mothers, an online community for healing birth trauma: http://www.solaceformothers.net/online-forum/online-community-for-mothers/

https://discord.gg/r88sVwR

https://preview.redd.it/3rlye2c2qc131.png?width=1200&format=png&auto=webp&s=d8e3fe87eb313bd4cb0e659b8e31d82cc21302c8

https://preview.redd.it/pe3f7if4qc131.png?width=214&format=png&auto=webp&s=8a15188477304df12a6f460082a8fce6cae28b63

Hello,

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I am a Ph.D. student at Purdue University and I am interested in examining mothers’ experiences of maternity leave and well-being. This survey is for women who (a) live in the United States, (b) work at least part-time, (c) have carried a child to birth, (d) have had a maternity leave experience within the last 3 years, (e) are over the age of 18, and (f) are not a full-time student. There is no risk to participate in this survey and your data will be confidential. Select the link below to access more information about the study and to complete the 15-minute survey.

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https://purdue.ca1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_1WTJyInd8PeOjgp

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Best,

​

Haley Sterling, M.S.Ed.

Pronouns: She/Her/Hers

Counseling Psychology PhD Student

Graduate Research Assistant,

Purdue University Department of Educational Studies

100 N. University St., Room 5129

West Lafayette, Indiana 47906

Email: hsterlin@purdue.edu

​

The STARH Lab at East Tennessee State University is conducting a study on women’s life experiences and reproductive health outcomes such as sexual dysfunction, infertility, and pregnancy or delivery complications. We are interested in collecting information from women between the ages of 18 and 50 with any reproductive health experiences – that is, women who have never tried to conceive, women who are currently trying to conceive, and women who have children. As this survey is interested in topics such as fertility problems, history of unwanted sexual experiences, and sexual functioning, you may be asked sensitive questions related to these topics. If at any point you feel discomfort or are distressed by the survey questions, appropriate resources are provided below and will be made available to you at the end of the study as well. If you are a woman between the ages of 18 and 50, you are eligible to participate. We are hopeful that this research will allow us to better understand factors that may be related to various reproductive health outcomes. As a thank-you for your participation, you will have the option to enter your email address at the end of the survey to be entered into a drawing to win a $75 Amazon gift card. The survey should take approximately 30 to 75 minutes to complete, but you can save your place and come back to it several times if needed. If at any time you wish to discontinue participation, you may exit and leave the survey. If you have any questions or concerns about this study, please feel free to contact the principal investigator, Dr. Julia Dodd, at doddjc@etsu.eduor (423)439-4847. Thank you for considering participating in this research.

Please click the following link if you wish to be taken to the survey: [Women's Reproductive Health and Stress Survey](https://etsuredcap.etsu.edu/surveys/?s=84YJ7RCCHF)

Resources that may be of interest:

- Crisis hotline: 1-800-273-8255

- Resolve, The National Infertility Association: 866-668-2566, https://resolve.org

- Postpartum Support International: 1-800-944-773

- National Center for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs: 800-273

- Resolve, The National Infertility Association: 866-668-2566, https://resolve.org

- Postpartum Support International: 1-800-944-773

- National Center for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs: 800-273-8255

- National Sexual Assault Hotline: 800-656-4673

- National Alliance on Mental Illness: 800-950-6264

- Solace for Mothers- online community for healing birth trauma: http://www.solaceformothers.net/online-forum/online-community-for-mothers/8255

Hellllp. I feel like I’ve searched the fucking globe for a good bra. I’m not a huge fan of t-shirt bras or push-ups, but I like pretty stuff. I’m about 5’8”, 155lbs and it seems I can wear sizes ranging from 38C - 38DD. (I was sized about six months ago at a Cacique store and told I was a 38DD but I have at least a couple cheap bras that are a bit smaller and still sorta fit.) I feel like I’m either constantly falling out in the middle, adjusting the back to make it comfortable or weirding out over how conical some bras make my boobs look. Where do you fine ladies buy your bras? Have you ever had any luck ordering online? I live in Middle Tennessee so I guess my access is kinda limited outside the world of online ordering. Thanks in advance, y’all. <3

Carol Lynn Pearson may be risking excommunication for speaking out. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTy5yzwBG0w

Hello!

We are currently doing research to better understand views on male fertility.

We'd really appreciate it if you could take a few minutes to answer our brief survey. It should take approximately 10 minutes and all answers will remain strictly anonymous.

Your feedback is invaluable and will help our company innovate and create a service that better meets your needs.

If you'd like to take the survey please follow this link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/X3J6QWV

We know you’re very busy and appreciate the time you take to give us your feedback!

If you have any other questions please don’t hesitate to reach out.

Thanks again for your help.

If you really love yourself, you’d keep a journal. Bold statement, I know, but I mean it.

The ultimate act of self-love is self-expression. It is confidently believing that your thoughts, both silly and serious, are worthy of note – no exceptions.

I assume I’m not alone in having spent a childhood and at least half an adolescence sporadically trying to keep a regular journal and failing at it consistently. Even as a little girl, when shame and inhibition should’ve been influencing exactly zero percent of my decisions, the act of keeping a diary filled with my daily thoughts and feelings felt frivolous and embarrassing and I never succeeded at writing more than one or two entries before I gave up.

I was perfectly fine dancing like a fool in the aisles at church or confidently yelling wrong answers out in class, but something about the act of journaling embarrassed me like nothing else could, which doesn’t make any sense, right?

Don’t we usually think of embarrassment as an emotion we only feel in a crowd, an emotion that comes as a direct product of being judged? Why then did the thought of keeping a journal, that was only ever meant for me, embarrass me to the point of giving up for most of my life? Why does the same thought still keep many adults from journaling to this day?

I think it’s because we judge ourselves more harshly than anyone else ever could. In our (at least ideally) merit-based society, we’re taught that the good ideas are worth sharing and the bad ones are worth keeping to ourselves, that the good songs should get on the album and the bad songs should get left on the cutting room floor. Now I’m not arguing that the bad songs should make it onto the album, I’m just saying that you’re never going to write a good song until you write a couple of bad ones. In your journal. Without being embarrassed about it.

We all deserve a place where we can be free to create without fear of judgment from anyone, including ourselves.

A journal is a place to keep all your bad songs, all your embarrassingly terrible love poems and all the mundane details of your day. It’s a place where you show yourself compassion by not holding yourself to a single standard other than production, a place where you make and document and keep and ramble – each word you write, a self-affirmation of your own right to be heard. Your journal can be notebook or a blog or a sketchbook or a bunch of voice memos on your phone – it doesn’t matter.

But whatever form it takes, journaling is a way to get to know the truest, most vulnerable iteration of yourself. It’s scary and intimate and weird but it’s all worth it. So much can be learned by taking the amorphous mush of thoughts and ideas and feelings and memories in your mind and materializing them in any way you can. And so much can be gained. Don’t believe me? Try it. I dare you.

I dare you to keep a journal that you write in every day. I dare you to love yourself one sentence at a time. I dare you to show yourself that your voice is worthy of being heard, even if the only person hearing it is you. I dare you to sit alone in a crowd and applaud for every one of your own bad songs, blissfully indifferent to their destiny to be left on the cutting room floor.

The Sexual Health Research Laboratory at Queen's University is seeking women to participate in important research about perceptions of and preferences for childbirth, especially as they relate to female sexuality. We are currently looking for women over 18 who have never given birth to complete the survey The survey will take approximately 40 minutes, and we are offering entry in a prize draw as a thank you for your participation. All gender identities and sexual orientations welcome! To participate in the survey please visit: https://queensu.fluidsurveys.com/s/childbirthperceptions/ This research project is supervised by Dr. Caroline Pukall (Department of Psychology), and is approved by the Queen’s University General Research Ethics Board. For more information about the Sexual Health Research Lab, please visit: www.sexlab.ca

My friend suggested I cross-post to get a more varied response, so I'm trying that. Hoping to hear any and all opinions on the matter and to discuss them in an open-minded and respectful manner!

-- EDIT: a below commentor suggested "de-stigmatizing" rather than "de-sexualizing" the female nipple, and that is more apt for my intent. I don't mean to say that my intent is to rob female nipples of all powers of sexual arousal, but simply that they be treated the same as male nipples, and not banned from social media sites, beaches, etc.

A few months ago, I did a "Naked Truth Response" to a Trisha Hershberger video, which requires you to be topless to "show your most honest stuff," but angled from the shoulders up so nothing actually shows. The topic was about the disparity between male toplessness (no biggie on Youtube or most public beaches, etc.) vs. female toplessness (ZOMG NIPPLES!! HIDE YO KIDS, HIDE YO WIFE!!). The responses I got were so varied and interesting that I felt inspired to make a new channel devoted purely to making videos topless, but talking about a range of issues from gender and nudism to things that have absolutely nothing to do with nudity, like what it means to be a good person and tips for keeping your new year's resolutions. My intent, as I stated in my channel trailer and the start of my videos, is to present female toplessness in a non-sexual manner so that by repeat exposure, others can lose their impression that female nudity is somehow so very different from male nudity.

!However!

While I have done all these videos while topless (including male and female guests I've had on some of the videos), I have yet to make a video where I don't hold my arm to block the actual site of my nipples. I have several reasons I've been doing this- While there are some videos on Youtube showing female nipples that haven't been removed, there are a great many others that have been removed because someone flagged it as "sexual" and whatever Youtube admins reviewed the flags automatically agreed with the statement without waiting to see if the video actually was sexual, or just featured nudity. Already I've had some of my videos blocked from viewing in certain countries thanks to flagging, even though they have been absolutely non-sexual and have not shown anything naked below the waist.

It's the internet, and doubtless the moment I went full exposure, some bored troll would send the link or a screencap to my religious day-job boss and get me fired. While this is illegal, I'm sure he'd find some other reason to fire me, plus the humiliation and financial hits would be catastrophic.

Alternates like pasties, a censor bar, etc. have already been suggested multiple times, but they don't get away from the main issue: that my intention to de-sexualize female nudity are impaired by this limitation, and it has been claimed by some commentors on my videos that I'm actually doing more harm than help by continuing to perpetuate this disparity by hiding my actual nipples (it's all about the nipples, somehow). Even though I generally have my male friends hide their nipples too, to make it fair :p

So I'm wondering, is there any validity in that, or are such commentors just trying to get me to show all for their own reasons? Should I bear the risk to getting my channel removed and/or getting fired, or keep playing it relatively safe? Do I have to be all-or-nothing to make a dent in this inequality between genders? Thanks in advance for any and all responses! I really want to hear some informed opinions on this!

Hey ladies im not sure if this is the best place to post this but I just need some help. Im in the middle of writing my final paper for my stats class. Its my last class before I can graduate and its my last week of the class. Ive written a literature review before and did just fine but this time im really stressing about it.

Does anyone have any techniques I can use to calm my brain from going a hundred miles a min so I can focus on this paper? Also if anyone has had to write a lit review for stats before that focused on the statistics of the article you wrote about. What advice can you give me. I just feel like im doing it extremely wrong even though i've written a lit review before a couple times and did great.

Please and thank you! :)