Shhhh Queer Domination in Progress

This is very cool and will have an immediate positive impact for families. Idea very much originated in Finland but great to see it spreading.

Baby boxes contain everything from clothing, nappies/diapers, books, thermometers, baby wraps, muslins, a changing mat, nursing pads, information for new parents, and condoms.

The box itself acts also as a bed for the baby to sleep in.

I'd been living in the US and Germany for over a decade before moving to Scotland in 2018 when I was 30 weeks pregnant, and not settling into a home and getting signed up with a GP until like 35 weeks. I thought there was no way I'd get one, but they made it happen.

I used everything in it SO MUCH. The play mat. The toys. The portable changing kit. The carrying wrap. The clothes. The EAR THERMOMETER (invaluable in 2020, as it turned out). And immediately I had several observations about it:

1. It was a big equalizing and bonding factor between new parents. Almost everyone I saw was using the baby box gear, so there was no visible differentiation between parents with lots of money and parents with very little. We all had the same stuff. And you'd share a smile with fellow parents when you both had your baby in the same outfit or tucked into the same carrier.

2. Seeing charity shops full of those items and realizing no one needed them because everyone with a baby already had their own. This was a real reminder of the success of the program, making sure everyone had what they needed, but I wish I'd had the wherewithal to organize something—since those items don't need to be passed on or handed down within Scotland (since everyone has them), I remember thinking it would be good to collect them up and send them on elsewhere afterwards. Baby gear has so much life still in it after it's used, especially things like play mats and carriers.

3. It made me feel INCREDIBLY welcomed and included. I'd been in Scotland for a handful of months when my baby was born, but I was treated like someone who'd lived here for years. I remember feeling deeply emotional about it. They included a poem in the box which to this day I can't read without BAWLING. It sounds stupid but the poem was one of the most impactful inclusions for me as a newcomer. https://www.nurseryworld.co.uk/media/lnbjz4ok/welcome-wee-one-poem.jpg

@ms-demeanor’s link now goes to a post about exercise as the article has been taken offline, so here’s an archived version:

Please read the article if you need cheap insulin. The insulin at walmart is cheap becuase it is an older formula and harder to use. there are other ways to get your insulin for cheap or even free.

Don’t know about the insurance price but that’s not really relevant here as it varies per agency

and your entire job is to suddenly decide that the nearby employee needs to help you RIGHT NOW with something. anything. get creatively stupid.

ask for help finding something you know good and well is on the other side of the store, ask for help reaching something up high (if you're not super tall), ask for help understanding something trivial

We weren’t allowed to give anyone as much as a handshake. Even if we had family visiting us, if a doctor or nurse came in during that time, and found as much as me (a teenager) hugging my sister, it got treated like I was holding her at gunpoint as a hostage in a bank robbery. My visitation was revoked, I was placed in solitary for a few days I can’t really remember well, and still got set with 24/7 constant monitoring even in the bathroom for a while afterwards.

This nurse was kind enough to just awkwardly and visibly turn away during this time. She always chose this because everyone was Infinitely more comfortable with her showing us she wasn’t watching than the people who would watch us like a hawk and would report if we tried to cover our chests or crotch.

She’d also recognize when someone with an eating disorder just actually couldn’t eat what was expected of us to eat. And she would have snacks and other things for us to eat instead, and wouldn’t punish us if we couldn’t finish our plate.

She got fired. She was accused of being a child predator because the small kids and the teenagers liked the one person who treated them like a human being. There was a criminal investigation that literally led to nowhere because SHE didn’t commit any crime. She was still barred from entering the profession ever again and had to fight to keep it off her permanent records.

The exact thing that got her pushed over the edge? A kid asked for her specifically after they had a bad panic attack