April 2012
6 posts
Nipple Fact-of-the-Day: Bumpy nipples smell good. At least if you’re a baby.
Ever wonder why areolas, the dark area around the nipple, have little bumps? So have scientists. And when scientists wonder something, they get to finding out.
Turns out that the bumps might have something to do with helping newborns smell their way towards their mother’s breast milk. New mothers with more bumps started producing milk sooner and their babies gained weight faster. They also found that scent of secretions from these bumps encouraged newborn feeding behaviors like sucking and licking. Bodies are cool!
via newscientist.com
I want to get an IUD through you guys, but I don't have any insurance. Is it going to be expensive?
Yay, we’re answering our first question on Tumblr! Thanks for sending it, and thanks for wanting to get your IUD through us guys!
The first thing I want to say — and I know you probably already know this, but just for everyone’s benefit — while IUDs may cost more than say, a single pack of pills, they also last for up to 12 years. So when you spread the costs out over time, the IUD is actually one of the most affordable birth control options out there. Not to mention one of the most effective. So there are a lot of reasons that so many ladies (and their partners) love their IUDs.
But, yeah, paying a lot of money up front vs spread out over time is harder for most people. Hence your question.
The good news is: Planned Parenthood works really hard make health care accessible and affordable for everyone. To that end, some Planned Parenthood health centers are able to charge according to income. If you qualify, Medicaid and other state programs could help lower the cost for you. And some health centers may be able to connect you with payment plan options for IUDs, so you wouldn’t have to pay for the whole thing at once. But those programs vary, so we won’t be able to give you all the details here — the staff at your local Planned Parenthood health center (click here to find your nearest Planned Parenthood) will be able to talk with you about costs and payment for your specific situation.
Hope this helped. And again, thanks for being our first answer on this here newfangled contraption!
- Mary @ PPFA
Can your phone help you not get pregnant? Why, yes it can!
Cell phones are great! They always know what time it is. Sometimes they bring us sweet messages from our friends and more-than-friends. And if they’re smart enough, they can even give us directions to the nearest teriyaki joint.
Yep, cell phones are pretty rad. So rad that researchers conducted a little experiment to see if regular ol’ text messages could help women remember to take their daily birth control pill. Turns out they can: 84% of women took their birth control within an hour of getting the text reminder. Of course, you don’t need to be part of some fancy research project to use technology to help you remember your birth control. Set up your phone’s alarm, calendar, or reminder features with a message to take your pill, change your patch, or remove your ring.
Planned Parenthood is on Tumblr!
Planned Parenthood is excited to be launching our new Tumblr that’s all about sexual and reproductive health – bodies, birth control, relationship issues, “is it normal for this to do this?” type things. In the coming weeks and months we’ll be sharing what we know, answering questions, and just… tumblring.
We hope you like it! And we hope it helps.
