Valentine’s Day 2013: Rise Up Against Violence and Sexual Oppression!

If you missed the San Francisco “Silver Ribbon Campaign” event celebrating the 40th birthday of Roe vs. Wade on January 26, 2013, but wanted to participate in the One Billion Rising Flash Mob, there’s still time! Join women all over the world on Valentine’s Day, Feb. 14, and dance to make a stand against violence towards women. >Click here to learn more!

And, while you’ll have to wait until Valentine’s Day to see the official Flash Mob video from the January 26 event, we found this slide show of the dance on YouTube.

How much do you know about preventing birth defects? (Quiz)

In the U.S., about 1 out of every 3 babies is born with some type of birth defect.  Many of them could have been prevented.  So how much do you know about preventing birth defects?  We figured that we would follow up yesterday’s re-blog of the Go Folic! UK’s post about Vitamin B-12 with this short quiz (it will open in a new window, everyone passes).

Once you’re finished, please share this information with friends and family members, especially those who are trying to become pregnant or could get pregnant.

Initiative launched to urge all UK health authorities + organisations to recognise the potential benefits of B12 @nhsdirect @NHSChoices

Reblogged from Go Folic!:

Spina bifida • Hydrocephalus • Information • Networking • Equality - SHINE is also launching an initiative to urge all UK health authorities and organisations to recognise the potential benefits of B12 and help support the work necessary to optimise the prevention of NTDs.

The author of the report, Professor John Scott, founder of the Vitamin Research Unit at the Institute of Molecular Medicine, Trinity College, Dublin, concludes: …

Read more… 119 more words

This is important news for any woman who might become pregnant and it makes sense, since our bodies require B-12 to process folic acid. And it's one more reason to Go Folic! with a multi-vitamin. The study that this recommendation is based on recommends that women supplement with at least 2.5 mcg of B-12 everyday. Go Folic! Multis, which San Francisco women can get for free from the health department contain 6 mcg. If you don't live in San Francisco, any multivitamin with 100% of the RDA will have this amount.

Join The Silver Ribbon Campaign on January 26 in San Francisco!

We invite you to join us at Justin Herman Plaza on January 26th to celebrate the 40th anniversary of “Roe vs. Wade.” This family-friendly event, which is being organized by the Silver Ribbon Campaign, will feature a flash mob by the Bay Area chapter of Dancing without Borders, a global initiative to end violence and sexual oppression. In addition, there will be speeches, food, face painting, airbrush tattoos and more!

About “Roe vs. Wade”

While most people have heard the term “Roe vs. Wade,” many people don’t know the details. “Roe vs. Wade” is the landmark Supreme Court decision that made abortion legal throughout the United States. At that time, abortion was a matter left to the states, the majority of which had laws making it illegal. The decision stated that Texas state law making abortion illegal during the first and second trimesters was an infringement on the ninth and 14th Amendment rights of woman. Click here to read more about the decision on eHow.com. Or watch this short PBS video:

Sponsors

In addition to the San Francisco Department of Public Health, sponsors include a number of organizations that have supported or worked with Go Folic! including ISIS, Inc. and the California Family Health Council.

Join the Flash Mob!

All women and men who support reproductive freedom are invited to participate in the flash mob. Rehearsals are scheduled throughout the Bay Area, including San Francisco, Oakland, Berkeley, and San Rafael. To learn more, click here. As motivation, we’ll leave you with this video!

January 6-12 is National Folic Acid Awareness Week (NFAAW)!

By taking the B-vitamin folic acid at least three months before pregnancy, women can reduce their risk for having a baby with a neural tube defect (NTD) by 70%. Since half of all pregnancies in the United States are unplanned, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control wants all reproductive-age women to take a daily supplement with at least 400 mcg of this nutrient.

Despite this advice, almost 2/3 of women in the U.S. don’t take a folic acid supplement.   This week was created by the National Council on Folic Acid in order to increasing awareness of the importance of doing just that.

Why ALL Women Need Folic Acid

If you’re not thinking of getting pregnant right now, you might think, “Why do I need folic acid?”  This vitamin plays a crucial role in cell formation and growth, so is important for all women, whether or not they want to get pregnant.  As the above video makes clear, taking a daily multi-vitamin with folic acid:

• Is good for your hair, skin and nails;
• May help to lower your risk for certain cancers;
• Can help your body deal with stress.

Check out “Be Beautiful” and “Be Healthy” on our website for more info.

Go Folic! NFAAW Events

Almost 2/3 of women Go Folic! (a project of the San Francisco Department of Public Health’s Maternal, Child and Adolescent Health Section) is using the week to  celebrating with the following:

• A Multi-Vitamin Give-Away designed to get San Francisco women into the habit of “Going Folic.”  Clients at the Department’s youth clinics, and women registering for San Francisco’s health care access program, Healthy SF, will receive a FREE bottle (3 months supply) of multi-vitamins with 100% of the RDA for folic acid.
• San Francisco women, ages 14-44, can also pick up a free bottle of Go Folic! Multi-Vitamins by coming by the project office.
• A daily blog highlighting pertinent topics throughout the week;
• We will also feature other organizations’ NWAAF activities on our Facebook page and Twitter feed.

Tune in tomorrow to learn how to get the most from your Go Folic! Multis.

Ditch Your Diet! International No Diet Day

Sunday, May 6, was International No Diet Day, an annual celebration of body acceptance and body shape diversity.  As Go Folic! has tried to emphasize over the past two years, the body benefits by joyful movement and by balanced, healthful and pleasurable eating; it is only hurt by attempts at weight loss  (click here to download a paper debunking “the obesity myth”).

In the past week, how many times have you…

• Seen a weight loss ad? 
• Heard a “health expert” talk about the “ills of obesity” with no discussion about the dangerous weight cycling and binge eating that normally result from calorie restriction?
• Engaged in “fat talk” with family or friends? (Do I look fat in this? I was so “bad” yesterday, I ate…)

The messages and negative self-talk are relentless.  They have nothing to do with health. They do, however, support an international diet industry that profits from damaging our self worth and our bodies to the tune of $$60.9 Billion annually in the U.S. alone (PR Web, May 9, 2011). 

How the celebration started

International No Diet Day was created om 1992 by Mary Evans Young, a British feminist who had battled anorexia. During a coffee break, as her companions were debating whether or not to eat a biscuit – “Oh, I’ll just have one”, “I shouldn’t really”, “Oh, all right then” – Evans asked, “What do you think would happen if you spent as much time and energy on your careers as you do on diets?”

A light bulb went off.  A movement was born. 

This post is the first of a week’s worth of discussions about dieting, health, self-esteem and the weight loss industry.   Our schedule is as follows: Thursday – The Case Against Dieting and the Healthy at Every Size ^® Approach; Friday – Celebrating Beauty at Every Size, Young Women Speak Out.

To learn more about International No Diet Day:

•  INDD Facebook Page
• INDD on Wikipedia
• INDD on Twitter: #nodietday

We’ll end our first post of this week with a question, ”What would happen if women refocused the energy we spend on dieting on our careers, our families, and our communities?”

Take the National Teen Pregnancy Prevention Day Quiz (It’s Cute! And Fun!)

Today is National Teen Pregnancy Prevention Day. Every year, the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy creates an interactive game.  This year’s game focuses on prom night. Go to http://www.stayteen.org/quiz to take it online, or to download a print version in English or Spanish.  

Our staff had fun taking it, scoring a range of between 8 -11 (perfect is 12).  Last year, of the 100,000+ youth who took it, 62% said that some of the situations were things they or their friends had faced; 72% said it made them think about what they might do.  The majority said that they would encourage friends to take it.

1 in 3! Why It’s Important

If you’re a teen woman in the U.S., you still have a one-in-three chance of becoming pregnant before your 20th birthday.   That’s too much!  While teen pregnancy rates have dropped 42% since 1990, the U.S. still has one of the highest teen birth rates in the industrialized world. 

We know that women who become moms in their teens can be successful.  But as these young women share on Seventeen Magazine’s National Teen Pregnancy Prevention page, having a baby before you complete your education and have the chance to start a career makes thinks a whole lot harder.  

We also know that most teen pregnancies aren’t planned and that unplanned pregnancies can be risky for mom and baby

For more info…

• The National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy (get a free poster here)
• MTV’s Pregnant & 16 Website
• Stayteen.org - info on teen pregnancy, birth control, STI prevention, and healthy relationships
• Bedsider.org – info on sexuality and sexual health for college-age women
• Follow StayTeen on Twitter

The Folate Flash Mob #HAWCM 11

The Folate Flash Mob – Carolers with a Healthy Twist

We originally posted this video in December 2010.  But when asked as part of the Health Activist Writers Challenge Month to pick a song that represented our health issue, how could we resist? Even though it’s a little “out of season,” it’s really fun.  We wish that we could take credit, but all credit is due the NYC March of Dimes Folate Flash Mob , which entertained holiday shoppers on November 30th, 2010 in NYC’s Greeley Square.  Enjoy!

P.S., The March of Dimes works to reduce birth defects.  For more March of Dimes NYC videos, click here.

Celebrate Your Worth! Letter to Your 16 Year Old Self

Challenge 10 of this year’s Health Activist Writer’s  Challenge Month

Recognize your worth!  
You have so much to give, don’t doubt your gifts.  Don’t allow anyone else to make you doubt them.

Recognize your worth!
Believe in your ability to set and reach goals, to overcome challenges, and to accept help when offered.

Recognize your worth!
Celebrate your body!  Though advertisers and the diet industry would have you believe otherwise (their profits depend on your and other women’s insecurities), beauty comes in all shapes and sizes and the number on the scale is only a number.

Recognize your worth!
Love your body, its curves, its strength, all the things it does for you.  Honor it with healthy eats, rest, movement – all for their own sakes, and for joy of the body rather than in pursuit of some unattainable and unhealthy heroin chic media promoted impossible ideal.

Recognize your worth!
You have the right to and deserve respect, honesty and consideration in relationships – whether with romantic partners, friends and family members.  You have the right to set limits, to express desire and to experience pleasure.

Recognize your worth.
Treat yourself with the same consideration that you would show to the people you love.

With love, not only for myself but for every other woman in my life, as well…

 

Featured YouTube Video: “Safe Sex” A Story of Birth Control Sabotage

When we feature videos, we try to choose media that makes the viewer think about the various issues of today and how information is passed along in this fast-paced social media-oriented world. So check out this video, because this is one of the first music videos we’ve seen about the issue of contraceptive sabotage. 

Researchers who work in the area of relationship violence have found that up to 50% of all unintended pregnancies happen when a male partner messes with his female partner’s birth control.   Some questions – has this happened to you or any of your friends?  How do you think women should deal with this? Do you think this is an effective way to spread information about this issue?  We want to hear your thoughts!