"Looking beyond the headlines."
Vol 5, Issue 2: February 2025
Welcome back to the Lighthouse! We’ve started seeing the first glimmers of Spring here in Sheboygan, with bouts of rain melting away the thick blanket of snow that had just been thrown down. I’ve been hearing (and occasionally seeing) more birds outside in the morning, as well as seeing squirrels start to dig for what they buried in the yard in the Fall, which has provided me with a welcome reminder to ground myself in the interconnected world around me.
As we close out another Black History Month, there have again been bountiful resources, essays, recommendations, and more being created and shared about this important remembering, even in face of bogus “anti-DEI” efforts that desperately want us to forget, forget, forget. The Black Film Archive by Maya S. Cade shared another curated list of 28 Films for the 28 Days of Black History Month, which is a wonderful way to dip into the archive if you haven’t before. The 19th asked Black writers to share Black literature recommendations that they felt were timely to return to (some of which I’d heard of before but many more that I had not!). Reclamation Ventures’ 28 Days of Black History came back this year as well, but if you missed it, the entire archive is available.
On the public health front, the winter COVID surge is finally starting to slow a bit, although flu levels are still high. The People’s CDC has an updated 2025 version of their Safer Gatherings guide, which can be viewed online or downloaded as a PDF. While earlier versions were originally geared towards COVID, they do call out that these measures are also helpful in preventing the spread of, “influenza, RSV, and other aerosol-transmitted infectious diseases.” Given what’s been happening in the government here, we need to put “we take care of us” into action more than ever.
Now, onto the newsletter!
Seven reasons to question headlines about the benefits of epidural
“We’ve seen this before, with studies like the ARRIVE Trial. In that situation, the nuances of possible bias may not even be relevant. But I have detailed several of these issues in the hope of helping more people understand the importance of unpacking research, asking questions, and looking beyond the headlines.”
Earlier in 2024, media was abuzz over a new new study in the British Medical Journal, touting headlines such as, “Epidurals Could Decrease Severe Birth Complications By More Than A Third, New Study Says,” and “Epidural in labour can reduce risk of serious complications by 35%, study finds.” Many underlined the conclusion of the study’s authors, indicating that expanding access to epidural analgesia for all laboring people could improve maternal health overall, a much-needed change in the face of worsening maternal health crisis here in the U.S. And a reduction of 35% certainly doesn’t sound insubstantial. But are the headlines accurate?
Before you read the main article I’m linking to here, I’d recommend reading one or two of the articles that originally reported on the study. The way they present the data is compelling, often showing graphs from the study that seem to support the conclusions that the news articles echo. But as author, speaker, researcher, and retired midwife Dr. Sara Wickham explores in her post about this study, the coverage was misleading. She reviews what the data actually shows and explains how various aspects of how the study was conducted, what data were used, what information was left out, and more all make their conclusion questionable. But if you’d only seen the headlines or news stories about it (and especially if you, like most of us, don’t have a background in research to review the study critically yourself), how would you know?
Unfortunately, reporting on science news often runs into this problem, where the people writing the headlines and articles may either misrepresent what a study says or uncritically share what the study authors say without checking their methods, data, conflicts of interest, assumptions, etc. Instead of offering a critical analysis, you’ll often just get a reader-friendly version of whatever the study authors said, taking them at their word that what they’re saying is accurate. It’s why so many readers (myself included!) appreciate the work that people like Dr. Sara Wickham and Ragen Chastain do to provide that analysis, which often reveals a broader truth: science is not an objective truth and science is itself a tool that can be used in biased ways.
That isn’t to say that science is never helpful — quite the opposite! But in trying to boil down what scientists are concluding based on their often-complex research into bite-sized reader nuggets for an audience whose attention is increasingly competed for, we can lose out on thoughtful engagement with what we’re being presented with and instead take it unquestioningly as fact. The potential repercussions of this are plentiful, but I want to highlight one particular point that Dr. Wickham makes in her own conclusion: “The reason that women who are older, larger, and/or darker-skinned have more problems in some situations has more to do with the way they are treated in systems of health care than because of anything to do with their bodies. It’s racism, sizeism, agism and misogyny that are the real problems here.”1 These systems of oppression are deeply entrenched, so much so that they affect scientific research in ways that can be hard to spot. But that’s all the more reason to bring them to the forefront and address them — to better our research capabilities and to address the root cause of health disparities in pregnancy, birth, and beyond.
See also: Common Sense Education (from the same people behind Common Sense Media) offers a lesson plan to help students in grades 8-12, “help students approach what they’re seeing in the media with a skeptical lens.” For more information on epidurals and other pain management options for labor, Henci Goer’s book Labor Pain: What’s Your Best Strategy? is a great resource for helping you make an informed decision based on your situation, values, and desires.
What's Happening at Lakeshore Liberation?
Nothing new to share at this time!
What’s Going on in Reproductive Justice
The 4th Annual Moms Mental Health Initiative Summer Social is scheduled for May 31st in Milwaukee. This fundraising event will help them raise money for their programs and offerings that support perinatal mental health, but it’ll also be a fun gathering for parents and kids alike!
Nicola Salmon of Fat Positive Fertility has a free resource guide for fat people who are trying to get pregnant and want — as the name suggests — non-stigmatizing, fat positive tools. Did I mention it’s all accessible for free? And on a similar note, Big Fat Pregnancy has a guide available to download to help folks find size-inclusive pregnancy healthcare providers. You can get the PDF guide for $10.
ProPublica’s investigative journalism team has done a first-of-its-kind analysis looking at what impact Texas’ abortion ban has had on people experiencing pregnancy loss, which revealed a sepsis rate increase from 2.9% to 4.9% — an over 50% jump. As their reporting shows, the rate is also markedly higher in cases where a fetal heartbeat may still be present at the time someone is admitted to the hospital, indicating that doctors are afraid to treat people experiencing pregnancy loss (in ways that would help prevent sepsis) until they no longer fear prosecution under the draconian ban.
Lauren Barton’s op-ed in TeenVogue provides another angle on the debate around the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA): homeschooling. It can be hard enough for homeschooled kids in controlling and/or abusive environments to get access to outside information and resources, and KOSA could be used to further disconnect them from vital information and spaces, like comprehensive sex education and queer/trans community.
What’s Going on in Wisconsin
The (intentional) confusion caused by anti-trans executive orders has already hit one of Wisconsin’s two dedicated pediatric gender clinics, although thankfully they reversed course for the time being. But the Wisconsin GOP is already pushing a bill that would ban gender-affirming care for minors, citing the UK’s ban as part of their reasoning. As these attacks continue, maybe we could learn from trans kids across the pond…
The Trump administration is trying to fast-track projects like Enbridge's Line 5. For more information on the continuing efforts by the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa to stop this, check out the Stop Line 5 website and the Oil & Water Don’t mix website for resources and ways to take action.
What I've Been Reading
A great reminder from Janus Rose’s article on 404 Media: You Can’t Post Your Way Out of Fascism.
And another timely reminder (albeit, in an article from 2021) from InTheseTimes: There Are No Mass Migrations Without U.S. Meddling and Militarism.
I didn’t watch the Super Bowl, which isn’t unusual for me — I’m pretty sure I’ve only seen one once, and that was around a decade ago. And aside from the incredible halftime show, I didn’t hear much about it. Turns out, one of the companies that I’ve been seeing so many gross, anti-fat commercials from paid a ton of money to get a Super Bowl ad that openly co-opts the language of fat liberation to…sell weight loss drugs. 🙃
What I'm Watching
We had a chance to watch Sing Sing recently, and it was so good. Beautiful performances by all and intensely emotional, we both found it to be a powerful film (especially the last 15 minutes or so, oh my god).
On the comedy side of movies, we also finally watched Bottoms! It was hilarious and much more absurd than I expected, but in a way we both thoroughly enjoyed. I fully get the hype so many people had for it!
What I'm Listening To
Death Panel unlocked one of their recent Patreon-only episodes called Covid Year Five, which is a true gift to us all. At the end of each year, they do a long-form episode where they, “[take] a look back at the last year in the ongoing social and political consequences of normalizing the covid pandemic and rushing to bring the federal covid response to a close.” As always, their discussion and analysis is brilliant, informative, and insightful, although I do understand that not everyone has time for a 4+ hours long podcast episode. I personally tend to listen to podcasts on a faster speed, which makes it take less time to get through, but they also have a full transcript if you’d prefer to read through it.
Outward’s latest episode is a great conversation between host Bryan Lowder and author Nico Lang about how “protect the children” sentiment is used to push anti-trans legislation of all kinds.
Places to Donate To & Actions to Take
All-Options has been providing support to people regarding their pregnancies, parenting, abortions, and adoptions for 20 years, but now they’re at risk of closing due to lack of adequate funding. As they figure out where to go from here, our donations are more important than ever to keep them sustained!
Crips for eSims for Gaza is still going strong, but it needs sustained donations in order to keep going as multiple factors have put them negative. Any amount you can send helps!
Questions? Comments? Suggestions?
Feel free to share them below or contact me directly.
Emphasis mine.