Anna Fahey
Blog Post List
July 16, 2012
This post originally appeared on Sightline Daily . My daughter will turn three this year, and we just enrolled her in preschool! With all our childcare at home to date, we've been lucky to avoid lots of extra running around with the kid. So, no sooner had we signed little Audrey up for preschool than we began to fret about the logistics of getting her to and fro---without royally complicating our lives. It's a bit too far to walk, and since I try to commute as often as possible by bike , it seemed counterproductive to go the few miles by car. What would I do with the car? Drive back home and...
MomsRising
Together
September 19, 2011
This post originally appeared on Sightline Institute's blog . To eat fish, or not? If you're pregnant, nursing, or even thinking about becoming pregnant, it's a Catch-22. Seafood is the best possible source of the long-chain omega-3 fatty acid DHA, which is critical for a baby's brain and eye development, both in utero and in the "fourth trimester," while the baby is nursing and the brain is still developing. But there's a catch: seafood contains contaminants that can be harmful to babies---particularly methylmercury, which can harm the developing nervous system, causing subtle deficits in...
MomsRising
Together
September 12, 2011
My husband Gus and I have been lucky. I'm 36---and therefore considered an "elderly primigravida" on my charts at my doctor's office (that's "pregnant old-timer and first-timer" in layman's terms). I've had a healthy pregnancy---so far---and we avoided the nightmarish saga of infertility that many acquaintances have suffered. But our story, as typical as it sounds, could be becoming a thing of the past---unless we demand better protections from toxic chemicals for our children and ourselves. As the Center for American Progress (CAP) reported recently ( full report here, pdf ), fertility...
MomsRising
Together
August 24, 2011
Cloth or disposable? Sightline researcher Clark wrote about this way back in 2005. I guess it’s a question that our staff, rightfully, agonize over as they’re gearing up for a diapering blitz of their own. Our baby will probably be changed between 3000 and 7000 times in the first two years. For now, still a few months away from my due date, I still get kind of flustered when people ask me my diapering plan; I don’t have one. But I’m reading up. So far, as I weigh cost, health issues, and environmental footprint, cloth is winning out. But, as several new mothers have warned me, I might change...
MomsRising
Together
August 15, 2011
Sandra Steingraber is my hero. Her book, Having Faith: An Ecologist’s Journey to Motherhood , chronicles her own pregnancy from both a scientific and personal perspective. It’s beautifully and lovingly written—yet for a pregnant woman it’s also a tough read. Trained as a biologist, Steingraber meticulously documents the toxic hazards we live with every day, and that threaten each crucial stage of fetal development. It’s not a pretty picture. One point stands out: it’s the fetus, not an adult human, who really lives at the top of the food chain. Rethink all the textbook food chain charts you’...
MomsRising
Together
August 9, 2011
Early in my pregnancy I developed a bloodhound’s sense of smell: even the faintest of odors overwhelmed me. It’s a common phenomenon during the first trimester of pregnancy, yet my new nasal superpower took me by surprise—and forced me into an unwelcome awareness of the pollution that surrounds all of us. Car and truck exhaust, to my unusually acute nose, was pure poison. It made me recoil, hold my breath, gag, choke. My new super-nose could detect the smell all over the place—waiting at the bus stop in my quiet Seattle neighborhood, wafting through 5th floor downtown office windows, even at...
MomsRising
Together