Caregiving Crisis: Angry Mom Summer
It's summer! We're melting - emotionally and physically! Everything is a mess! š”āļøš±šļøš¤¬
This issue is sponsored by CareForce: the driving force in reimagining how we care. Bringing together builders, storytellers, funders and leaders to create the infrastructure of care we all need for the 21st century. Learn more.
Hey everyone,
Itās already been a month since Roe was overturned, so Iām declaring it: welcome to Angry Mom Summer. Last year, it was Tired Mom Summer. This year weāre (still) exhausted but now we get to be angry1 too.
Women are losing their rights, lack of child and elder care is still keeping women out of the labor force, women of color are falling further behind in the job market, and states are looking at further restricting abortion rights ie it could get worse. All eyes are on Kansas, the ābullās eyeā in the U.S. fight on reproductive rights, per the NYT. Its constitution protects abortion, but on Aug. 2 voters will decide on an amendment that would allow legislators to ban or further restrict the procedure. Itās a big one to watch. Kentucky has a similar amendment in November, while California and Vermont have measures to protect abortion.
It's like whack-a-mole of awfulness lately. Now is the time to get fired up and rise up.
As we head out on Angry Mom Summer, I want to share the story of Erin Fults, a staff neuropsychologist at Hackensack Meridian Health network in New Jersey. She and her colleagues have been channeling their anger in the past week after their caregiving infrastructure suddenly changed.
To set the stage: Erinās not-quite-one-year-old Max has been at her hospitalās on-site childcare since her return from maternity leave. His care is discounted, the hours jibe with her schedule and she is able to visit him every day. Countless other colleagues also depend on this care.
But last week the network of 17 hospitals, one of the stateās largest employers, announced it was permanently closing its on-site care centers as of Sept. 30. A memo said it was "no longer a sustainable model" due to the "current child care landscape" and "financial and staffing pressures." Frustrated employees, parents and non-parents alike, kicked into action by writing executives and taking to social media. Their Change.org petition is nearing 10,000 signatures.
The anger was heard. A week later, the network said it would delay the closure until December and it plans to ācontinue to evaluate any and all options for a permanent solution.ā
Erin and her colleagues are relievedā¦for a bit. But theyāre still fighting. And also trying to line up care at a time when itās expensive and scarce. We were rage-messaging and decided to do a Q&AĀ to show the toll of these decisions and this very real caregiving crisis for Erin and her colleagues. Here's our edited Q&A.
CC - Youāve used this care center since returning from maternity leave in February. What has it meant for you and your ability to work?
EF - Having the on-site childcare center has meant so much. It saved me time and stress when I was pregnant. I felt secure knowing I had care lined up rather than rushing around getting on waitlists at the moment of conception. A nice job perk! My colleague turned down higher-paid positions to take her role because of the daycare. (She returns to work in five weeks and is now scrambling.) Coming back was tough but I knew I was next door and could breastfeed him and visit whenever I needed. This also supported continuation of breastfeeding, which I never could have done somewhere else. The center helps me to be better at my job. I am more focused and present at work because I know my baby is in a nearby, nurturing environment. I can compartmentalize āwork meā and āmom me.ā My patients ultimately benefit from having a doctor who can offer her full attention and extra time (since Iām not rushing out at the end of the day before daycare closes or to make a long commute). Ā
CC - What was your reaction when you heard the center was closing? How are you and your colleagues responding?
EF - First shock. Then devastation. The best word I can use now is HEARTBREAKING. My heart feels broken for my child, who was comfortable there, and who now, just as heās entering that separation anxiety stage is going to be ripped from familiar faces. My heart feels broken for myself and my spouse, as we are rushing to join waitlists and throw down deposit money on places sight unseen. And my heart is especially broken for the childcare employees. They have been there for years and worked through a pandemic, considered as āessential employeesā and āfrontline heroesā (we all have car magnets from the hospital to remind us), and now theyāre suddenly expendable? Itās more than a job for them. They love these kids and their coworkers. What surprised me most was the response from my colleagues. I had an outpouring of support and anger from my amazing boss and coworkers. Many of them had used the same childcare program years ago. But just as many donāt have kids in the centers and theyāre still angry. Or they were hoping to plan their own families around this benefit. Many healthcare workers have had lower morale since the pandemic, and this just felt like another message from hospital executives that we are expendable.
CC - What are you going to do now in terms of lining up care? How do you mix in this new labor load with all you do each day?
EF - I wish I knew. I feel stuck. Weāre on some waitlists, but weāre told spring and summer 2023. Iām depleted of energy from the emotional toll this has taken, and Iām trying to summon my cognitive energy to place calls, organize information, and make plans. My schedule is booked seeing patients all day and itās hard to find time. My amazing friends, also scrambling for care, are calling around for me too. I go home and donāt feel like Iāve been fully present with my son, because Iām checking my phone, filling out ācontact usā forms, and Googling daycares (and firing off emails to hospital higher ups when the mood strikes). Itās only been a few days and I know Iām not as focused or efficient at work. So, clearly there are already costs to both āmom meā and āwork me.ā
CC - As a full-time working parent, how important is it for you to have employers support your caregiving infrastructure?
EF - I will admit I hadnāt thought a lot about the caregiving infrastructure before being a part of it. I knew it was important and that caregivers and teachers are underpaid for the vital work they do. I didnāt know about the services when I took my job, but for my doctorate degree and my career, Iāve been so focused on each academic and professional step. Then I finally felt like I could shift into family planning mode. Iāve always been proud to work in hospitals because I like the infrastructure, and I felt supported and valued as an employee when I found out about the on-site daycares. (How is childcare not something supported by more employers?? Or this country??) Now knowing the immense benefit and security that comes from employer-affiliated daycare (and the horror of having it threatened), I am even more passionate about this issue.
CC - Tell us how you feel in gif form.
Thank you to Erin for sharing her story. šLove how you and your colleagues are turning your anger into change! Wishing for positive outcomes for all.
Go forth and have that Angry Mom Summer2. Get fired up. Weāve got midterms in the fall. Thanks for being here. PleaseĀ message with your thoughts for future issues. Weāre skipping August because Angry Mom Summer. Our next issue is September 30th. See you then.
What To Do About the Caregiving Crisis This Week And Every Week Forever
ACTIVISM/KNOWLEDGE WATCH: ROUNDUP āĀ Weāre skipping the news roundup this issue and cutting right to the chase to talk about things you can do to advocate for yourself, for others, for all, in this time:
Get the word out about abortion access, including the option of self-managed abortion pills via telehealth, says Amy Merrill, co-founder of the information campaign Plan C. āIt is still possible to access safe, self-managed abortion no matter what state you live in,ā Merrill told CareForce on its call the day of the ruling. The groupās website includes a guide to access for all 50 states, help lines, including a legal hotline.
Order pills in advance. Merrill says AidAccess.org is doing advance provision and we should normalize having the pills in medicine cabinets.
Donate to funds to send pills to those in need. The Womenās Reproductive Rights Assistance Project helps bridge the gap for people who need monetary help in seeking an abortion.
Normalize pregnancy testing. COVID testing is normalized, Eve Rodsky3 points out, so why canāt we normalize pregnancy testing? Frequent testing means people can access abortion pills in time. (The pills work up to 12 weeks pregnant.)
Participate in marches & actions - https://map.wewontgoback.com
Join the movement at shoutyourabortion.com and plancpills.org/ambassadors.
For medical and legal support use and share mahotline.org & reprohelpline.org.
Help elect representatives who actually represent us. Check out and consider donating to Vote Mama, a first-of-its-kind PAC that endorses and supports Democratic women running for all levels of government to normalize moms running and to get more in office.
Bottom line: We can do this.
And we have to do this, because whatās ahead does not look great.
š®LETāS LOOK INTO A CRYSTAL BALL OF POST-ROE AMERICAā Thereās a dizzying amount of headlines looking at all the ways life will change and for whom in the post-Roe era. Here are some ways this decision will affect society:
HEALTHCARE ā Women face huge risk as the healthcare landscape changes. Maternity care deserts are now a real thing. States that are banning or are poised to several limit abortion already "tend to have limited access to health care, poor health outcomes and fewer safety net programs in place for mothers and children," Axios reports.
Women are being denied life-saving pregnancy care for miscarriages and ectopic pregnancies, which are now being scrutinized by doctors and lawyers. (Washington Post)
The U.S. already has the highest maternal mortality rate of any developed country, especially for women of color, and advocates and researchers say it will likely get worse, NBC reports.
A total ban on abortion could increase pregnancy-related deaths up to 21% overall and up to 33% for Black women, per a University of Colorado study done in 2021.
Pregnant people will turn to alternative methods for abortion and risk their safety. See whatās happening in the Philippines, where abortion is illegal.
Even medicine for people who are not pregnant is now hard to get. People suffering from lupus, arthritis and long COVID are struggling to access methotrexate rx because it is an "abortifacient."
ECONOMIC ā More people and children in poverty, with less of a chance to break the cycle from generation to generation.
Studies of women before and after Roe V. Wade was implemented showed "profound impacts" that legalizing abortion allowed women "to obtain more education, to enter more professional careers, to avoid poverty," and this benefited the children they parented later, Caitlin Myers, an economist at Middlebury College told NPR. She led a group of over 150 economists that filed an amicus brief about these effects to SCOTUS ahead of the decision.
"I see economic security chaos, legal chaos, fear, betrayal." ā Leila Abolfazli, director of federal reproductive rights at the National Women's Law Center told Fortune.
CHILDREN ā The U.S.' already "underfunded and overstressed" foster care system could face new pressures. And donāt worry - the advocates who fought to overturn abortion have no unified strategy for how to help families, NBC reports.š
Axios reports there are about 424,000 children in foster care on any given day, and they face: "shortages of placements, low high school graduation rates, and disproportionately high rates of incarceration and homelessness."
Women who are likely lower income and of color, and without access to abortion, could turn their children over to foster care years after birth due to the cost and stresses of raising more kids. āTheir children will languish in the system, and the cycle will continue,ā said Stacey Reynolds, a former longtime board member for the National Council for Adoption.
Despite what Justice Samuel Alito wrote for the majority that adoption is an alternative to abortion, experts don't expect adoptions to rise because few women want to do them for "powerful emotional reasons," the Washington Post says.
ROE-DEFEATING JUSTICES MAY NOT BE ABLE TO DINE OUT ā It might be really hard for them to do anything other than hit up the Sonic drive-thru for half-price cherry limeades!!! šæ
Brett Kavanaugh couldnāt stay long enough to order dessert at Mortonās Steakhouse in DC because of protestors, and itās unlikely to be a one-time thing. Activists are offering payment to restaurant workers who tip them off about any of the six justices who voted to overturn Roe, Washington Post reports.
Morton's is telling managers around the country to prepare for a "massive wave...of negative response," per Politico, including callers tying up phone lines and people making fake reservations.
āThere is a time and place for everything. Disturbing the dinner of all of our customers was an act of selfishness and void of decency,ā Mortonās told Politico after the Kavanaugh incident.
MEDIA COVERAGE ā Expect to see more stories about rape and rape victims, and people who travel to get abortions. And with it more media scrutiny because A) these stories will travel fast, B) be lightning rods for both sidesā¦ and C) likely have few corroborating sources initially to keep up with punditry.
The story of the 10-year-old from Ohio who went to Indiana for an abortion made it into Joe Biden's talking points and drew criticism from a āFact Checkā column in the Washington Post and a (scathing) editorial from the WSJ because the only source was the (female) Indiana doctor who treated the girl. Yes! Letās not believe women! Someone has since been charged so now thereās more sources and the papers were like OOPS. Here's a great Twitter thread by Sarah Peck, CEO and podcast host of Startup Parent, that shows why this type of journalism questioning this coverage is so terrible.
Journalists verify stories by having multiple sources, but in this case the victim's age and the lack of court records made it difficult. Will American journalism be ready for this change, writes Laura Hazard Owen in Nieman Lab? "If performing or receiving an abortion now counts as activism, well, then journalists will need to be okay quoting āactivists,ā unless they only want to tell the anti-abortion movementās side."
DEBATES ABOUT PREGNANT PEOPLE IN HOV LANES ā New folk hero Brandy Bottone says if the law says her fetus is a person then she can drive in the HOV lane in Texas. Sheās fighting her ticket. She seems pretty apolitical in this video, saying sheās done this before with other pregnancies. But we love it and weāll take it.
Bottom line: To all of it.
Signing off
Thanks, as always, for reading. PleaseĀ sendĀ feedback, what youāre seeing in the crystal ball, HOV secrets, and your dining wishes for SCOTUS. If you found value in Caregiving Crisis, please share with a friend. See you soon.
This issue is sponsored by CareForce: the driving force in reimagining how we care. Bringing together builders, storytellers, funders and leaders to create the infrastructure of care we all need for the 21st century. Learn more.
Caregiving CrisisĀ is a newsletter written by Emily Fredrix Goodman. We aim to publish monthly but other things may get in the way.
This is a footnote for the gif but you canāt do footnotes for the gif. Erin, who youāll meet in a moment, was going to use this gif to describe her anger because the girl reminds her of her sister. She chose something else, and I chose this one. It was gifsmet!!
This is a summer-related footnote so Iāll put it here. In last yearās Tired Mom Summer issue I confessed to not wearing shorts. Just not my taste. I have never gotten so much feedback. So many people pro, and so many against. Well, I must share that this summer, I *am* wearing shorts. Sometimes. I know! Itās CRAZY. I did a mystery clothes box from Universal Standard. They sent me their āswim shortsā and because I paid for them without realizing it, well I tried them on. Reader, I liked the shorts. WHO KNEW. This is probably the extent of my personal growth for awhile. Donāt worry. SHORTS!!
Content rec for the summer - Eveās best-selling āFair Playā book is now a documentary and you need to see it and feel seen! You can stream it everywhere.