The holiday season is in full force - a time that, at least in theory, should be filled with joy and happiness. But what if you find yourself having feelings that are far from those of joy and happiness? Feelings of hopelessness, agitation, guilt and even lifelessness?

Last week, Lisa Belkin, parenting blogger at The NY Times, wrote about the upcoming 20/20 special on the film "Orgasmic Birth." The topic apparently hit a nerve with many, many people as she quickly received more than 500 comments. Many people, as to be expected, are skeptical. Mir of Woulda Coulda Shoulda had the most humorous response I read to the idea. As soon as I

I have to admit: when I first saw that 20/20 is going to feature a documentary on orgasm during childbirth, I rolled my eyes. Waaaay back in my head.

This morning President-elect Barack Obama reaffirmed his strong commitment to health care reform. The United States Breastfeeding Committee (USBC) believes that breastfeeding is an "essential public health issue" and should be a high priority for the incoming administration. In light of this, the USBC has created a petition urging President-elect Obama to make breastfeeding a high priority.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: the blogging community can be a lifesaving resource for new moms (and soon-to-be-moms and been-there-done-that moms and everyone in between and beyond.) That's my Internet - a community of caring peers who are always there to provided support and caring and practical help. But what about the Internet that stood by and watched a young man broadcast his suicide on YouTube? What is it that separates the nurturing Internets from the ones that scream 'jump! jump!' at a young man on a virtual ledge?

Over at BlogHers Act Canada, we usually focus on two broad sets of issues: the environment and family health. This week, one of our writers opened up a discussion on something that has nothing to do with saving trees or cutting carbon emissions, and that is only tangentially related to health, but something that nonetheless demanded attention for the simple reason that we're women. And for women, the issue of hatred directed violently toward women always deserves and demands our attention.

Mid-way through my pregnancy with my first child, my doctor sat me down and said this: "I want you to promise me that you WILL NOT DIAGNOSE YOURSELF THROUGH GOOGLE.""Okay," I said, pulling one hand behind my back and crossing my fingers. "I won't Google.""And you won't do ANY internet research on issues that you are worrying about. You will call ME, or you will call Motherisk.""Yep." Fingers still crossed behind my back.

If there's a time of the year during which it's hard to be green, this would be it: the holiday season is a season of consumption. There's just no getting around it: regardless of what winter holiday you celebrate, you invariably spend December (and, if we include Thanksgiving, November) (and if you're Canadian, October) eating and drinking and shopping and eating and drinking and eating and did I mention eating? And odds are that you're not sticking to your locavore diet (because, my god: eggnog without rum?), and not restricting your shopping list to locally made goods.

I am so glad that Michael Barone finally explained this all to me, because I really wasn't sure why I disliked Sarah Palin so much. Apparently, I just resented her for having had a baby that I - being a pro-choice zealot and all - would have aborted. Maybe if she'd been more willing to kill her baby, I would have liked her more. Because, you know, I just can't trust any woman who would pass up the opportunity to terminate a pregnancy. Terminating pregnancies is AWESOME.

Yesterday was - how do I say this without risking profound understatement?

The other week, when John McCain got all dismissive about women's health during the presidential debate and kept waving his fingers around making sarcastic air quotes - or, as Jon Stewart correctly referred to them last night on The Daily Show, "dick fingers" - I thought that my head was going blow off. "Women" use "health" as an excuse to get abortions? This is something that the "extreme pro-abortion movement" uses as a ploy to promote abortion? "HEALTH"?

Consumer Reports isn't just for researching your next car purchase or washing machine anymore. That's right, that longtime resource for product reviews has broadened its scope to include health and wellness. In a recent article Consumer Reports tackles the topic of childbirth, concluding that "Too many doctors and hospitals are overusing high-tech procedures."