Private message to Poppy Pomfrey
Jun. 1st, 2012 11:11 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alt_sinistraPoppy -
Have a moment for a question? If you're not caught up from the chaos earlier this week, this can certainly wait.
My sister Tempest asked me about something about those pamphlets from Wizarding Repopulation. I usually toss them as soon as I get them, but I just got the latest round and had a closer look.
Have you seen their The Reality of Contraceptive Charms and Potions: The Risks You May Not Know? It’s not even the worst of the lot on the surface (that title goes to either Enticing Him To Ask: Getting Your Wizard To Propose for sheer manipulative nastiness, or Don't Let Your Time Turner Run Out!: What Every Witch Needs to Know About Her Internal Clock which includes the line “Fellow witches, the future of the Protectorate lies between our hipbones.” and gets worse from there.)
Anyway, Temp’s question was about their recommendations. They imply that longer-acting charms and potions are less safe, may lead to fertility concerns later, and are also less effective. They suggest the calendaring option, or an as needed potion or charm, but avoiding the commercial preparations entirely (While also intimating that most witches don’t have the skills to handle these things reliably themselves.) What options remain - besides pregnancy - is left as an exercise to the bewildered reader.
But Mum’s always told me that calendaring’s far more useful for those trying to conceive than those trying to avoid it, and that the long-acting or daily charms and potions are both more reliable and less likely to be forgotten in the moment. (As she put it, rummaging for a potion or your wand is easy to put off when you’d rather cuddle in a warm bed.) Though, of course the WRO also implies one should talk to the experts (theirs, preferably), rather than trust one’s family.
Any rate: I’m happy enough with my own choice (the Adsimilis Silphion charm), but Temp’s less comfortable with any charm that doesn’t involve food, so I thought I’d check with you for alternatives. I was going to suggest Madame Selene’s Prophylactic Precaution, and I know some people like the Felicitous Ferula one, too.
I can bring the pamphlet by, but it might be a bit - I’m still working through creating exams. (Oddly, the projections should make for much better exams, but they're more complicated to prep.)
Have a moment for a question? If you're not caught up from the chaos earlier this week, this can certainly wait.
My sister Tempest asked me about something about those pamphlets from Wizarding Repopulation. I usually toss them as soon as I get them, but I just got the latest round and had a closer look.
Have you seen their The Reality of Contraceptive Charms and Potions: The Risks You May Not Know? It’s not even the worst of the lot on the surface (that title goes to either Enticing Him To Ask: Getting Your Wizard To Propose for sheer manipulative nastiness, or Don't Let Your Time Turner Run Out!: What Every Witch Needs to Know About Her Internal Clock which includes the line “Fellow witches, the future of the Protectorate lies between our hipbones.” and gets worse from there.)
Anyway, Temp’s question was about their recommendations. They imply that longer-acting charms and potions are less safe, may lead to fertility concerns later, and are also less effective. They suggest the calendaring option, or an as needed potion or charm, but avoiding the commercial preparations entirely (While also intimating that most witches don’t have the skills to handle these things reliably themselves.) What options remain - besides pregnancy - is left as an exercise to the bewildered reader.
But Mum’s always told me that calendaring’s far more useful for those trying to conceive than those trying to avoid it, and that the long-acting or daily charms and potions are both more reliable and less likely to be forgotten in the moment. (As she put it, rummaging for a potion or your wand is easy to put off when you’d rather cuddle in a warm bed.) Though, of course the WRO also implies one should talk to the experts (theirs, preferably), rather than trust one’s family.
Any rate: I’m happy enough with my own choice (the Adsimilis Silphion charm), but Temp’s less comfortable with any charm that doesn’t involve food, so I thought I’d check with you for alternatives. I was going to suggest Madame Selene’s Prophylactic Precaution, and I know some people like the Felicitous Ferula one, too.
I can bring the pamphlet by, but it might be a bit - I’m still working through creating exams. (Oddly, the projections should make for much better exams, but they're more complicated to prep.)
no subject
Date: 2012-06-02 07:46 pm (UTC)The health section in this one focuses on sound teeth and bones, and on eating well in order to keep one's bodily cycles in top form.
This one does at least mention family planning, recommending natural methods like lunar synchronisation and calendrical plotting. And then it directs those interested to a separate pamphlet called Reproductive Rhythms: Nature's Way.
Unfortunately, they've not included that one for me to distribute.
no subject
Date: 2012-06-02 08:05 pm (UTC)And yes, there's one here about how house-elves and muggleborns of course remove so many of the complications of modern parenthood. I must say, I don't trust that much, even having seen Diane's household in action. And more to the point, is that kind of hands-off approach at all good for the child?
(I admit I've been thinking about the practical issues a bit more the last few months, for what must be obvious reasons. Raz and I are both well aware of the pressure, even while neither of us wants to rush anything.)
Do you - of course, if this crosses one of your oaths, don't worry about replying - but do you get many, boys or girls, asking you questions? Or are we sending them out into the world entirely unprepared, relying only on the Ministry (or their families and friends) for information?
no subject
Date: 2012-06-02 08:59 pm (UTC)I do answer every question I'm asked as clearly and fully as I can. And I have a brief illustrated talk I impose on every young person who comes in with anything vaguely related to their reproductive health.
You must not ever have come to me with monthly complaints or irregularities, if I didn't dispense that information to you. I do see quite a few witches with such issues, and I do my best to equip them with knowledge of how their bodies function (or fail to).
I used to leave out in the waiting area a lovely pair of charmed models of the male and female reproductive systems, along with some short texts on puberty and pregnancy and birth (the latter, I confess, was skillfully tilted towards those details that give young minds pause). I've had to give that up, however, as I was told off for it some time ago.
Do you know, I've long thought that the castle's protections may do a disservice to our young people by allowing them to experiment (as I'm quite certain they do) without incurring the consequences. No wonder so many pregnancies happen shortly after they've left school.
no subject
Date: 2012-06-02 09:14 pm (UTC)I must say I'm more and more grateful to her for being so matter of fact about it. Temp mentioned that so many of her friends don't dare talk to their mothers about that kind of thing. Not in any detail, and especially if it's a relationship that may not be serious. (Except, of course, that Mum hasn't needed the pregnancy prevention precautions for a bit now, and doesn't know the best recent options. That's what older sisters are for.)
On the one hand, I can't blame people. I didn't tell Mum and Dad much about most of my relationships. (Especially Dad. He's sometimes a bit prone to worry.) But then they were all when I was off on research projects, and we both knew they were short-term only, and I was in my 20s by then. But I'd never have hesitated to ask if I needed help.
I do agree on the protections perhaps being a disservice, though I do think Helga was in the right to put them in in the first place. And yet, that isn't the only worry, either - well, given that whole mess with Orion Sandoval, or the students I know Raz sent to you for some further education before the Ball this winter.
no subject
Date: 2012-06-02 09:26 pm (UTC)And, of course, for the ones who are not attracted to the opposite gender, there's the danger that they'll not think they could ask me--for information or counsel or physical concerns--because, somehow, they get it in mind that preventing pregnancy is my only brief when it comes to sexuality. Or perhaps they expect I'll disapprove.
no subject
Date: 2012-06-02 09:41 pm (UTC)One of the slightly older women on the same project, the summer of my first relationship, sat me down and ran through a lot of that, and then more beside. Not just the stuff you need to know, but the things that make the whole experience of sexuality that much more pleasant and enjoyable. (I've been grateful to her - and that first relationship - ever since, mind you. Much better than fumbling through it.)
Though, of course, I suspect that either of us even suggesting at that kind of information would go badly awry here, much as it's actually useful and needful.
On the latter - yes. Gilly and I've talked about it, more than a little. She and her Juniper have been doing their best to quietly chat with people who could use a little info of that kind, as they can. But it's not easy.
And the more so, I suspect, the more pressure there is to have children. In confidence, I might tell you that
Gillya friend of mine's had her own experiences with the WRO there. Got called in not too long ago, and carefully told (this, they don't have pamphlets for) that preferring women to men is no reason she couldn't have a child, and they'd be glad to help coordinate a donor father of suitable background.She found the whole thing distasteful. And they couldn't seem to decide how to handle it - she's a halfblood, but with some skills that they'd clearly like to see if they can encourage in the next generation.