experience

Pregnant and Depressed: What You Need to Know

You may have heard of postpartum depression (when you get depressed after pregnancy), but we don’t really hear much about how to handle being pregnant if you came to it already depressed. Educator Leslie Masicotte takes a deep dive into some considerations for pregnancy, birth, and early parenting if you have depression.

Birth Doulas: Reclaiming the Birth Experience

Some folks decide that during birth they want a partner to be present; others want a different family member – be they blood relative or chosen family – or someone else entirely to accompany them. Birth doulas can be a great option if you are looking for some additional support, especially around the emotional aspects of labor and childbirth.

How to Care for Friends Who've Experienced Trauma

It’s likely that you will or already do know someone who will experience or has experienced trauma of some form. As friends, it’s important that we understand the responsibilities and limitations of our role, so we can best support our friends who are survivors and maintain our boundaries. Has someone disclosed to you a traumatic experience they’ve had? How can you best support that person and yourself? Here’s some information about trauma, the role of friends, and what it means to really support survivors.

Hi, Bi Guy: Dating Guys For The First Time

If you’re a bisexual guy and you haven’t been with other guys yet, the idea might seem a little daunting, for a number of reasons. The reality doesn’t have to be so tricky, however, despite the worries you might have.

My One and Only

The number of people you choose to sleep with isn’t the crux of sexual liberation. People who choose to have sex with fewer (or no) people shouldn’t be ashamed, and neither should people who choose to have multiple partners. It’s all about the choice - having the agency to sleep with as many or as few people as you please. It doesn’t make you naïve or boring or a slut or a whore; it’s just a choice that you’ve made, and that in itself is sexually liberating.

A Sexual Miseducation

Sex positivity should have given me the courage to ask for what I wanted. Instead, I thought it meant accepting what I got.

The Unholy Din of First Dates for Someone With Autism (And How To Avoid It)

The options for people on the Autism spectrum looking to go out on a date are few.  This lack of options can help to compound problems people on the Autism spectrum already have with dating. Navigating social hurdles, like avoiding over-talking, while being on a date is, on its own, a plenty daunting prospect. Realizing that the options for a backdrop to a date are exceedingly limited is just adding salt to the wounds. Together, these challenges can make a person feel like the prospect of going out on a date at all is far more trouble than it’s worth.

Embracing Newbiehood: How to Approach Dating and Sex in Your 20s With Little or No Experience

It can feel like the world will end if you haven’t had sex or a sexual or romantic relationship by your mid-twenties. There are countless ways in which our culture puts pressure on young people to gain experience in romantic and sexual relationships. But truthfully, if you don’t have much, or even any, experience with dating and sex, you are not doomed to never experience romantic and sexual connection. The world also will not end.

How do I ask for lube?

Anonymous asks:
It's been a bit since my long-term boyfriend and I (girl) broke up, and I think I'm ready to start dating. The problem is that even though I love sex, I have trouble staying wet enough on my own that penetration doesn't feel uncomfortable. We sometimes used lube, but it was hardly a *sexy* aspect of the sex....