A Brief Note On Open Oneself Is A Poor Woman 's Trouble : Embodied Inequality And Childbirth

This means recognizing each woman’s social, emotional, physical, spiritual and cultural needs. It also acknowledge that a woman and her newborn baby does not exist independently of the woman’s social and emotional environment. This includes incorporating an understanding in assessment and provision of health care (Yanti et al., 2015). The fundamental principles of women-centred care ensures a focus on pregnancy and childbirth as the start of family life, not just as isolated clinical episodes. These motherhood phases take into complete account the meaning and the values of each woman. Providing women centred care helps women make an informed choices, being involved in and having control over their own care, this also includes their relationship with their midwives (Johnson et al., 2003). This demonstrates that midwives are able to attend for women during pregnancy, childbirth and in early parenting years. In addition to this, midwives also provide education for women in order to have a healthy lifestyle (Woods et al.,

Although the security of Australia is grateful, the social inclusion was disregarded. (In text) described the lack of interpreting services in Australian hospitals and an absence of personal and communal care impacted on their experiences giving birth. Frequently, normal births became confusing or difficult for the midwife to manage, and with a language barrier it can become exacerbated due to stress of the women. (In text) have researched in responses from the women’s culture can vary from healthcare to healthcare professionals, with younger women displaying preparedness to report and identify discrimination. They believe the problems lie within the health care, coupled with the inability of women who require attention, not within the healthcare system itself, but more likely individual social attitudes which are the women’s rights to be treated (in text). Stress, depression, hopelessness and feelings of hostility can play a part from the language barriers. Without understanding each other the midwife and women would not achieve a good professional relationship. Without the rapport, labour and birth is compromised by the frustrations on the midwife and women due to the language barrier. This compromised by the lack of verbal

Receiving good prenatal care is extremely important for an expecting mother. The prenatal period has a great impact on the newborn's health. Low birth weight is a problem among a certain population of newborns. It is crucial to understand the conditions in poverty and its

In the United States, the process of childbirth is far more dangerous for African American women than it is for White women. For African American women, the path to a healthy birth is riddled with barriers. There are many health disparities between the two races. African American women face much higher low-birth and infant mortality rates; the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has published that although infant mortality rates in the U.S. have dropped by over 10% in the past ten years, a large gap continues to exist between the health of the races during the entire childbirth process. (World Health Organization, 2010) In the United States, Black infants are more than twice as likely to die within the first year of life as a White infant, and this disparity has not seen advancements in the last century. Many of these deaths can be attributed to low birth weight, and preterm birth among black infants.

For hundred of years, women have wrestled with their womanhood, bodies, and what it means to be a woman in our society. Being a woman comes with a wonderful and empowering responsibility--giving birth. What sets us aside from other countries is that the process and expectations of giving birth has changed in our society; coming from midwifery, as it has always been since the early times, to hospitals where it is now expected to give birth at. Midwifery was a common practice in delivering babies in

Watson and Mason’s article, “Power of the first Hour” and Risworth, et al.’s article “I was on the way to the Hospital but I Delivered in the Bush” both focus on aspects of maternal and infant care and demonstrate the fundamental differences between western policies enacted to improve women’s lives in developing countries and the local realty in those developing countries.

The idea of childbirth has been viewed in three peculiar ways: a social natural occurrence, as a passage to an early death, and in present times a medical procedure needed when having children. In the seventieth and eighteenth century childbirth was seen as a social celebration conducted by midwives, while in the nineteenth century fear of death arose due to an increase of maternal mortality rates. This time period also served as a transition time between the elimination of the midwife and the emergence of the physician. The transition was due to attitude changes and knowledge understanding. During the twentieth century, medical knowledge expanded and thus the idea of childbirth was medicalized into a medical procedure needed to have healthy children. Childbirth once seen as a natural phenomenon was now an event that needed medical attention by health facilitators at institutions of health. The ideas around childbirth developed based on the knowledge, cultural setting, mortality rates, and professionals available at the time. Based on these ideas it is easy to see how social and behavioral aspects influenced childbirth throughout the seventeenth, eighteenth, ninetieth and twentieth centuries. In addition, the communities’ views on childbirth were influenced by the development of public health infrastructure, public health policy advancement and how well public officials were able to disseminate information.

Looking through the theme of Development Issues of women and health on women’s health, specifically empowerment of women and improving maternal health, I focus on the mothers2mothers organization. These constraints are being limited for the sake of this paper to the stigma of HIV positive mothers and the discriminatory medical services that are then placed on HIV positive mothers in South Africa. This raises the problem of mothers identifying as HIV positive in South Africa as they are then being stigmatized, therefore I will be asking, how does the organization takes steps in order to help protect the women from stigmitation as they are in the prevent[ion] mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) program? Analyzing the constraints of participation of HIV positive mothers leads to the stigma associated with HIV/AIDS infection, the lack of women’s empowerment, and the deficiency of appropriate and culturally sensitive clinical support services, even in facilities providing PMTCT services, means that many women go through their ordeal alone, confused and afraid.

A study ‘Experiences of childbirth by mothers at the tertiary hospital in Limpopo Province’ was conducted (Maputle & Nolte 2008), and experiences of the mothers during childbirth revealed the major concept ‘woman-centered care’. ‘Woman-centered care’ emerged as a

Women's reproductive health is a debated and complex issue in today's society. Nowhere is its severity more prevalent than in areas of extreme poverty such as south and Central America. The resolution to these problems is far from simple. Yet, women are increasingly taking control of their lives and forming groups to combat many of the prejudices that hold them back. However highly debated some tactics for resolution may be it is hard to miss the shear urgency with which the issues of women's rights and health call us. The fight for gender equality cannot overlook the importance of equality in health care and control over one's own body. Women's health is an issue that

The Carpenter’ article, “In Pain and Sorrow: Childbirth, Incarnation, and the Suffering of Women” flawlessly depicts the understanding in which the way suffering of sin, resurrection, and incarnation should be approached. The simple statement, “Incarnation was meant to call us forward to something new, not repair an unexpected flaw in what should have been a static perfection,”(“In Pain and Sorrow: Childbirth, Incarnation, and the Suffering of Women” p. 102) gives life and new meaning to sin, instead of a continuous debt that is owed for Jesus’s sacrifice for our sins. Sin is given a much more spiritual meaning then that just of sin. Rather sin is no longer a debt to be paid but the process of resurrection and incarnation through the process

Annually about 210 thousands women give birth in Jordan (CSPD, 2014). Childbirth is a significant event in women’s lives. It is a complex and subjective experience. For many women childbirth is a positive experience, enabled them to gain sense of mastery, elation, and accomplishment (Callister, 2006). In contrast, other women described it as negative experience, that is painful, and associated with feelings of fear, anxiety, anger, and insecurity (Owesis, 2009; Krepia, Tasaloglidou, Pschogiou, &Juikunen, 2011; Bryanton,Gagnon, &Hatem, 2008; Goodman, Mackey, &Tavkoli, 2004). Jordanian women in particular described childbirth as ………………………………………………….. (Khalaf & Calister, 1997)

Across the enormous continent of Africa, there are a myriad of birth practices, customs, and traditions. From spiritual ceremonies, consumption of certain fruits, blessing ways to having supportive birthing assistants are some of the very common and important customs from African countries, especially Ghana. One of the oldest and most widely recognized customs is midwifery. Midwifery is the act of assisting women and their families before, during, and after childbirth. Moreover, some midwives also perform abortions and aid in post abortion care

In 2013, 289 000 women died during pregnancy and childbirth and it was estimated that everyday 800 women all over the world died from childbirth or childbirth-related problems (World Health Organization, 2014). Often, maternal mortality is found to occur more often in developing countries than developed countries. Maternal mortality refers women who died from the situation like during pregnancy, termination of pregnancy within 42 days, regardless of duration and place of pregnancy, from aggravation caused by the pregnancy or pregnancy management (Nwagha et al, 2010). Maternal mortality may be resulted from direct or indirect cause. Direct causes are from obstetric complications of pregnancy, labour, and puerperium, and interventions whereas indirect causes are from the worsening of current conditions by pregnancy or delivery (Givewell, 2009). This paper aims to examine the causes for maternal mortality in both developed and developing countries and will end with a proposal for government to ensure women are given reproductive health rights.

Birth and death practices in Somalia are both based on longstanding religious practices and cultural traditions, but the birth experience is largely the domain of women. For instance, Hernlund and Shell-Duncan (2007) report that, "In Somalia, giving birth is an activity exclusively restricted to the women's sphere" (p. 122). A study on birthing experiences of Somalia women conducted in Sweden, though, found that when given the opportunity, most Somalia women preferred the nontraditional approach to delivery in which the husband was present. In this regard, Hernlund and Shell-Duncan (2007) report that, "Practically all the Somali women who had given birth in Sweden stated that their husbands were present at delivery" (p. 123). The majority of the Somalia women in this study characterized the birthing experience as being positive, and some of the subjects indicated that more Somali men should be present during deliveries because it would help them understand the rigors and ordeals that are involved in the process as this would make their husbands more attentive to their needs in the future (Hernland & Shell-Duncan, 2007).