Birth Perception Analysis

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

Carleen’s first pregnancy, starting in 1979 and ending in 1980, was out of wedlock and happened before meeting her ex-husband. During this pregnancy, she was a lower class, sixteen-year-old high schooler that resided in Detroit, Michigan. As of now and at the time of her interview, Carleen is a Christian, African American fifty-two-year-old woman with a Master’s Degree who is divorced with five daughters. She resides in Warren, Michigan and works at St. John Hospital as a parenting teacher. Given how long ago her first pregnancy was and that she had four pregnancies afterward, I was surprised by the amount of detail she recollected. Carleen had explained the level of ambiguity that came with being pregnant for the first time. Her body had changed, and she was unsure of how her mother would take the news. This fear of the unknown had led her to live with her older sister for three months before telling her mother the news. Thankfully, her mother took the news better than expected and assisted Carleen with prenatal responsibilities such as helping her maintain a healthy diet and moving her to a school for pregnant teens because she had physically struggled with the stairs at her traditional high

In this week’s response we are given the choice to choose to respond on the topic about a type of “non-traditional” childbirth (i.e. hospital) of our choice that we would want to know more about and “What we learn before we’re born” from TED talk by Annie Murphy Paul . This week I am choosing to respond to a type of “non-traditional” childbirth (i.e. hospital). The type of childbirth I chose to talk about is a water birth. As interesting as this topic may be and all of the possible childbirths there are this stood out for me because I believe that it is amazing that a child can be born in a little pool.

Abby Epstein is a producer and director, famous for The Business Of Being Born, Until the Violence Stops, and Sweetening the Pill. The Business of Being Born is a documentary about giving birth at hospital versus giving birth a home by help of a midwife and a doula. A midwife is a person (generally a woman) prepared to help and support women in childbirth. A doula is a woman who is prepared to help another woman throughout childbirth and who may give a support, relief, and guidance to the family after the baby is born. Furthermore, this documentary analyzes the styles that the American health care system accesses childbirth. The usual way of United States, includes hospitals, drugs, and obstetricians, in the same time, birth in many other countries

In the United States giving birth has become medicalized and it is because the medical community has convinced women that having a baby in a medical facility is mandatory and better for the baby. Medial birth is not natural birth. The American populace is uneducated about the natural process of labor. The overwhelming amount of women having babies in hospitals is unique to the United States. Most other nations including first world nations, women give birth in the presence of midwives rather than a doctor. According to experts documented in the film, “The United States has the second worst newborn death rate in the developed world.” Also “The US has one of the highest maternal mortality rates among all industrializes countries.” The makers of this film link those fact with the common practice of hospital birthing. According to the film makers, Doctors should only be used in high risk pregnancy and births.

However, it is not the women of the United States, instead it is how the United States treat the women giving birth. The United States has one of the highest maternal mortality rates among all industrialized countries, which is shocking because the U.S. is stereotyped to be the best country to live in. I do not however find it shocking that the United States sees the hospital system as a business and all they care about is filling the beds and making as much money as possible. The system is set up one way and the mothers do not have an option in how they want to give birth. Numerous assumptions I believe have been made about the medical model in the United States compared to the model of midwifery. Those mothers who have considered midwifery said their experience was more natural and made them in touch with their baby. I think it is a connecting process when you are not drugged out and are able to grab your baby as it is coming out of you. I would be curious to see if there is a connection between a mother who has her baby as home and the relationship she has with her baby. In the movie, the midwife was saying that her service charged four thousand dollars compared to some hospitals that are thirteen thousand dollars. That statists alone should make a mother consider getting a midwife because sometimes mothers do not have the insurance to pay for all the hospital

Beck (2004) defined birth trauma as” an event occurring during the labor and delivery process that involves actual or threatened serious injury or death to the mother or her infant. The birthing women experience intense fear, helplessness, loss of control, and horror” (p.28). In 2013 Beck, revised her definition to include “an event occurring during labor and delivery where the woman perceives she is stripped of her dignity) (Beck, Driscoll, & Watson, 2013, p 8). Ryding, Wijma, Wijma (2000) defined traumatic birth as “ an experience of having been very afraid to die; to be hurt; to lose the baby or to have a seriously ill or handicapped child, or having an experience of having lost contact with reality in a very frightening manner’(p. 35). Reid (2011) defined traumatic birth more broadly as “is simply when the women or parental couples feel traumatized by their experience and fearful of a subsequent birth” (Reid, 2011, p

This article Ways of Knowing about Birth in Three Cultures examines the concept of authoritative knowledge elaborated by Brigitte Jordan, using examples of birthing systems in Mexico, Texas, and Jamaica. In this article Carolyn Sargent and Grace Bacope explores the linkages between the distribution of knowledge about birth and the use of technology. It also demonstrates the valuation of biomedical and alternative “ways of knowing” about birth; the production of authoritative knowledge through interaction; and the relationship between authoritative knowledge and social status. In the Maya low-technology, collaborative birthing system in Mexico, the midwife and other adult women share knowledge about birth. In Spanish-speaking women are undergoing

After the exercise, the women in the group felt safe and well informed, they expressed how the class alleviated their fears by giving them various options. Some of the women expressed their concerns. They feel women are vulnerable to making irrational decisions. The instructor encouraged them to make the decision with the gynecologist before the labor begins and most importantly, their partner should support them through the labor stages. After the end of the session, the instructor asked the participants to take an online survey to evaluate her performance and their understanding of the material.

While viewing the powerful images of women giving birth at Dr. Michael Odents former clinic in Pithiviers, Martin expresses that what she saw (at the cost of medical text book images- which Dr. Odent, and Scientists describe as animal-like) is actually woman giving birth and

One hundred years ago, it was common for all children to be born at home. In fact, 19 out of 20 of all children born in 1900 in the United States were not born in a hospital and instead were born at home (Holden). Today, less than one percent of all children in America are born outside of a hospital. However a growing movement is reversing that trend, and more women are opting to have children at home. One of the keys to a successful home birth experience is the hiring of a midwife. A midwife is a trained medical professional with expertise in supporting women during their pregnancies. Midwifery is becoming more common because women want a more comfortable experience in giving birth, they want specialists that take mothers’ wants and

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).

This study used a mixed methods approach to identify factors associated with confidence and positive experiences during birth in US mothers. The authors used a qualitative approach and found that patients with positive experiences sometimes depended on prior birth experiences. The study found that women who were confident prior to giving birth were much more

In the western world, the process of labour and birth is becoming highly medicalised with a greater number of interventions and a rise in the number of caesarean sections performed (Walsh & Devane, 2012). With this in mind, it is important to examine the reasons behind this, and whether particular models of care demonstrate differences in the safety, rights and self-determination of the woman. This paper will also consider the influence of environmental and cultural factors and the impact of these in labour and birth.

As it is well-understood, birth is an act or process of bearing or bringing forth offspring. This can be done naturally or through it medicalized process. Most women in developing countries of third world countries still carry out birth naturally, when some even bearing children without even going through any medical procedure from pregnancy to birth. Whereas their counterpart in developed nations had to undone all kind of medical attention from pregnancy to birth, and may even given via the medicalized procedure.