Elizabeth Rourke's First Slave Analysis

Slavery is a condition in which individuals are owned by others, who control where they work and live. Slavery has been around since the 1600’s. Jacobs a young female who recounts her life in the book “Incident’s in the life of a slave girl”, gives us an in depth look into her life and how she overcame slavery and gained herself the title of freedom. Now life was not easy for Jacobs. She struggled for much of her life and the kids she had out of wedlock had to suffer because she was a slave. Slavery is not a status that anyone wants to have especially if you are a woman and a slave.

Giving birth to a baby is the most amazing and miraculous experiences for parents and their loved ones. Every woman’s birth story is different and full of joy. Furthermore, the process from the moment a woman knows that she’s pregnant to being in the delivering room is very critical to both her and the newborn baby. Prenatal care is extremely important and it can impact greatly the quality of life of the baby. In this paper, the topic of giving birth will be discussed thoroughly by describing the stories of two mothers who gave birth in different decades and see how their prenatal cares are different from each other with correlation of the advancement of modern medicine between four decades.

There were numerous powerful testimonies and striking findings noted throughout the and first two chapters of the book Birth Matters by Ina May Gaskin. As a health care provider, and therefore someone who is entrusted to care for individuals during their most private and sacred times, I found Gaskin’s statements regarding the environment and care surrounding birth experiences very impactful. According to Gaskin (2011), the “women’s perceptions about their bodies and their babies’ capabilities will be deeply influenced by the care they recieve around the time of birth” (p. 22). The statements made by Gaskin in Birth Matters not only ring true, but inspires one

Robin Yates’s paper, “Pregnancy and Childbirth, The 1800’s vs. Now: What to Expect When You’re Not Expecting,” was filled with many clear points on the advancement of labor and medicine since the 1800s. This essay was filled with interesting and grabbing facts; however, the structure of the essay needs more support.

Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, a slave narrative written by Harriet Ann Jacobs is highly commended for the portrayal of women during the excruciating times of slavery. Disregarding that the slave narrative was initially written for the audience of Caucasian women, “…, as white women constituted Jacobs’s primary audience at the time she wrote her narrative” (Larson,742) the struggles of being a female slave were emphasized throughout the narrative. Harriet Ann Jacobs elaborates on slave women’s worth being diminished. In the slave narrative Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, written by Harriet Ann Jacobs, the theme of the perils of slavery for women was portrayed by women being viewed

When Sarah was out of the bed and standing her whole attitude changed, she was more comfortable and relaxed. Sarah went on to give birth on her hands and knees, there were no complications and the perineum was intact. The student felt that through the use of different positions, listening and observing, she had empowered Sarah to have a normal birth. The two specific topics the author will analyse are positions in labour and the role the midwife plays in facilitating choice.

Back in the 1800s, what individuals suffered the most? African American individuals weren 't even considered to be humans or "individuals" based on the way how they were treated. African American slaves were transported in boats across the sea, with a limited amount of space and sanitation. At the end, during their ownership of white masters, African Americans lost everything and by everything I mean morals, dignity, and "their bodies". Usually these slaves died or suffered because they were traumatized, other slaves that gained their morals, dignity and bodies survived his stage in humanity and fought for their freedom. The ones that were lucky and were taught by their white masters how to read and write, decided to write about their story and publish it. This didn’t only affect African American males and females but it also affected the morals of white men and women. At the end of the day, race and gender influenced the lives of individuals and how they were treated in society.

In the mid 1930’s childbirth was extremely dangerous and high percentages of women and their babies died sooner or later after birth. As people took notice, medicine took a lot of steps to lower the mortality rates. A lot of deliveries moved from the homes of people to the hospitals with more safer conditions of birth. Throughout the years, hosptials worked on getting their public sanitation, public nutrition and better control of some deadly chronic diseases. By the 1940s medicines surgical techniques and antibodies improved so much that it made the hospital that much more safer for people to deliver children. Medical Doctor, Elizabeth Eden, stated “By the 1950s, routine maternity care, originally designed to improve safety, had become almost too rigid. For example, the fear of infection, a major killer of mothers and babies, led to such practices as taking away all a woman's personal belongings when she entered the hospital; administering large, uncomfortable enemas; prohibiting fathers and other loved ones from entering the maternity area; keeping babies in nurseries, away from their mothers; and handling babies as little as possible. At the time, bottle-feeding was believed to be more sanitary and superior in almost every way to breast-feeding.” Medical Doctor, Elizabeth Eden also stated “The 1960s was a time when national and international organizations were founded to

Pregnancy in the Southern United States during and before the 19th century was rife with difficulties. Particularly the humid Southern climate was quite hospitable for malaria and epidemics were not uncommon. Quinine was the medicine of choice for malaria at the time and was a known abortifacient and was the cause behind a lot of miscarriages, stillbirths, and infant deaths. In the 19th century as Americans placed emphasis on education and training, doctors, rather than midwives, assumed the leading role in labor and delivery for upper class women. In the South particularly, doctors preferred traditional “heroic” cures such as leeching, cupping, and purging which were followed because of the region’s devotion to time-honored practices.

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

In the slave narrative The History of Mary Prince, harsh treatment and brutal beatings from Prince's depraved slave mistresses occur almost regularly to Mary Prince and her slave companions. Prince narrates the whole story from her perspective and gives elaborate detail as to what a slave has to endure. Although all of Prince's owners are men, Prince focuses on the brutal beatings that the women pressed upon her. Mary Prince depicts the slave-master's wives as evil, twisted women who just beat Mary for no particular reason. Prince uses the advantage of showing these women as evil to gain the sympathy and compassion from her audience, an audience who would primarily be white, Christian women. Not only does the audience see the harsh reality

Linda Brent recalls her time spent as a slave in the book “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl”. As other women during this period she suffered distress, misery, and torment for over twenty years. Brent gives her story to so that readers would apprehend her journey and get an insight on slavery firsthand. Brent’s journey not only showed how the only delight they received came from family, which at times would also be ripped away from them but also her family achieving freedom.

As medicine has advanced greatly over the centuries, a large amount of people across the globe would suggest that a baby should be delivered in a hospital setting. A hospital birth has many, if not the most, positive aspects to its approach. As far as experience, knowledge, accessibility, and safety goes it is top notch. It takes twelve years to become an Obstetrician after graduating high school. At this point in time, one has learned and gained immense wisdom and knowledge about the human body studying the course of pre-medicine and medicine. Not only has an Obstetrician gained educational knowledge

She stood up with the rest, her hands bound and feat weak but for the sake of others she stood up. Her legs screamed in pain her body throbbed she wanted out she wanted freedom just like the others. She alongside many other people have been turned into slaves against their will in this realm. By a group unknown to the rest of the world. This group crushes people's souls into the dirt treating them as such and they didn't care about the fact that they had emotions,feeling,hopes and dreams. They just didn't care. Now back to this girl. This is where our story will start following one of this group's many victims and her friends around her. Meet Elizabeth our story’s main character. Elizabeth stands at 5’7” and she has white skin and has short

Childbirth is the most amazing experience any woman will ever go through. Almost every point of the experience can be remembered no matter how long ago it occurred. One tends to forget the history of child birth and what it was like for a mother a century ago to deliver her newborn, furthermore, the natural occurrences that happen with the delivery process is unknown to many people that have not experienced it and the numerous delivery options that are available to today’s health conscious mothers. These unfamiliar aspects of child birthing in America has plagued our childless society with ignorance to an important matter. I feel that if one does not know his or her own history they are bound to repeat it.