How The Medicalization Of Birth Has Legally Influenced A Woman 's Right

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.

After having less liberty than desired under the care of an Obstetrician while delivering my older sister, my mum decided to seek care from a Midwife for her last two delivers. In comparison to her reflections about her first birth, when recalling my birth she remains enthused about the respect, care and freedom her Midwife gave her. The impact self-governance has on birth always strikes me when my mum speaks of her experiences. It is evident that allowing laboring women to assume ownership of their own bodies affects them, and subsequently their children, for a

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.

The medical industrial complex (MIC) holds many influences in the care of women, especially poor marginalized women. MIC is simply a platform of the network among corporations that supply health care services and products to make money. Oparah and Bonaparte explain how the individual’s ability to pay determines the quality of care they receive (Oparah & Bonaparte, 2015, pg. 4). In relations to birthing, hospitals aren’t a place for an intimate connection between a woman that’s about to give birth and their newborns. It’s more of a time efficiency center where doctors (mainly white men) would purposely perform cesarean deliveries to not only save time, but to make a

Women having been fighting for equal rights for many years. Because of our genitalia, we will be paid less, we will be judged more, and we will have to fight to protect our basic human rights. Most women are born with the amazing ability to carry life; this is a blessing and a curse. Because of this ability, some people believe that a woman’s body is not completely her own, but that the government has rights to that body as well. We have been fighting to control our own bodies for many years. All women must understand that fighting for our reproductive rights is not just a simple pro-life or pro-choice battle, but a complex fight to teach proper sex education, maintain women’s health facilities, and protect our essential human rights.

The topic of reproductive rights surrounding women in Texas has been a hot buttoned issue since the closing of many reproductive centers across the state. Recently damaging abortion restrictions were passed and therefor encroach on women’s reproductive rights even more by decreasing access to abortion care. Texas’ 84th Legislature, both passed HB 3994 as a law and had it Governor Abbott make it effective with his signature on July 8, or this year. This law complicates access to abortion services for mistreated and neglected minors and for those who do not possess specific identification cards in Texas.

The paper introduces a sophisticated analysis of the maternity-related issues as well as childbearing policies in the USA. The American documentary “Born in the USA” serves as a material for the study. It is the first public television documentary to provide an in-depth look at childbirth in America. It offers a fascinating overview of birthing, beginning with the early days of our country when almost everyone knew of mothers or babies who died in childbirth. As medicine advanced, maternal and infant mortality rates dropped radically. Hospitals were soon promoted as the safe, modern way to have a baby. The film reveals some crucial specifications of pregnancy, giving birth to a child and raising an offspring in the United States. Specifically, it verifies a general assumption, according to which American obstetricians possess a worldwide recognition, due to their proficiency (Wagner, 2008, p. 4). Moreover, the paper reviews such issues as pregnancy

Midwifery has been practiced in several communities of the world since time immemorial. A midwife is a trained person, mostly a woman, who assists in the pregnancy, delivery and post-partum care of an infant. In most countries of the world, the act of midwifery has been neglected for more modern and westernized medical practices deemed safer. In the First nations community, midwives have always been an integral part of the health system assisting expecting women during delivery. In the mid nineteenth and twentieth century, midwifery was outlawed in many communities and reserves ‘for the sake of the health of the country’ (Parkland Memorial Hospital School of Nurse Midwifery). With the outlaw of midwifery in First nation reserves, expectant mothers were transported to hospitals and clinics in urban centers for delivery. With this came several new challenges for expectant first nations women and mothers including, ‘increased maternal newborn complications, increased postpartum depression and decreased breast-feeding rates’ (O’Neil et al., 1990, Smith, 2002 and Klein et al., 2002a. The relegation of first nations midwifery has done more harm than good because it makes the birth process more medical, has led to the inflict of new post natal diseases and has led to the neglect of the traditional and spiritual roles in child

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

Throughout American history, women have faced many challenges to earn equal rights in almost all aspects of life. Although changes have been made, today there are still battle to be won. One of these issues is the struggle for improving reproductive rights. Women are often judged for their maternal decisions, whether that is in choosing surrogacy, abortion, and even those who choose different forms of contraception. Over the years, Planned Parenthood and other health services have recieved a negative connotation for what services they provide, especially on the basis of providing abortion services. With our new president in office, women are concerned that their reproductive rights, such as the right to have an

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

The way people interact and live in North America is to this day impacted by colonial thought and beliefs that have been enforced through both the government and social constructs. The impacts are present subtly throughout our entire lives in Canada without us fully realizing the changes it enforces in social interactions and natural body functions. This paper will focus on the differences between Indigenous and “western” ways of birthing affect women, and how the processes of birth have changed and are currently changing. The question that guided the research for this paper was; How does Haudenosaunee and Anishinaabe births and “western” Canadian births compare and how does resurgence, found in traditional births, influence cultural revitalization?

Pregnant woman had to decide whether to birth their child in a hospital with professional doctors or stay at home and to have a midwife look after them. At the beginning of 1900 88% of child births took place in hospitals (“The History Of Midwifery”); however that number slowly decreased as time went on. This is because many women began to choose natural childbirth and birth their child at home. The change could have occurred for many reasons; however the main deciding factor whether to birth the child at home or a hospital was money. Many families could not afford the medical costs to have their child delivered at a hospital.

In past centuries, only women attended to women during childbirth. Men were usually not involved, unless they were needed for their strength or other emergencies. However, with the medicalization of childbirth, the presence of male physicians emerged. By the 19th century, tensions between male physicians and midwives heightened as male physicians began to introduce new techniques and anatomical knowledge that interfered with the traditional social birthing process. Much of this tension rose from the gender roles that categorized the work and success of men and women within the work of childbirth. In A Midwife’s Tale, Laurel Ulrich explores Martha’s diary to present the challenges midwives faced during the late 18th century. Midwives, such as Martha Ballard, were challenged by male physicians and diverged from the style of their work because of the perception that omen were considered more emotional, nurturing, and social in their work while men were more knowledgeable of science, anatomy, and new tools.

Abortion has been one of the hottest topics concerning women’s health care and reproductive rights. Tune into any presidential debate and you’ll notice candidates spending as much time discussing the topic as immigration, foreign policy, climate change, and gun control. There are a lot of misconceptions about the pro-choice movement but it can be explained in very simple terms. Being pro-choice does not mean pro-abortion, it simply means accepting that women have the choice to choose what they do with their bodies, not the government or anyone else. I believe strongly in this issue and believe that we should look at our past and not go back to a time where women did not have the same rights as men over their bodies. We are trying to become equal, not return to an era of submission. No man or government should have the power to control a women’s body; every person has a right to his/her own body. Abortion should be kept an easy, accessible, safe, and legal option for all women regardless of beliefs. We should be taking strides forward toward equality, not steps back. In the mid-twentieth century, second wave feminists saw major struggles of women and sought to radically improve and change the security of women and reproductive rights. We have fought hard for many of the rights we have today, but everyday we are challenged by those who want to oppose and erase our efforts.