Parturition: A Short Story

In the motion picture The Pregnancy Pact a group of high school girls, no older than sixteen, make a pact to become pregnant. Their goal, instead of graduating together, was to have only girls and raise them together. Throughout the movie the girls make references to the pregnant Jamie-Lynn Spears and the movie Juno stating that being fifteen or sixteen and pregnant was the most glamorous thing that could happen to them and not one thing would top being pregnant. This didn't end that way though. Instead the girls realized that having a child so young is not a walk in the park. The media’s perception of teenage pregnancy has changed over time from being a social taboo to a glamorous after school activity. This change

Social reproduction refers to the continuous intergenerational physically and emotionally exhausting household labour that is needed to maintain life (Trotz, lecture, Jan 13, 2016). This kind of labour though is considered to be a woman’s duty. Since an economic activity happens where there is a market, social reproduction is not considered as one as it doesn’t have a visible market. Even though, it doesn’t have market value, domestic work greatly contribute to the economy (Waring, 2013). Since this work is done in homes and by women who are usually marginalized, it remains invisible and thus not considered for pay. This kind of work depends on the traditional division of labour in which women are seen as housewives while men, breadwinners. Thus, the gendering of social reproduction is a result of “doing gender,” where women’s abilities to be mothers are naturalized (Coltrane, 1989); in other words, women are made to fit into the simplistic “domestic = family = heterosexual woman = care and love” equation (Manalansan & Martin, 2008, p.2), while any man who does the caring work in a family is feminized and considered a lesser man (Coltrane, 1989).Thus, a woman’s femininity depends on her motherhood while a man’s masculinity depends on “not doing mother’s work” (Coltrane, 1989, p.473).

Gaby Rodriguez’s purpose in The Pregnant Project is to inspire readers to think positively and to know their own inner strength despite how others may judge or act.

In the short story Georgiana has a birthmark on the side of her cheek that looks like a hand, the birthmark is symbolizing the hands of god. The author expresses this by stating how god gave her this imperfection as a token to her humanity and that her imperfections are in the hands of god and not in the hands of science. This also explains why she died getting rid of her birthmark, it is because god would not let perfection exist and without that birthmark it gave away her humanity. Another example of symbolism is Aylmers servant, Aminadab. He is explained by Hawthorne,”A man of low stature, but a bulky frame, with shaggy hair hanging about his visage…” (361). Aminadab symbolizes all the other men of the town because all of the other men of the town believed that Georgiana’s birthmark was the imperfection that made her perfect. This is shown on page 361 when Aminadab mutters to himself, “If she were my wife I would never part with that birthmark.” this is the author showing the reader that her imperfection is what makes her the perfect human not her

This may represent the fact that we are born the way god wants us to be, and we really should accept people as they are. This acceptance was something that Aylmer could not handle because of his personality. In The Birthmark Georgiana is afraid of her husband, whereas the all of the people ended up being afraid of the minister.

In Karin A Martin’s article, “Giving birth like a girl” she writes that “in U.S. culture when we imagine women giving birth “she is screaming, yelling, self-centered, and demanding drugs or occasionally is numbed and passive from pain-killing medication.” Nonetheless, even though she was going through the breaking of my younger brothers arm not once did I her my mother scream out of pain or holler for drugs or yell at me or her nephew. She was unexplainably calm and followed the directions of the nurses. Martin also writes that despite Americans believing the norms that all women are angry during pregnancy, “white middle-class, heterosexual women actually worry about being nice, polite and kind.” When I questioned my mother about her

Does everybody think or feels the same about childbirth around the world? This question above is a question that has always been in my mind. Now that I got the opportunity of choosing a topic to do research. I decided to choose childbirth and culture. This research paper is going to talk about how different cultures and countries look a birth in an entirely different manner. Some look at birth as a battle and others as a struggle. And on some occasions, the pregnant mother could be known as unclean or in other places where the placenta is belief to be a guardian angel. These beliefs could be strange for us but for the culture in which this is being practiced is natural and a tradition. I am going to be introducing natural and c-section childbirth. And, the place of childbirth is going to be a topic in this essay. America is one country included in this research paper.

In Hawthorne’s short story “The Birthmark”, Aylmer feels that his wife Georgiana is a miracle and that she is perfect. Her only flaw was the birthmark in the shape of a hand placed on her cheek. Instead of focusing on all her Georgiana’s perfections, Aylmer only focused on one of her flaws, the birthmark. Aylmer constructs a statement about her birthmark saying that, “It was the fatal flaw of humanity which Nature, in one shape or another, stamps ineffaceably on her productions, either to imply that they are temporary and finite, or that their perfection must be wrought by toil and pain.”(Meyer 345)

The archetype of Georgiana can be seen as the perfect women, however, her birthmark acts as a symbol of imperfection and mortality that keeps her from fully pleasing her husband. Georgiana is described as beautiful and perfect except for one flaw, the birthmark. “It was the fatal flaw of humanity which Nature, in one shape or another, stamps ineffaceably on all her productions, either to imply that they are temporary and finite, or that their perfection must be wrought by toil and pain” (Hawthorne 220). The hand-shaped birthmark can be seen as her being touched by nature and acts as a symbol of imperfection and mortality in humans. The symbol of the birth-mark standing for mortality can be seen again towards the end

Portrayed as spiritual and intellectual in contrast with his crude laboratory assistant Aminadab, Aylmer becomes disturbingly obsessed with a birthmark on his wife’s countenance. The plot of the short story revolves around the man’s attempt in removing the mark, which results in the death of Georgiana. In the very beginning of the story, the audience discovers through the narration that Aylmer views his wife’s birthmark as more than a congenital, benign irregularity on the skin. In reality, the primary reason why he becomes severely obsessed with the birthmark is because in his eyes, the mark symbolizes something. Aylmer proceeds to further clarify his inner thoughts by replying to his wife, “This slightest possible defect, which we hesitate whether to term a defect or a beauty, shocks me, as being the visible mark of earthly imperfection” (Mays 340). Although Georgiana is initially mortified and even goes as far to question the existence of the marriage between them, the narration later sheds light and explains that the precise reason why Aylmer is excessively bothered with the birthmark is because he regards Georgiana as virtually the embodiment of perfection. As a consequence, perceiving a flaw on his wife’s image that clashes with the concept of her beauty inevitably leads him to feel aggrieved and begin to judge the birthmark as a dangerous blemish residing on her skin.

Reading descriptions in medical texts, Martin wondered how male-oriented views from textbooks matched so cohesively with those of the interviewees. After some research, Martin realized the thought process of woman during labor matched the text book definitions due the definitions men witnessed during childbirth and illustrated in text books and woman culturally internalized and learned through ideology as a description of contractions vs. giving birth.

The Birthmark symbolizes the standards of society that set the ways of the characters in the story by connecting and characterizing man 's decisions to free society of blemish. Since the women is his ' ' adore ' ' he endeavors to join her with ' 'his affection for science ' ' to spare her from’ ‘drudge and pain ' '. The structure picture of society makes the picture of man in the picture of a God that parades his picture descending towards lady furthermore, gives her no decision other than to surrender to his will. Similarly, as Georgiana surrenders her being to win acknowledgment of her better half. She has no trust since society denies her ' 'the enchantment element of hope ' ' also, abandons her with no decision. The decision of ' 'no decision ' ' is the gage the serves to place man as a God over her in man 's quest for a Goddess, free from defect, that will measure up to his own particular God like picture.

Sure. I'll get right on it. We need to talk about what happened yesterday. I just want to point out that you kissed me, and I want it on record.

Childbirth is a beautiful thing. After the hours of labor, there is nothing more special than having the newly mother able to hold her child the minute after it’s born. It makes the pain that you had just experienced go away because all that matters in the world is that newborn child in your arms. During labor, every woman has her own experience but one common experience is the pain. According to Kitzinger (1978) “Labor pain can have negative or positive meaning, depending on whether the child is wanted, the interaction of the laboring woman with those attending her, her sense of ease or dis-ease in the environment provided for birth, her relationship with the father of her child and her attitude to her body throughout the reproductive

Giving birth is something that happens many times daily all over the world. Though many people who have not experienced giving birth, such as men, may think all the woman has to do is push a couple times and it's over, that is not the case. There are three stages to giving birth according to BabyCentre including contractions, pushing, and delivering the placenta.