Prenatal Care in Early 20th Century Kansas Essay

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn focuses on a poor American family in the early 1900s. They faced many hardships including those related to obstetrics. Medical care was not reliable during this time period and caused a variety of problems. The poor had the worst birthing conditions and were at a high risk for complications concerning themselves and the child. Betty Smith provides an accurate representation of medical care relating to delivery, infant mortality, and pregnancy at the turn of the twentieth century in her book A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.

This can be defined as heath care that is received while pregnant, and can be seen through a few of the many ways to obtain care: going for regular monthly checkups, taking prenatal vitamins, eating properly and healthily to obtain the nutrients needed (U.S Women’s Health Department, 2012). A healthy pregnancy increases the chances for a healthy newborn, and according to the U.S Women’s Health Department (2012), “babies of mothers who do not get prenatal care are three times more likely to have a low birth weight and five times more likely to die than those born to mothers who do get care”. When taking care of the body and focusing on prenatal care, doctors are able to catch health problems in the baby earlier and health problems in the mother that can later affect the baby, and through proper prenatal care, it allows these issues to be treated early (U.S Women’s Health Department, 2012). In previous years and centuries, because prenatal care was not widely recognized, and future mothers did not recognize the importance of proper care of the fetus, the number of newborns born with birth defects or irregular vital signs was significantly higher than in today’s

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 Birth Control Movement of 1912 in the United States had a significant impact on Women’s Reproductive Rights. Women in the 1800s would frequently die or have complications during or after childbirth. Even if the woman would have died, they would still have a great amount of children. As the years progressed into the 1900s, the amount of children being born dropped. Because of this, birth control supplements were banned, forcing women to have a child that she was not prepared for or did not want to have in the first place.

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

How socio-economic disadvantaged moms, results in their inability to good communication and less support systems in their environment, therefore reducing access to prenatal health care. Low education levels creates a barrier to accessibility of prenatal information and education, therefore, hampering mother's knowledge for good prenatal care.

Patients should be given information regarding the importance of prenatal care and availability of prenatal care for future pregnancies.

Most Americans associate hospitals to be the standard place where women can give birth. However, women did not always deliver in hospitals. Gynecology, the medical practice dealing with the female reproductive system, did not emerge until the early nineteenth century. Before doctors came along, women used to hire midwives to deliver babies in the comfort of their own homes. In this paper I will examine the social, political, and scientific implications of how giving birth has transitioned from being a midwife’s job into that of a doctor’s. Furthermore, I will attempt to show how these implications intersect together to make birth a feminist issue. To support my argument, I will be referencing Tina Cassidy’s “The Dawn of the Doctors,” Abby Epstein’s documentary film The Business of Being Born, and Eesha Pandit’s article “America’s secret history of forced sterilization: Remembering a disturbing and not-so-distant past.” I argue that the processes surrounding birth are intersectional feminist issues because they are often manipulated by male figures pursuing money and authority, which ultimately compromises women’s health and power of choice.

Infant mortality is of significance as it is used as a quality measure to assess the overall health status of a community (Arizona Health Matters, 2016). An indicator that can be directly linked to the rate of infant mortality is that of prenatal care as this has been identified to be the best preventative measure in regards to the prevention of infant mortality (Arizona Health Matters, 2016). Women who do not receive

In the early twentieth century, the low to middle class women of the United States were burdened with frequent pregnancies often ending

A journal gives an example of Medicaid prenatal services providing in the state of Washington. The program includes, case management, nutrition, psychological changes, health education and home visiting. The Medicaid sponsored service and case management program was associated with a decrease in the low birth-weight rate of high risk women (Baldwin et al., 1998).

Women have been fighting for the same rights and privileges of men for over a hundred years. The majority of these rights dealing with the basic autonomy of their own bodies and the right to make decisions about reproduction. The role of women has been seen as homemaker, caretaker, and ultimately Mother. Having children and raising children is often seen as the primary job of women in the home. However, in the early 20th century having a great number of children became a public health concern among women who were having multiple births. The number of women who died during childbirth in 1900 was six to nine in every 1000, while one in five children died within their first five years. (Achievements in Public Health, 2000) This was not seen as an epidemic, however, except by one woman, Margaret Sanger. Sanger believed that women deserved the right to choose and control their reproduction while offering safe methods of birth control. This paper examines the life of Margaret Sanger, provide information about the barriers she encounters during her work, and give insight to the contributions she has made to public health.

Infant mortality is said to be an important indicator of the community’s health. It is also one of the strongest indicators of the disparities that are faced in the U.S. today. A great way to address this issue as a whole, and try to work at fixing the problem, is by educating African American women on the importance of carrying a child to

In order to understand women’s health history in America, three key determinants of health; social, policy, and individual behavior, must be taken into account. Therefore, “objects” of women’s health history reveals the framework of the key health determinants. However, the Midwife and the “Pill”, best represent women’s health history due to their influence of the key health determinants.

Prenatal care is widely accepted as an important element in improving pregnancy outcome. (Gorrie, McKinney, Murray, 1998). Prenatal care is defined as care of a pregnant woman during the time in the maternity cycle that begins with conception and ends with the onset of labor. A medical, surgical, gynecologic, obstretic, social and family history is taken (Mosby's Medical, Nursing, and Allied Health Dictionary, 1998). It is important for a pregnant woman as well as our society to know that everything that you do has an effect on your baby. Because so many women opt not to receive the benefits of prenatal care, our society sees the ramification, which include a variety of complications primarily