The Birth House By Ami Mckay: An Analysis

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.

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

A general understanding of the history of midwifery is important when considering why it would have such a positive effect on indigenous women’s health. Acculturation diminished the traditional midwifery practices and there is evidence that the health of indigenous women has suffered. Midwifery was an old indigenous tradition that was gradually eliminated throughout acculturation. The Skye article states that in the 20th century, there were laws passed that made midwifery illegal and punishable by law. (Skye, 2010) This caused negative effects on health because there was no longer a focus on the overall wellbeing of the individual and the loss of culture was a traumatic experience for indigenous populations in Canada. The article also states that midwives were highly respected in indigenous culture and midwives shared a spiritual connection with the mother, child, family and whole community. It outlines that midwives coached the mother and community throughout all stages of pregnancy. They ensured that all of the needs of the mother were met nutritionally, physically, and spiritually. Midwives also performed the role of educators to their communities and they passed on many traditions and aided in spiritual development and healing. Throughout the process of acculturation, knowledge of health and traditional medicine was lost. (Skye, 2010) The Caroll article talks about the historical

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 article "The Parent Trap" by Judith Warner, it can be seen that, although a women 's life should inevitably change when she becomes a mother, there are still some similarities to a mother nowadays and a mother from the 1950s. Mothers everywhere are changing their whole life around just for the simple reason of becoming a mother. Society should not force women to think that this way of living is acceptable, but unfortunately, society has forced us to believe that these lifestyles are acceptable to throw upon many mothers. These situations are causing mothers to drop their jobs and their dreams. It forces mothers to see life as something that it truly is not. This form of lifestyle is shaping mothers to become people that society sees as normal. Even if this style of life is not truthfully normal. Some of the things that are considered to be normal are the different tasks that women are expected to do every day.

At younger ages, my niece Mckenzie and I used to go to my abuela’s house all the time. The old woman with the Panamanian accent loved spending time with her family, and it gave my parents and brother a break from watching over us. Mckenzie and I had many places where we would play, but none as often as the basement.

Homebirth refers to the act of a woman giving birth at home and is typically attended to by an independently practising midwife. The midwife plays a vital role throughout the experiences associated with homebirths such as embracing a cooperative partnership between women, infants and families. Such features are expressed by a midwife throughout a woman’s pregnancy, labour, birth and postnatal experience, therefore emphasising the importance of continuity of care especially for those women who choose to undertake a homebirth.

Not many large scale studies of the safety of home birth have been done in North America, perhaps because home birth in the United States and Canada is still considered “fringe” by many. To remedy this, in 2000, authors Kenneth Johnson and Betty-Anne Daviss conducted a large scale prospective study of planned home births in both countries. Few distinctions were made between nulliparous and multiparous women, but because it was the only large-scale study done in the United States, it is included in the review. The North American Registry of Midwives made participation in the study mandatory for recertification, and in the end 409 midwives agreed to participate. Each midwife obtained consent from their patients, who were then tracked through their pregnancies to six weeks post-partum. Data was sent back to the authors every three months. In total, 5418 women were included in the study. All were considered low-risk and planned to deliver at home. Low-risk was defined in this, and the subsequent studies cited, as singleton, vertex births at 37 weeks or more gestation, receiving prenatal care. Of those 5418 women, 655 (12%) were transferred to the hospital intrapartum (83.4%), mainly for failure to progress, pain relief or exhaustion. Following delivery, 1.3% of mothers and 0.7% of infants were transferred, mainly due to maternal hemorrhage or infant respiratory distress. Transfer rates of nulliparous women were four times higher than multiparous women.

At a point in history, Homebirths and Midwives were prevalent when delivering. However; the use of these two methods plateaued as many people were concerned with the health of the infants and the mothers. The ultimate goal of delivery is the safety and protection of both the mother and the child. For a time, and still to this day, women turned to hospitals to ensure that safety. However, as a new wave of feminism has empowered mothers to take control of the natural birthing process, more and more women are reverting back to the home birth method. Though homebirth goes smoothly for most mothers, there is always the potential for complications that many mothers are not prepared to handle.

One of the most important aspects of midwifery is that outcomes and care for mother and infants are equivalent under a midwife when compared to a family physician or obstetrician. A defining feature of midwives is that they provide services at a significantly lower cost of approximately $4,600 per course of care in Alberta. With an obstetrician’s average cost per course of care at $5,700, savings of over $1,100 per course are realized (O 'Brien, 2010). Also, a course of care by a midwife provides more frequent and longer visiting times at prenatal and postnatal visits. This results in more time for education and promotion of population and public health indicators such prenatal nutrition and breastfeeding.

“I can’t even talk to you right now Caycie,” Tatum yells as she storms out of the Mountain Pass 8th grade doors.

With technological advances, many United States women are turning to home births rather than hospital births. Avoiding unnecessary medical interventions, previous negative experiences, and mistrust of traditional providers are just some of the common reasons why mothers do not choose hospital births (Boutcher, Bennett, McFarlin, & Freeze, 2009). Home births provide an environment that feels familiar and safe and the mother has an increased sense of control. Even though home births have acceptable safety percentages, they are not well supported by the government, society, or insurance companies (Boutcher et al., 2009).

The terms “midwife” and “home birth” summon up images of archaic childbirth for many people. While, prior to the mid 20th century most women gave birth

Hearing the word midwife leaves many people thinking of unprofessional, inexperienced women who help deliver babies naturally, without the help of medication. In truth, nurse-midwives are registered nurses who have attended additional schooling for women’s health and are taught to make women feel as comfortable as possible. In the beginning, remedies were the females’ legacies, their “birthright”; these females were known as “wise-women by the people, witches of charlatans by authorities”. (Ehrenreich, 1973). “Females were wanderers, traveling from one place to another, healing the sick and wounded.” (Ehrenreich 1973). These women were among the first human healers and they were especially helpful when it came to childbearing. The midwives

A Doll’s House was published in Norway in 1879 by Henrik Isben. He is known as the father of Modern Theatre. He is also referred as the father of realism. The play is very interesting because of the funny dialogue, the unique characters, and Ibsen 's view of the place of ladies in the public eye. The main characters of the play is Nora Helmer and her husband Torvald Helmer. Imagine what it would be like to live in a doll 's home? It 's a house in which you are controlled and have no energy to settle on any solid choice; It 's a house in which you are a play thing for another person 's amusement. This sounds a ton like an awful marriage, so it 's a house in which your husband holds the satchel strings, in a manner of speaking, and abandons you with no influence over your family 's accounts. In fact, your husband keeps you on a tightrope. Such is the perceived life of Nora Helmer.