The Birthing Process: Mpondo Women

In order to have a normal birth, both the mother and the child need to prepare for birth. The mother needs to acquire knowledge regarding what to expect, information about the baby and its special care and attention. Both need to prepare themselves with time, so that at the end of pregnancy the mother just has to sit unstressfully for the baby to arrive. The child start preparing his departure from the mother’s womb by the end of the seventh month. The child starts protecting his body from external viruses and microbes by accumulating antibodies from the mother. Also he starts absorbing extra iron, because he knows that the mother’s milk lacks iron needed for the production of red blood cells. The child rotates his body, locating his head towards the birth canal. And the baby starts accumulating fat under his skin, preparing his body for life in the external

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.

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?

Taking all these pieces into consideration there could be issues of traditional Indigenous birthing practices being appropriated, but with the work of Indigenous midwives it can be seen that it will most likely be incorporated into more birthing options in a respectful

In America, most of the childbirth 's take place in a hospital. I am talking about 99 percent of delivery and off that percentage 34 percent is c-section. An article by Lisa Selin Davis states, “Well, it turns out that we’ve exported this model to the far corners of the world; in Japan, Korea and China, Western-style hospital births have all but replaced traditional home birth in the last few decades.” Meaning that these other countries mentioned above also practice hospital childbirth. Contrary to other where home birth is still an option. One example is Uganda;

Over the years birthing methods have changed a great deal. When technology wasn’t so advanced there was only one method of giving birth, vaginally non-medicated. However, in today’s society there are now more than one method of giving birth. In fact, there are three methods: Non-medicated vaginal delivery, medicated vaginal delivery and cesarean delivery, also known as c-section. In the cesarean delivery there is not much to prepare for before the operation, except maybe the procedure of the operation. A few things that will be discussed are: the process of cesarean delivery, reasons for this birthing method and a few reasons for why this birthing method is used. Also a question that many women have is whether or not they can vaginally

The idea of childbirth has been viewed in three peculiar ways: a social natural occurrence, as a passage to an early death, and in present times a medical procedure needed when having children. In the seventieth and eighteenth century childbirth was seen as a social celebration conducted by midwives, while in the nineteenth century fear of death arose due to an increase of maternal mortality rates. This time period also served as a transition time between the elimination of the midwife and the emergence of the physician. The transition was due to attitude changes and knowledge understanding. During the twentieth century, medical knowledge expanded and thus the idea of childbirth was medicalized into a medical procedure needed to have healthy children. Childbirth once seen as a natural phenomenon was now an event that needed medical attention by health facilitators at institutions of health. The ideas around childbirth developed based on the knowledge, cultural setting, mortality rates, and professionals available at the time. Based on these ideas it is easy to see how social and behavioral aspects influenced childbirth throughout the seventeenth, eighteenth, ninetieth and twentieth centuries. In addition, the communities’ views on childbirth were influenced by the development of public health infrastructure, public health policy advancement and how well public officials were able to disseminate information.

According to “Human Sexuality: Diversity in Contemporary America,” women and couples planning the birth of a child have decisions to make in variety of areas: place of birth, birth attendant(s), medication, preparedness classes, circumcision, breast feeding, etc. The “childbirth market” has responded to consumer concerns, so its’ important for prospective consumers to fully understand their options. With that being said, a woman has the choice to birth her child either at a hospital or at home. There are several differences when it comes to hospital births and non-hospital births.

For almost all of the previous 25 years roughly, the knowledge of pregnancy, labor, and delivery has changed little for some women. But change is arriving to the most traditional establishing, the hospital.

Are you a mother-to-be? Are you having trouble trying to figure out whether to have a homebirth or a hospital birth? I sure hope that this paper will

Culture is an enormous part of our lives. It can affect every part of our daily living from our health, nutrition, religious beliefs, and communication, to even how one is expected to think and behave. This paper explores various cultural beliefs on childbirth and specifically childbirth positions from three different cultures, Chinese, Indian, and American. The basic differences in cultures permeates one’s perspective on birth and is part of why certain beliefs and restrictions are present. How one brings new life into the world is steeped in traditions unique to each culture.

This topic is important when examining statistics related to birth; Indigenous women are twice as likely to experience either a stillbirth or miscarriage (Sky, 2010). The idea that the health system and that the current method of birthing babies is the safest is a mindset that is both common and confusing when putting these statistics into perspective. It is also imperative to learn about the “medical mode of childbirth” as around 95% of Canadian women were associated with using this “western” model five years ago (Shaw, Pp. 522, 2013). What I found made me believe that Indigenous methods of birthing allow for a better birthing experience and provides a platform for revitalization of Indigenous methods of being to occur. This theory is based

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.

Through the Grandmother’s Law women are assisted through the birth by strong and supportive women. Traditional healing practices used by Indigenous midwives during the birth, include therapeutic massage for relaxation, sand, heat, smoke and fire to help with pain and being spiritually strong after birth was important for the mother and baby. Traditional rituals aimed at stopping bleeding, healing, warming will be used.