The Idea Of Childbirth Over Time Essay

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.

Childbirth was very risky for women. Women had to be prepared for death when they became pregnant (Brekus 53). Childbirth during this early period not only caused death in the mother, but it also caused death in the infant (Brekus 53). It was said that “no healthy Puritan was more awake of mortality than an expectant woman” (Brekus 53). Between one percent and one point five percent of births resulted in the mother’s death (“Early America” 1). In poor communities, three children in ten died before they were five (“Early America” 1). These statistics show why mothers didn’t want to take birth control because of such high mortality rates in children. During childbirth, women had over ten people in the room, including neighbors, her mother-in-law, and her midwife (Holliday 1). There were no pain relievers in the birth, however, whiskey was used in places to

“If a sweeping pestilence struck down as many women in a community as are taken in childbirth we would immediately be aroused,” claimed Beatrice E. Tucker, Director and Associate Obstetrician of The Chicago Maternity Center. Beatrice was determined to helped needed women, in a needed community, in Chicago. (Tucker, Beatrice E., and Harry B. Benaron, 1) The Chicago Maternity Center was founded in 1895, by Dr. Joseph DeLee. However, it was led and directed by Dr. Beatrice Tucker, accompanied by her partner Dr. Harry Benaron. The center was opened from 1932 until 1973. The center provided free obstetrical care for poor women while at the same time helping doctors train for the latest methods to as well provide safe delivery for these women (Simpson, 1). The center wasn’t such a famous hospital or clinic as the time. It also wasn’t located by means of a medical school, such as the University of Chicago. Instead, the Chicago Maternity Center was located at 1334 South Newberry Street, centered at Chicago’s West Side. The reason for this was because, when Beatrice Tucker became the Chicago Maternity Center’s leader, the community was trapped as a desperate poor immigrant working class (Simpson, 1). Therefore, the center had two purposes. The first, was to care for and treat poor women, in childbirth, right at their homes. Second, was to teach doctors, medical students, and nurses “the science and art of obstetrics” (Tucker, Beatrice E., and Harry B. Benaron, 1). Through these

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.

Early proponents of natural childbirth (Dick-Read, 1943; Karmal, 1959; Lamaze, 1970; Leboyer, 1975; and Bradley, 1978) developed programs to prepare women for childbirth that included relaxation, patterned breathing, hypnosis, and water immersion. Encouraged by the work of these early experts, women began to reclaim their autonomy in the birth process. “During the 1950s and 60s, women became more aware of the problems associated with heavy anesthesia during labor. Dense anesthesia had negative effects on women and their babies, and left women unable to play a role in their own care and that of their babies. Control of childbirth shifted from women (the birthing mother and her midwife), to the physician, (generally male at that time).” (Leggitt)

"Woman" is often referred to as a diseased state of the male norm. Medical testing is done on men, with men as the norm. Women's bodies are diseased and dysfunctional. Female processes are not normal occurrences in the female body. They are deviant processes, needing male consultation and male solutions. This medicalization of women's bodies occurred during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries as medicine became professionalized and men came to be in control of women's bodies and their processes. During the fifteenth, sixteenth, seventeenth and part of the eighteenth century, midwives oversaw women's medical needs. Childbirth and diseases of the reproductive organs

For thousands of years women delivered their babies at home with midwives. Midwives are just women helping women give birth. It was as simple as that for thousands of years before. It was not until the 17th century that men started attending birth as midwives (Drife). Queen Victoria made a statement in history by testing out medication during labor, on April 7, 1853. She had a team of physicians preparing her for the birth of her son, Prince Leopold. In the course of one hour the doctor applied anesthesia to her fifteen times. Because of Queen Victoria’s influence on the country when the news spread that she used anesthesia they wanted to have it as well. When a German obstetrician introduced pain medications simply for labor pains in 1909 it sparked a movement for the new age (Campbell). It was not until the 1920s that it started moving to America. This kicked the midwives out of the picture and doctors and hospitals became the place for women to go. This was also when the feminist movement was happening; women were thinking why should I have a painful birth when I could go to this

In Goer, Henci (1995) book “Obstetric Myths Vs Research Realities” the author reveals the roles of midwives in women delivery and how different it from the roles of an Obstetrician in a hospital setting. According to the author the midwifery attitude towards child birth is that of the mother being the “central role” in the whole scenario of child birth. The mother is the maestro in the orchestra and the midwife job is nothing less than support and guidance. The midwifery view is more of “empowering” the mother in leading the child delivery process. According to the author treatment starts with what the mother can do i.e. the mother’s potential powers and this compliments the midwifery practice. On the other hand, the author sees the medical approach to delivery very much opposite to what has been discussed as that of midwifery approach. The obstetrician sees the mother as incapable of making sound decisions on behalf of herself due to the enormous stressful situation she is going through. The author sees that the medical approach strips mother of her power to deliver naturally and that obgyn is obligated to intervene as baby delivery is a medical procedure and requires medical attention. Here the approaches are very different especially when it comes to providing care, where medical approach is more focused on medication for treating pain while midwives see that medication is “too risky and unnecessary” while alternative treatments do exist and help the mother a great deal.

Women are now tasked with trying to maintain a balance between a natural and medical childbirth, all while losing and reclaiming control. As Walsh (2010) describes, this type of struggle or rather, ‘dichotomized thinking,’ concerning natural and medical childbirth, leads women feeling a sense of uncertainty and stress. Specifically, within western society, women are losing trust in the birthing process and losing their expectations of experiencing a natural birth (Reiger: 2006). The medical model, popular culture, media, and social influences from family or friends, have instilled a belief in which birth is a process to be feared. The fear of birth is perpetuated by medical professionals questioning women’s abilities to give birth on their

Childbirth is one of the most beautiful and natural occurrences in the world. From the beginning of the world’s creation, women have carried and delivered babies. The evolution of childbirth has taken many drastic turns throughout history. Births have started to be seen as medical procedures, rather than a beautiful, innate experience between a mother and her unborn child. Women are being torn away from the idea that a natural birth is normal, or even realistic. More women each day fear the idea of birthing a child naturally and ask for medicine before they even go into labor. All births, no matter what kind, are beautiful, empowering, and take great strength and endurance. However, this essay will be my persuasive argument on my opinion as

This essay will be investigating why the hospital mortality death rates for young mothers were so high and what were the real causes of death? Did the reasons differ from hospital to hospital? Were the deaths caused by the doctors or disease? Why did the pregnancies that were uncomplicated end in death for the young mother? What diseases were prevalent in the 19th century and did they influence the mortality rates for these young mothers?

Before 1760, the event of childbirth was nothing more than a social event, which included only the birthing mothers and her family and friends. All males had to wait outside when the event took place, and “only in cases where labor did not progress normally did physician 's intervene and perhaps extricate a dead fetus”. (Leavitt, science, 282) The only other time a male participated in labor and delivery were when a woman was not available. Women preferred childbirth to be a female event, yet if the physician felt the mother was suffering, or her life was endangered, there was no compromising with the physician who would then step in and complete the birthing process because, at the time, they had training which was not accessible to women.

It was considered offensive for a man to be a part of the birthing process so it was tradition for prior mothers with extensive knowledge of herbal remedies to tend to other women during the delivery process of pregnancy. Long before medical journals or any form of education, midwives would pass their knowledge and skills down to other women on how to deliver a child. During the Colonial times, women were the only sex allowed in the delivery room, yet it was the doctors, men, that were writing information about delivering infants. As the population of doctors increased, and the popularity of hospitals emerged, more men started delivery infants. A midwifes’ social acceptance ranking in society varied in history from highly respected, to being persecuted for “witchcraft”, until laws dismissed witchcraft, and midwives were now becoming licensed. In most cases, around the 18th century, midwifery was monitored by religious or governmental institutions and collaboration with a male doctor was usually recommended until a woman was considered low risk for any medical interventions. This collaboration was mainly a precaution to ensure that the mother was receiving the best kind of care possible due to her specific needs and wants but with advances in pain relief and medical tools, being seen in a hospital with a doctor was a rising trend.

A midwife plays a vital role in promoting and protecting physiological birth. It is important to a midwife to understand what is and how important for the woman to go through the process of physiological birth. Midwives have to make the woman understand and encourage them to have physiological birth without any interruptions. In the essay, it explains what role and how midwives help the woman in promoting and protecting physiological birth. Firstly, by defining physiological birth, what outcomes are considered to be a safe psychological birth. It also focuses on that are not referred as a normal psychological birth. Secondly it explains how midwives use the competency skills in protecting and promoting physiological birth. Midwives have to

For the human female, pregnancy is a period of time that is celebrated in most cultures. However, reaching the point where a pregnancy successfully results in the birth of one or more healthy offspring can take more than one attempt. Wilcox et al. (1988) provided the conservative estimate that thirty-one percent of all pregnancies were unintentionally lost, with twenty-two percent of pregnancies being lost before they were clinically detected using delicate detection of hCG hormone levels in a sample the pregnant woman’s urine. There are many unique health risks, such as a woman being diagnosed with endometriosis, that increase a woman’s chances of having a spontaneous abortion (Santulli et al., 2016). But for healthy women without any observable health risks, for the rate of spontaneous to be abortion this high when healthcare is arguably the best it has ever been in all human history makes it is worth examining the possibility that spontaneous abortion might carry an evolutionary advantage for humans that doesn’t make sense in a simply modern context.