Child Birthing In America Essay

Motherhood was an expected part of the wife’s life. Woman would have a large number of babies right after each other although some babies would not survive. “High mortality rates must have overshadowed the experience of motherhood in ways difficult to

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.

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.

Joseph, I tend to agree with you that pregnancy and childbirth in the United States is linked to big social issues. It seems to me fear of safety has been put in the minds of expecting parents and this fear makes them doubt nature and their own body’s way of delivering a baby. The Business of Being Born documentary was also an eye opener for me. I had no idea what Twilight sleep did to women in the past. I wonder, will our grandchildren look back on the way we deliver babies today and question what we were even thinking? Will they see the practices today and think we were barbaric? It seems to me we have taken a few steps backward, when it comes to pregnancy and childbirth, even though technology has moved forward.

In the past thirty years the number of incarcerated women in the United States increased by 646%, it is estimated that 6-10% of these women were pregnant at intake. “An Examination of Care Practices of Pregnant Women Incarcerated in Jail Facilities in the United States,” is a study that examined the pregnancy related accommodation and health care provided for regional jail populations. Prior to this study no other study examined regional jail populations, they strictly focused on prison populations. This study is a quantitative survey of common practices and policies implemented across 53 jail facilities in the United States as a function of geographic region. This survey was administered through phone or email to employees

Black midwives were common, and carried the responsibility of delivering infants from both slave mothers and white mothers. Due to the lack of sterilization and knowledge of pathogens, the infant mortality rate was high, and physicians blamed black midwives for purposefully killing children, even though the practices of physicians were not any healthier (Kiple 2). Having the responsibility of a midwife in the Antebellum South was not an easy process since many children would die, but the process was even more difficult for the mother delivering the child. Typically, the birth of a child is seen as a wonderful occasion, however, in the South, pregnancy and childbirth caused fear, not only for the mother, but for her family as well. Many complications such as puerperal(a deadly infection in the uterus), the inability to breastfeed the child, and prolapse of the uterus were symptoms a mother could experience after childbirth, which would ultimately end with her death, or her child’s death (Sullivan 24). The medical practices in the South were inadequate and inefficient to support prenatal and birthing needs, therefore, it caused a sufficient amount of deaths between mothers and children during this period of

The paper introduces a sophisticated analysis of the maternity-related issues as well as childbearing policies in the USA. The American documentary “Born in the USA” serves as a material for the study. It is the first public television documentary to provide an in-depth look at childbirth in America. It offers a fascinating overview of birthing, beginning with the early days of our country when almost everyone knew of mothers or babies who died in childbirth. As medicine advanced, maternal and infant mortality rates dropped radically. Hospitals were soon promoted as the safe, modern way to have a baby. The film reveals some crucial specifications of pregnancy, giving birth to a child and raising an offspring in the United States. Specifically, it verifies a general assumption, according to which American obstetricians possess a worldwide recognition, due to their proficiency (Wagner, 2008, p. 4). Moreover, the paper reviews such issues as pregnancy

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

Childbirth is one of the greatest privileges on the earth anyone could have and we, as women, should feel proud to be major contributors for it. Thus, a mother has to play a key role in aiding the healthcare workers to mitigate the health crisis associated with childbirth by performing her duties faithfully. One such associated health crisis is “Premature (preterm) birth” which occurs when the baby is born too early, before 37 weeks of gestational period (CDC, 2015). The rate of preterm birth ranges from 5% to 18% of babies born across 184 countries (WHO, 2015).

Pregnancy in the Southern United States during and before the 19th century was rife with difficulties. Particularly the humid Southern climate was quite hospitable for malaria and epidemics were not uncommon. Quinine was the medicine of choice for malaria at the time and was a known abortifacient and was the cause behind a lot of miscarriages, stillbirths, and infant deaths. In the 19th century as Americans placed emphasis on education and training, doctors, rather than midwives, assumed the leading role in labor and delivery for upper class women. In the South particularly, doctors preferred traditional “heroic” cures such as leeching, cupping, and purging which were followed because of the region’s devotion to time-honored practices.

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

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.

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.

In his article, "Why are so many U.S. women dying during childbirth?", Munz (2012) pointed out that U.S. is experiencing a rise in maternal mortality. It has doubled for the last 25 years and the experts are uncertain about the increase. Experts are not entirely clear for the rise in the maternal deaths in the U.S., but there are some aspects that may be link to this.

What is abortion? According to the Oxford English Dictionary, “Abortion: the premature expulsion of a [foetus] from the womb; an operation to cause this.” Abortion has been a controversial topic for many years. Some people favor adoption and some are against it. “In 2008 an estimated 1.21 million abortions were performed in the Unites States.”(Jones, and Kooistra). Many opinions collaborate in abortions rights or abortion legislation. “In 2008, 84,610 women obtained abortions in Texas, producing a rate of 16.5 abortions per 1,000 women of reproductive age. Some of these women were from other states, and some Texas residents had abortions in other states, so this rate may not reflect the abortion rate of state residents. The rate decreased