Theologizing The Process Of Birthing

While visiting Alto do Cruzeiro in 1965, Hughes noticed women were indifferent concerning the death of their children. Infants born dead or “waiting to die” is a common occurrence in Alto do Cruzeiro. The women of the community became use to experiencing these tragedies and decided it would be easier to cooperate with Gods plan. If an infant is born “waiting to die”, the mother will usually leave the child to die. Having this kind of attitude towards dying infants has a powerful impact on maternal thinking and practice. Already knowing that an infant will not survive makes the women less loving and nurturing. When an infant actually survives, the mother has a difficult time raising the child. Children born in this area “lack traditional breast feeding, subsistence gardens, stable marriages, and multiple adult care-takers that exists in the interior.” Since single parenting is the norm, woman are forced to leave the infant at home, many times by itself. The women cannot carry their child with them at work or by the river. They can not leave their child with the older children because if they are not in school they are working as well. Also, since women earn a dollor and day, they can not afford to hire a baby

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

Alexandra Tsiaras came up with a phenomenal way of describing conception to birth in his interview he did for Ted Talk. There were several things and little details that I truthfully did not know happened so fast during a woman’s pregnancy. It amazes me how people can go through with abortion after watching a video like Conception to Birth. Alexandra Tsiara’s visuals on conception to birth show a whole new outline of how fast a baby becomes a human, and that makes it that much more precious.

The description provided from Miner’s article on the views of the Nacirema people concerning pregnancy is unusual, and the description raised a serious question in my opinion while reading the article. My reaction to the privacy and sense of shame regarding pregnancy within the Nacirema population is a sense of bewilderment. Pregnancy is usually celebrated because pregnancy and babies are the reason a culture thrives and continues it’s legacy, so for the Nacirema people to hide pregnancy creates an idea that the Nacirema people aren’t proud of their culture and people. If the

There were numerous powerful testimonies and striking findings noted throughout the and first two chapters of the book Birth Matters by Ina May Gaskin. As a health care provider, and therefore someone who is entrusted to care for individuals during their most private and sacred times, I found Gaskin’s statements regarding the environment and care surrounding birth experiences very impactful. According to Gaskin (2011), the “women’s perceptions about their bodies and their babies’ capabilities will be deeply influenced by the care they recieve around the time of birth” (p. 22). The statements made by Gaskin in Birth Matters not only ring true, but inspires one

When Sarah was out of the bed and standing her whole attitude changed, she was more comfortable and relaxed. Sarah went on to give birth on her hands and knees, there were no complications and the perineum was intact. The student felt that through the use of different positions, listening and observing, she had empowered Sarah to have a normal birth. The two specific topics the author will analyse are positions in labour and the role the midwife plays in facilitating choice.

Ever since its inception, Christianity has been epitomised by a range of religious practices that explore the sacred beliefs that have been upheld and spread around the world. These practices thus continue to bear a significant influence over the lives of adherents and how they seek to express their faith in Christianity. One such religious practice is that of baptism which functions as a significant milestone in the life of any

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

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?

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.

In Meredith Small’s article Our Babies, Ourselves she focuses on people’s social and psychological development through examining the different cultural aspects of raising a child. During this process she compares the American perspective of treating babies, to those of the Gusii and the Dutch. Throughout her examination many points are made that I believe can give the reader’s a valuable understanding of the impact of different means of parenthood on a child’s future development.

Two of The Agreements concern childbirth and childrearing. The first says “ We believe that marriage, childbirth and death are sacraments of our church.” The next says “We agree that child rearing and care of the elderly is a holy responsibility” (CITE). These describe the Farm’s commitment to midwifery as a spiritual and important practice for both members and non-members. These women are skilled in delivering children in a more traditional way with minimal medical intervention. The practice of midwifery is important to the Farm’s success because it effectively allows members of the Farm to interact and communicate with non-members and share the message of the Farm with others. The reputation of the Farm’s midwives as childbirth experts gives the Farm a credibility as it interacts with the larger society around it.

Father Boniface Hicks article, “Saint Joseph, Master of Virginal Begetting”, asserts that Saint Joseph plays an essential role in Jesus’ Incarnation. Hicks claims that because he begins this article saying that Msgr. Jean-Jacques Olier, who was the founder of the Sulpicians, assigned the seminarians of Saint Sulpice to the protection of Saint Joseph. Hicks’ purpose is to point out that even Saint Joseph was not the biological father of Jesus he has a real and valuable character in the generation of Christ. Consequently, he is a model for every priest because the priests have to generate Christ in their souls as Joseph did. Hicks is writing to seminarians in theological context and he tries to be contemporaneous quoting Pope Francis.

Throughout the course of organized religion both present and past, ritualistic acts of praise and worship have been practiced as a sign of both love and honor to God. Catholicism refers to these rituals as sacraments. As Christians and members of this faith, the first sacrament received by each member is Baptism. This sacrament has not only been practiced since the beginning of our faith, but has deep meaning and symbolic ties to the start of creation with Adam and Eve. I hope to prove through both illustration and published works how Baptism as a sacrament is both a sign and symbol of humanities desire to become closer to God by cleansing them of original sin through this ritual and rite of passage.

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.