Nurse Midwife Specialty Paper Colleen M. Slevin Carroll Community College Being among the most highly trained in the field of registered nursing positions, nurse midwives have been bettering women’s health care and the birthing process for centuries. Nurse midwifery can be traced all the way back to the Biblical era from 2200 BC to 1700 BC. During these times, witchcraft and magic was a prevalent fear and since women at this time were not formally educated, it was thought that their talent and understanding of birth, a mystery of life to many at this time, was due to a supernatural force. For these reasons, during births at this time, a Rabbi would attend in case of a difficult delivery. In 2013 as Barnawi, Richter and Habib stated “. . .difficult delivery was seen as caused by witchcraft or black magic and it was believed that only a Rabbi could break this spell” (p.115). However, midwifery during this time was a widely respected practice and was solely performed by women who were among appropriate child bearing ages. Their role encompassed a wide variety of practice still used by midwives today such as management of pregnancies, vaginal exams, utilization of a birthing stool, and identifying fetal gender at birth. According to Barnawi et. al “The biblical era was the golden period in the history of midwifery in which women empowerment had an active role in framing some concepts of professionalism in midwifery” (2013, p.115). Although nurse
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.
Men die in battle; women die in childbirth” (Gregory 1). This quote from the historical novel “The Red Queen” presents a straightforward reality that women and men believed before the advancements of modern medicine. In accordance with past social norms the time periods between the 17th and 19th century have shown that women would always hold the role as the weaker sex. Between the prejudice of men who considered themselves superior and the way history portrayed woman in a submissive light, there was no understanding of what women experienced throughout their lives. There may have been a few incidences that made an appearance here or there, but their significance would soon lose recognition in the masses of that time. Unfortunately, the only role that was considerably memorable for women during these eras was marrying into a well-off family and producing children. Still, even in this aspect of their lives women were viewed as inadequate. Childbirth held no advantage for men and midwifery was considered a profession that only a woman would be fitted for. In the late 1800’s a prominent surgeon by the name Sir Anthony Carlisle even went as far as to say that midwifery was a “humiliating office” and therefore “suitable only to women”( Massey 1). However, comments and thoughts like this would prove to be invalid as men became more immersed in the practice of childbirth. Fear of death led women of higher status away from traditional practices of female midwifery and they turned
Most Americans associate hospitals to be the standard place where women can give birth. However, women did not always deliver in hospitals. Gynecology, the medical practice dealing with the female reproductive system, did not emerge until the early nineteenth century. Before doctors came along, women used to hire midwives to deliver babies in the comfort of their own homes. In this paper I will examine the social, political, and scientific implications of how giving birth has transitioned from being a midwife’s job into that of a doctor’s. Furthermore, I will attempt to show how these implications intersect together to make birth a feminist issue. To support my argument, I will be referencing Tina Cassidy’s “The Dawn of the Doctors,” Abby Epstein’s documentary film The Business of Being Born, and Eesha Pandit’s article “America’s secret history of forced sterilization: Remembering a disturbing and not-so-distant past.” I argue that the processes surrounding birth are intersectional feminist issues because they are often manipulated by male figures pursuing money and authority, which ultimately compromises women’s health and power of choice.
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
Prenatal care is an important part of insuring the wellness of a baby. In the early 20th century, prenatal care was just starting to become an emphasized area of health for women. High infant mortality rates were starting to raise questions as to what could be done to help protect the fetus and insure a healthy childbirth and baby. Kansas attempted to raise awareness of the importance of prenatal care to the general public starting in the early 1900s with “The Kansas Mother’s Manual.” Many women in Kansas followed the guidelines issued within the handbooks, lectures, and posters. Yet, the women in the Southeast Kansas coal mining towns were disadvantaged when it came to prenatal care and childbirth. Infant mortality rates were quite high
Today i was trying to work on the printing assignment, but it started to bleed through the screen after multiple attempts. I had to leave without finishing due to my next class and couldn't come to your class today because of a family issue. I was wondering if i would be able to have your help in finding out what i was doing wrong. I can not meet with you tomorrow during your office hours, but i can after 9am - 140pm or on Wednesday during your office times. Thank you
While studying nursing in France and Great Britain, Mary was trained in all aspects of midwifery and public health. Seeing the way nurse-midwives met needs of birthing women and children, Mary
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
Multiple options were available for women who were birthing but none were particularly effective. Primarily these consisted of herbal remedies, folk medicine, and devoted prayers. Medical treatments for childbirth throughout the Renaissance included rubbing the area between the ribcage and the hips of the expectant mother with rose oil, giving her sugar and vinegar to drink, or applying a moist mass of ivory or eagles dung to relieve soreness and inflammation.
Childbirth was very dangerous in the fifteenth century. Woman would get married at the age of fifteen and nineteen. Then would have children at the age of twenty and twenty-four. Women would be having five to ten children. When the woman found she was pregnant she would make out her will. Weather they were months or years apart they would just keep having children without them knowing the dangers of giving birth. The old method of birth control they had was breastfeeding wish was nature's way of spacing out children. If the mother didn't breastfeed then they believed they would get pregnant more. They also didn’t believe in birth control. They didn’t deliver their babies in the hospital they delivered them at their own home. The more kids
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.
This paper will focus on the differences and conflicts between doctors and midwifes. Doctors have been been the lead care providers for women for hundreds of years. Just short of one-hundred years ago Mary Breckinridge became the first midwife in the united states. Today there doctors and midwives have an ongoing feud. Many doctors feel as if midwives are uneducated and are not trained enough to provide health care to women, and do not agree with their more natural approach to child birth. However there conflict is slowly but surly being resolved, as many health care facilities are allowing midwives to have more authority in the work place. Secondly, this paper will go over the differences between doctors and midwives, many people are uneducated
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
Corruption in the justice system can take place at any time beginning with a criminal investigation or when a lawsuit is filed down to the courts decisions. Corruption often occurs at stages where the public cannot see it. Much of the corruption in the justice system is not easy to expose or prove (Pepys, 2003).
Technology in education is not a new concept, especially at the college level. Universities are encouraged to offer online courses, or as freelance journalist Chrissie Long and many other experts call them, MOOCs (massive online open courses), to reach out to more students and provide them with a more convenient style of learning (455). While MOOCs certainly have their strengths, how far should universities go? What is the future of online education? Should colleges of the future only offer online courses, or should face-to-face classes still be the primary form of education? Blended courses, though not without faults of their own, can combine the best elements of