Hw# 40 Part 3

You find yourself at a cocktail party with the author of the book you just finished reading. I quickly approached Tina Cassidy and asked for her autograph. To demonstrate that I really read it, I said, "Hey - thanks for writing Birth. Your main idea that throughout history the birthing process has been changed and transformed and how different aspects affect the birthing process was very helpful. I learned that hospital births are not always the most affective birth choice. Also the different individuals who had a significant part in the history of birth. This made me rethink the birthing process and made me feel that“change isn't always better” I feel strongly about this because of the affects on mothers from the transformation of midwives to doctors.

The author was surprised to be having a conversation with a seventeen year old without a child and who rephrased the main idea. She thought hardly anyone read the book. Cassidy said, "Really, which parts were most effective or important for you?" I smoothly answered, "Well, in the last third of the book you focused on the father’s duty in the birth process and the affect on the mother after she was able to give birth which further developed my knowledge on birth.  But let me be specify. I’ll show you why with these 2 pieces of evidence. Just to show you how much I enjoyed the book i’ll throw in the page numbers." And then you listed the top 3 ideas/pieces of evidence/insights/questions from that final third of the book.

1.Father’s role on pregnancy was significant but they also did not feel as much of a bond that the mother experienced through the birthing process. (209#)

2. Significance of afterbirth, specifically the placenta (#218)

3. How the mother is personally affected after birth, distinctly the bonding process.(#232)

Tina wasn’t to sure and confident about her book. She’s been wondering what she could have done to make it better since they day she published it. She ask’d me; "But what could I have done to make this a better book - that would more effectively fulfill its mission?" The best advice i could give you is to defiantly include, “a more passionate and emotionally vibe to the book. By doing this more people can have a bond with the text, especially woman who have experienced what you are trying to express.But I don't want you to feel like I'm criticizing. I appreciate the immense amount of labor you dedicated to this important issue and particularly for making me think about advantages of midwives and home births & how the mother and family is affected during and after birthing process. In fact, I'm likely to have a different input on hospital births after as a result of your book differently as a result of your book." The author replies, "Thanks! Talking to you gives me hope about our future as a society!"

Hw #39: Insights from book Part 2

Birth by Tina Cassidy is able to touch up upon the affects of a cesarean section. Cassidy is able to provide us with history of the surgical procedure. “The business of being born” does not display much about the affects and history of this frequent procedure.

Throughout the second 100 pages of the book “Birth” by Tina Cassidy she is able to describe the surgical method of a C- Section and the tools obstetrician and doctors use to perform the surgery of giving birth. Cassidy also explains the different ways females give birth and how the process has been altered over time. Cassidy is able to give statistics, history, and cesarean section stories to further explain this process. I believe that by further explaining this process the reader is able to notice the transformation of the operation throughout history. This information is very significant to our society because we will have the knowledge of the pro’s and con’s but most importantly the risk’s of a cesarean section.

5 interesting aspects:

1) Poor countries still use symphyseotomy today where more then a third of mothers and half of the amount of infants who are involved die.(106)

-“Birth rates in developed countries began to drop because of religious beliefs.”(119)

-C sections are more common for wealthy women because they want to keep figure but more frequently because they want to “plan” there birth date.(127)

-Instead of woman giving birth naturally, throughout history there have been more forceps used to deliver these babies.(168)

-All through history woman constantly would give birth in water and these births happened to be one of the safer ways to perform a pregnancy.(183)

Tina Casdiy’s claim was that C-sections happen to be more of a risk then vaginal birth. C-sections were now becoming more common not because woman had medical conditions but because woman wanted to plan their birth dates and skip the “hard work”. According to Wendy leonard; author of “C sections more common, less healthy for babies” Cassidy’s argument was valid and defensible. “While cesarean sections may be more convenient, as far as scheduling the birth of a baby and avoiding the last few uncomfortable weeks of a pregnancy, Branch said babies delivered before 39 weeks — the ideal gestational period — are also "more likely to have medical complications."(http://www.deseretnews.com/article/705364691/C-sections-more-common-less-healthy-for-baby.html)

This helps show that woman are taking away the natural process of their pregnancy. They are doing it for reason such as “convenience” for them but what can lie ahead of them could be an unhealthy baby.

#38 Insights

How the book is organized: 

“Birth” by Tina Cassidy is organized through small chapters. These chapters contain historical evidence and stories that significantly connect to the chapter’s main idea.

The major question the book is trying to answer is; Why are midwives neglected from the modern birthing process while the doctors are praised, even though midwives are statistically safer?

I believe that society see’s pregnancy as an illness and doctors are the only people who can cure this “illness”. Midwives were more popular in the 1800s and society feels they have to evolve from this process.

Interesting aspects

1)Midwives are more experienced then obstetrician

2)More mother’s die from obstetrician then midwives

3)At first woman felt they where “Guinea pigs” when obstetrician delivered babies

4)Hospitals and obstetrician don’t give much freedom to the mother’s of the babies they deliver compared to midwives

5)Home births were the most sufficient births 

Throughout the first 100 pages of the book Cassidy uses statistics and historical events to support her claims. This supporting evidence is truly beneficial because it gives one insight on the history of the topic. It explains the pro’s and con’s on the ideas and gives one enough intuition to understand her theories. The highest quality part of the statistical and historical events is that she plants them in stories. By planting them in stories it makes the book interesting and pleasure to read.

HW #37 Comments

Comments I made: 

Jasper: I believe you did a good job with this post for multiple reasons. The most significant reason why you did a good job with this post is because of your explanations of how people take on the process of pregnancy. You explained how your mother did things such as "read books" and "changed her diet". In the future to make your post stronger you should figure out other people's perspectives of birth. Not only figure out how the mother was affected by the birth but how the people around her (family, friends) where effected by the situation.

Amanda: The best part about your post was the three different outlooks you had examined on birth. It was also good how you the you made the people being interviewed elaborate on their answers; giving insight to their ideas. The most significant part of your post in my opinion was ; ""Its important to be prepared, to an extent but it is more important to trust the process [of giving birth], because its natural." This connects to the dominate cultures view on birth. This quote help shows that most people believe having children is what we are all suppose to do and is a standard majority of people follow.

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Comments I received:

Jasper: I thought this was really good I like how you listed out the key ideas in each interview and then went deeper into them after. My favorite part was: "In this interview the mother was concerned about the father's point of view about the pregnancy. I will like to do further research on how significant the mother believes the father's opinion is on the pregnancy. Also how important the father believes his opinion is on the pregnancy." This was interesting to me because it made me think about how both the mother and the fathers opinions on the pregnancy are important. The mother could want to keep the baby and the father doesn't want to (vise versa) but how will it affect the child and how will they feel about it? So it is interesting to think about who's decision is more important.

Christina/Mentor: Mentor/Mother: I enjoyed reading your post about the birth stories you collected, they were very interesting and also seemed very genuine. The most significant part of your post was in interview 3. Your awareness of the mother's concern for the father's outlook on pregnancy is very important. The Father's point of view is vital not only to the pregnancy but most importantly to the child.

Brandon/Protege: Cousin: I think the best part of your work was the question you asked at the end. I think it is because i find it interesting also how disease effects birth. Next time to make it better you maybe can ask more than one question since there were three different interviews.