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.

HW #36: Pregnancy Stories

First Interview: 

Question: How did the experience effect you physically and emotionally?

A: “Physically it was better then one would believe. I am diagnosed with crohns diesese and the process of my pregnancy was the time the disease effected me the least. Emotionally it was a challenge being that got pregnant at the age of 19, I was not ready for a child.”

Question: What was the most significant thing you did to make sure your pregnancy went as smooth as possible?

A: I was very active, I still worked, & walked more then usual. I also would swim alot and even played games with my children being that i was a camp consoler.”

Question: What was the worst part of your pregnancy?”

A: The worst part was that my family did not approve of me having a child and defiantly did not approve of the father of the child at the time. This made things very difficult”

Question: What were you first feelings after finding out you were pregnant?

A: I was scared for my life, I didn't know how i would tell my parents and didn’t know how I would take care of the child, but i knew I would have it.

Interesting, informative, insightful 

1: Immaturity leads to stress

2: Rejection from family is very common

3: Not everyone has a painful and stressful pregnancy

When some people think about birth they look at birth as a burden. Usually the people who look at birth as a burden are people who struggle financially. Maturity factors are significant on how well the process will go. These components of pregnancy and birth connect to the dominate social culture's view that pregnancy can be a burden. When individuals wonder about birth they assume the physical process is stressful and painful. In this case the mother was in a better physical condition while pregnant.


Second interview:

Question: How did the experience effect you physically and emotionally?

A: “I was Huge! I was also anemic at the time because of the pregnancy. Things became very annoying making this more stressful.”

Question: What was the most significant thing you did to make sure your pregnancy went as smooth as possible?

A: “Sleeping, all i did was sleep. I was more lazy then ever and was paranoid about everything so II knew by resting nothing wrong could happen.”

Question: What was the worst part of your pregnancy?”

A: Going back and forth to the doctor because i was anemic. The hospital visits were very irritating.”

Question: What were you first feelings after finding out you were pregnant?

A: Excited, out of my four children this was the only one i planned to have. I couldn’t wait for the her to pop out.”

Interesting, informative, insightful

1: People want whats best for their child so they become very paranoid about the safety of the child.

2: Birth and pregnancy doesn't have to bring stress into your life but excitement.

Pregnancy and birth often brings excitement to a family. People also want whats best for their child and majority of the time its a better life then they had. This is when paranoia kicks in and the mother becomes over protective of the unborn child. Mother's actions are also altered by the pregnancy process, usually excessive eating and excessive sleeping.

Third Interview 

Question: How did the experience effect you physically and emotionally?

A:“Hated it both physically and emotionally, I was a mess.”

Question: What was the most significant thing you did to make sure your pregnancy  went as smooth as possible?

A:“I just did what ever the doctor told me to do.”

Question: What was the worst part of your pregnancy?”

A:“The 18 hours I was in Labor, I never felt so much pain in my life but it was worth it.”

Question: What were you first feelings after finding out you were pregnant?

A:“I was confused about what i should do being that I was still young and did not really have my life together. Also what would my boyfriend think, would he want me to keep it or get rid of it?”

Interesting, Informative, Insightful

1: Concern for partners opinion on the pregnancy 

2: Pregnancy is a long and stressful process

3: Mothers go through pain, frustration, and stress for the satisfaction of having and loving a child they could call their own.

This interview followed the dominant culture's view on pregnancy that it is a painful and stressful process. 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.

After interviewing three woman about the process of their pregnancy I am curious and will like to explore how diseases and illness have an impact on birth and pregnancy?

Hw #35 Interview

For the start of the birth unit I interviewed my close friend(17), older brother(18), and my older cousin(20). The people I interviewed had fairly similar answers to questions such as; “what is the dominant culture’s view on birth?” “What are your first thoughts when you think about birth?” & “How important is the doctor’s role in the birth process?” Overall they all thought that birth is extremely significant and has a severe impact on everyone no matter the culture or social class. When asked “what are your first thoughts on birth?” My brother rapidly responded; “Don’t have a baby” This response helped show the dominate culture's view on birth, majority of people see it as a burden and try to avoid it. Later while asking my older cousin the same question she responded with the same answer but the difference between the two was that she already had a child. It was interesting to hear this because it proved that people tend to stay the same no matter the background and experiences they have.

The interviews helped me come to the conclusion that most people look at birth as a burden unless they are financially stable. These interviews also helped show that most people want a better life for their children then the life they had. I came to this conclusion because of one of the answer’s my older cousin gave. She answered “don't have a baby unless you are ready for one” I believe that she meant financially ready and mentally ready by this. Society can see birth as a burden or a celebration according to the financial situation and maturity situation someone is in. The immaturity and financial problems lead to the idea of birth being a burden. Being that an individual has maturity and financial problems they have much stress to deal with already. The baby will only lead to more stress because of the more financial problems they will create. This idea can completely change if a person is mature and financially stable. Being mature and financially stable will lead to the celebration idea. Money is a key component to baby because of the necessities they have. Being mature is the most significant part, babies need constant and extra care. Immaturity does not go along well with having a child. By being ready in stable in these situations society see’s birth not only as a celebration but as a blessing to the family.

Hw #34 Initial thoughts on Birth

When I hear the word Birth I tend to think about: babies, pain, and a nine moth process. Birth is something that I never put much thought into and was concerned about until now. One of the aspects I am truly curious about is the process of birth itself. We are customarily taught that the process of birth takes approximately nine months. A Question that is captivating to me is; which part of the pregnancy are babies lost the most? Even though Birth is the act of bringing another life into this world, death plays a large role of the process. Not only are babies occasionally lost in the process but the bearer’s are as well. In relation too our previous unit on illness and dying I am curious to figure out finer reasons on how death and birth relate.

In our society today religion plays a huge factor on how we view and interpret things. Being that birth is a one of the most significant elements to maintaining the human population, how does religion affect the process and life after birth? When individuals think about birth a considerable amount think about the physical pain. How substantial is the emotional part of the process and life after birth? I believe this question can lead to many justifications of why babies are put up for adoptions and why there is such an immense amount of abortions performed in our society.

How is pregnancy and birth recognized in other countries and cultures then our own?

How come the partner of the bearer has less of a say in the process of the pregnancy?

Which plays a bigger concern on the carrier’s well-being; emotional or physical pain?