Pushed Births in America
Birth is a normal, physiological process, in which a woman’s body naturally prepares to expel the fetus within. It has occurred since the beginning of time. Unfortunately, childbirth has gradually evolved into what it is today - a highly managed whirlwind of unwarranted interventions. Jennifer Block, a journalist with over twelve years experience, has devoted herself to raising awareness regarding the authenticity of the Americanized standard of care in obstetrics, while guiding others to discover the truth behind the medical approach to birth in this country. In her book, Pushed: The Painful Truth About Childbirth and Modern Maternity Care, Jennifer Block brings forth startling truths concerning this country’s management of birth.
What Is a Pushed Birth?
As the title suggests, a “pushed” birth is one that is unnecessarily induced, and/or managed, with an abundance of unjustifiable intrusions. The title of the book describes the feelings of many American women who feel “pushed” into making drastic decisions – decisions that they may not be emotionally prepared for. Block expresses that the title of her book came long before she even wrote it (Block, 2007, page xiii). Through her many conversations with expectant mothers, she would often hear them express a desire for a non-interventional and natural birth. Unfortunately, many women “felt tremendous pressure from their medical providers to go against instinct and … to induce labor, to schedule a cesarean, to lie back during labor when every cell in their body felt like moving. Women are supposed to push their babies out; instead, they felt they were being pushed around” (Block, 2007, page xiii).
The purpose of this book is to expose the truth behind the med...
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...o find a balance between interventional and non-interventional birth. With this being said, I also understand that there are strict policies and protocols set in place, which I must abide to as a healthcare provider, in any birth setting. Unfortunately, these guidelines can be abused. Christiane Northrup, MD, a well recognized and respected obstetrician-gynecologist has gone as far as to tell her own daughters that they should not give birth in a hospital setting, with the safest place being home (Block, 2007, p. xxiii). Although I am not entirely against hospital births, I am a firm believe that normal, healthy pregnancies should be fully permissible to all midwives. However, high-risk pregnancies and births must remain the responsibility of skilled obstetricians. My heart’s desire is to do what is ultimately in the best interest of the mother, and her unborn child.
There where several parts of The Odyssey that lead me to choosing my topic, but there were two specific pieces that were the most influential. The first was in Book 9 when Odysseus seemed to have completely lost control, “Again I began to taunt the Cyclops-- men around me trying to check me, calm me,” (Homer, 226-227). This was really the first major pert that showed me something had changed about Odysseus due to the war. Many PTSD victims can get caught up in the moment of things not even remotely related to their trauma yet they still lose control and do things they wouldn’t have done originally. The next part that showed me PTSD in The Odyssey and lead me to choosing my topic was when Odysseus and his son reunite at last after 20 years and Odysseus did something he didn’t tend to do before he
The epic poem, The Odyssey, by Homer, is about the events that happen after The Iliad. It tells the story of Odysseus and his journey home from the Trojan War. Odysseus, the King of Ithaca, encounters forces that are external and internal. These forces prevent him from returning to his homeland and achieving nostos. Although many different forces impact Odysseus’ journey home, internal forces such as recklessness and temptations hinder Odysseus and his crew from their homecoming far more greatly than external forces.
Author Ursula K. LeGuin once said, “It is good to have an end to journey toward, but it is the journey that matters in the end.” The Odyssey is an epic poem told by Homer that is about a hero named Odysseus who faces many challenges on his journey home from the Trojan War. Even though Odysseus is a smart and strategic man, he still has many lessons to learn on his journey.
Cook, Selig, Wedge, and Gohn-Baube (1999) stated that an essential part of the country’s public health agenda is to improve access to prenatal care, particularly for economically disadvantaged women. I agree with this statement because access to care is very important for the outcome of a healthy mother and child. Improving access to prenatal care for disadvantaged women will not only save lives but also lighten the high financial, social, and emotional costs of caring for low weight babies. Some of the barriers that these women face are mainly structural where the availability of care is limited; the cost of care is a financial burden; and the time to seek care is problematic due to being single mothers working more than one job (Lia-Hoagberb, 1990). Additionally, there is the issue of prenatal care being delivered differently depending on one’s race. A study found that White mothers delivering ve...
Summary This Common Secret: My Journey as an Abortion Doctor is the autobiography of Susan Wicklund, an abortion doctor in the late 1980s to 2000s who started in Wisconsin. The book follows the life of Wicklund as she travels to different places to help women of all ages with choices regarding their pregnancy and the struggles she endures along the way. Often times, when she was going to work, protesters and others who were against abortion would bombard her and call her a murderer, a child killer, a terrorist and several other hateful things that threatened her daily life (Wicklund & Kesselheim, 2007).
How do you feel about home birth? When it comes to most peoples minds they most likely think that is just horde, and that they world never even think of baring there child that way. After reading this I hope that you will change you mind, or reconsider it. home birth is better then the hospital in many ways, and i'm going to share with you many of those ways with you. In the articular ( Midwifes alliance) is says, (Journal of Midwifery & Women’s Health (JMWH), a landmark study** confirms that among low-risk women, planned home births result in low rates of interventions without an increase in adverse outcomes for mothers and babies. This study, which examines nearly 17,000 courses of midwife-led care, is the largest analysis of planned home birth in the U.S. ever published.The
The Odyssey, a poem written by a man named Homer, who is illustrating the approach of Odysseus’ traveling home to grasp back his sovereign power as king in Ithaca, for ten years following the Trojan War. In the poem, Homer maneuvers numerous amounts of diction to add gruesome and agonizing tones to demonstrate the complications Odysseus’ and his crew mates go from the beginning to the end of the journey in southern Greece and cross the Indian Ocean. As a result of diction being applied from start to finish in the story, it establishes an understanding of the poem in an experiential approach for the audience.
Betty was only seventeen when she found out that she was pregnant. She and the father had been in a long term relationship, and had discussed having children of their own. However, when he found out that she was pregnant their relationship immediately changed. Suddenly he began to question her fidelity, and he accused her of being pregnant with another man’s baby. After his reaction, Betty decided not to tell anyone, especially because having a child out of wedlock was frowned upon. She began to search for an abortion clinic. She found one by looking through the telephone directory for gynecologists who did not advertise themselves as obstetricians. She went to meet the practitioner in a run-down shack in the middle of nowhere. Once Betty arrived, the practitioner immediately began the procedure. The method this practitioner used was a cervical puncture followed by an insertion of willow bark. Betty was given no pain medicine. After she left she began to bleed profusely and soon presented symptoms of an infection. Although the woman who performed the abortion told her not to come back, she did, and was given some painkillers. After a few days the infection appeared to have passed and her doctor told her she was no longer pregnant (Fadiman). Betty’s story is not a rare one. Many women suffered because of the unsafe conditions that they had endure to get an abortion after abortion was criminalized. These conditions were a direct result of new laws that punished women for attempting to procu...
Other writings such as Odysseus in America can provide examples of soldiers remaining in combat mode after war.
The range of perspectives from which the Odyssey is viewed produces sometimes essentially incompatible readings. These unreconciled differences derive not only from the different points of view that the poem leaves open to interpritation, but also from the extraordinary richness of its characters. When viewed as simply an action-adventure story, what happens to the hero is accidental, and the interest lies in a series of daring escapes brought about by the hero's cleverness, stamina, and tenacity; all admirable qualities, if not necessities. But the Odyssey, I am convinced, requires that one recognize its great spiritual significance at the same time that it recognizes Odysseus as a complex and typically human character. His success at the end of the poem is not accidental, but founded on the recognition and acceptance of his divine mission, and on harmonizing his own will with that of the divine. The purpose of my essay is to try and make clear those parallel distinctions fundamental to understanding both the Odyssey itself, and the assumptions it makes with respect to the relations between divine and human interactions.
“The Odyssey” is an epic poem that tells the story of Odysseus and the story of his many travels and adventures. The Odyssey tells the main character’s tale of his journey home to the island of Ithaca after spending ten years fighting in the Trojan War, and his adventures when he returns home and he is reunited with his family and close friends. This literary analysis will examine the story and its characters, relationships, major events, symbols and motifs, and literary devices.
The practice of abortion, which is the terminating of a pregnancy to avoid giving birth, has been in use for thousands of years, even dating back to the ancient times and when the early settlers had first arrived to the Americas. Due to lack of technology, some pregnancies were often terminated by use of herbs, sharpened tools, and even applying pressure to the abdomen, the NAF (National Abortion Federation) reported. As time went on and at the beginning of the 1800s, states began passing laws that made abortion illegal to keep immigrant numbers down. However, during this time, abortion was a very risky procedure. There were not many hospitals, antiseptics were inexistent, and many of the doctors were still in their early years of medical education. In the early 20th century in midst the inner cities, women would seek back alley abortions. Why would women seek out this dangerous procedure? Abortion was illegal at the time, so back alley abortions were the only way to go for women who were desperate enough t...
The elimination of elective delivery before 39 weeks of pregnancy without a clear medical indication was one noteworthy improvement as a result of the National Summit. Unnecessary elective deliveries place both mothers and babies at increased risk for complications and are not endorsed by American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, American Academy of Pediatrics, March of Dimes, or the Joint Commission (Chassin, 2013). According to Chassin (2013) the elimination of overuse could possibly be the most cost-effective way to improve the quality
To start this off, conception is the action of conceiving a child, and pregnancy is the period from conception to birth. They both share the same meaning: the process of getting pregnant. Conception happens when a sperm penetrates on one of the female’s eggs. Then, at around day 14 of a 28 day cycle, the egg leaves the ovary, and it is surrounded by a protective layer of cells. The fallopian tube is lined with cilia, which helps move the egg towards the womb. This is called ovulation. In the next 12-24 hours, the egg waits to be fertilized by a single sperm. The sperm then swims through the womb to meet the egg in the fallopian tube. And the sperm secretes enzymes to help penetrate the outer layer of the egg. Once the
As premature birth rates in Ireland are rising it is of paramount importance that the quality of the health care available to premature infants be assessed. It is important to establish a functioning and high quality health care system for these vulnerable infants, which is why a great deal of research has gone into establishing the causes and effects of prematurity, on both infant and parent, as well as research into the quality and availability of health care.