Doing Soft Labor
When women, particularly young mothers, get together, occasionally the conversation will drift toward childbirth. You hear stories of long labors, mistakes made by doctors or nurses, cesarean sections, excruciating pain, complications, and so forth. Mothers are always eager to tell their "horror" story and will inform you of all the stories of friends and relatives, but sometimes, someone will come up with the story of the incredibly quick labor; and the woman who experiences that labor quickly becomes the envy, and most hated, of the group. Fortunately, I have been that woman twice, and frankly I'm proud of it, labor was one of the easiest tasks I've ever accomplished!
It was around May of 1991 that my husband and I found out that we were going to be parents for the first time and, honestly, it was the scariest thing I've ever heard! Not that I never wanted to become a mother, but I had been married a little over a year and I wasn't sure that we were ready. Beside that, all the stories I heard about labor were horrifying!! Who in this world wants to go through thirty-six hours of pain and suffering? I kept hearing Carol Burnett telling men to take their bottom lip, and pull it over the top of their head so they could experience the same pain. My mom even scared me when she told me that she went through twenty-six hours of labor before the doctors concluded that her pelvic bone was too small to allow my brother to come naturally, forcing a cesarean section. But after discussing this with my husband Chriss, he and I decided that this was meant to be, and quickly became elated over the prospect of hearing the precious cooing of an adorable baby in about six months.
Throughout my pregnancy, terrible though...
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...ppen. But they helped me into my gown and brought me into the beautiful birthing room, the first place my baby will ever see, and hooked me up to all the monitors and gizmos that, I guess, are necessary to have a baby with. Seconds later, it was time to push, and without any drugs, and a few cruel words from me to the nurse and Chriss, Nicole was born, in only twenty minutes. I know the pain was there, but after seeing my beautiful daughter, and knowing she was drug free and healthy, I cannot recall any of it; all the paranoia and stress amounted to just that, paranoia and stress.
Two years and almost one month later, Dr. Rotermund's colleague, Dr. Senior, decided to induce the labor of my second child to prevent a repeat, and again she was right. With a few threats shouted toward my husband and fifteen minutes from the onset of hard labor pains, Nadine was born.
She checks me, and tracks my surges. My surges are not as frequent as earlier so she recommends for me to sit on the birthing ball. I sit up right on the birthing ball, and lean back on Poet for support and those surges are coming now. I tense up, and my midwife's assistant beautifully guides me through each surge, encouraging me to relax instead of tense up with each contraction. After a while of being on the birthing ball, I am guided to the bathroom, and I sit on the toilet for a few of the surges and finally I am ready to get in the tub and begin pushing. I felt like I was never going to meet our baby. I felt like our baby was
I’m convinced that much learning has occurred in this course, both on your part and on mine. So I’m most interested in your telling me what you have learned, rather than asking questions on this exam that require you to demonstrate your learning. So, look back over the course and compose a page each on what you have learned about each of these course objectives.
Another valuable attribute I obtained after taking this course is the importance of turning assignments in ahead of time! Assignments are due at 11:59 and no late submissions will be graded.
In doing this project the literature drawn from is largely non-scholarly for the reason that I am prevailing upon the reader to think outside the box about birth. Most of the “scholarly” research that is available was written by doctors or nurses/nurse midwives who were trained in the medical model of birth. Since part of my premise is that the high rate of Cesarean sections is caused in part by viewing birth as a medical and therefore pathological event, and in part for its emergence as a capitalistic industry, it was then necessary to find literature written by people who have expertise in birthing though not from the traditional obstetrical/medical school approach.
Nevertheless, both heredity and environmental factors are important in constructing human behavior; however, I believe that the most prevalent one responsible for shaping our mental abilities and behaviors is the environment. To an extent, heredity serves its purpose; but further growth and development is established by the environment's influence on persons.
The event of childbirth is one that changes a person’s life. Women dream all their lives of holding their newborn child and raising them to be fine young men and women. Couples try, sometimes through many long and time-consuming methods, to conceive a child. And when that little bundle of life is born, nothing in the world is as wonderful.
Today, realising that genes and environment cooperate and interact synergistically, traditional dichotomy of nature vs. nurture is commonly seen as a false dichotomy. Especially operant conditioning, i.e. the learning of the consequences of one's own behavior can lead to positive feedback loops between genetic predispositions and behavioral consequences that render the question as to cause and effect nonsensical. Positive feedback has the inherent tendency to exponentially amplify any initial small differences. For example, an at birth negligible difference between two brothers in a gene affecting IQ to a small percentage, may lead to one discovering a book the will spark his interest in reading, while the other never gets to see that book. One becomes an avid reader who loves intellectual challenges while the other never finds a real interest in books, but hangs out with his friends more often. Eventually, the reading brother may end up with highly different IQ scores in standardized tests, simply because the book loving brother has had more opportunities to train his brain. Had both brother received identical environmental input, their IQ scores would hardly differ.
nurture argument. Theorists have wondered how much of development is affected by genetics and the environment. Ultimately, nature and nurture intertwine to shape the lives of children. Nature may predispose children to certain behaviors if placed in specific environments, however the timing of the environmental exposure and the child’s natural tendencies also play a role. Theorists have also discussed the extent to which development is universal and how much of it is unique to individuals. There are consistencies that have been noted universally yet; theorists have observed variations in their competency in different tasks and way of life that may be contributed to genetics or the environment. Lastly, theorists debate about whether changes in development can be portrayed as qualitative where it involves dramatic changes or quantitative in which development is a steady progression. These debates have merits independently but require each other for a better understanding of child
Every individual has a biological influence on their development; two individuals combine their genetic information to create a new organism, carrying biological predispositions that will shape their expressed behaviors and characteristics. However, Susan Griffin, author of the essay “Our Secret,” argues that while genetic influences are significant, they are not the sole contributors to an individual’s development. Throughout her essay, Griffin reveals to her readers that the presence of external, uncontrollable factors from an individual’s environment can be equally influential as they diverge the individual off of the predetermined path of life created by biological factors.
When a woman delivers in a hospital, she will do so either by vaginal delivery or Caesarean section (commonly referred to as a “C-section”). A Caesarean is considered major surgery, where the baby is delivered via abdominal incision. C-section deliveries are becoming increasingly common, from 5% of deliveries in 1970 to more than a quarter of all deliveries in 2002 (Landon, 2004). Although vaginal delivery is the natural method, Caesareans are sometimes necessary when the mother or baby cannot tolerate the stresses of labor and vaginal delivery, but the procedure is not without serious risks for complications. I began to wonder during my labor and delivery clinical rotation why it seemed to be common knowledge that women who had
As a mother, I am shocked and dismayed by the general acceptance of the myth of genetic determinism. One's environment, including people one interacts with, has an undeniable influence on how one develops. Nonetheless, many scientists disregard the impact of environment on one's intelligence. I do not deny that one's biology is a crucial part of one's identity. Inheritance of physical traits is obvious. Children often look "just like" their father or mother, or another relative. One's genes determine eye and hair color, height and body build. I believe, however, that what makes us human is not something that can be found in...
The hospital room holds all the usual scenery: rooms lining featureless walls, carts full of foreign devices and competent looking nurses ready to help whatever the need be. The side rails of the bed smell of plastic. The room is enveloped with the smell of plastic. A large bed protrudes from the wall. It moves from one stage to the next, with the labor, so that when you come to the "bearing" down stage, the stirrups can be put in place. The side rails of the bed provide more comfort than the hand of your coach, during each contraction. The mattress of the bed is truly uncomfortable for a woman in so much pain. The eager faces of your friends and family staring at your half naked body seem to be acceptabl...
“The term “nature versus nurture” is used to refer to a long-running scientific debate. The source of debate is the question of which has a greater influence on development: someone's innate characteristics provided by genetics, or someone's environment. In fact, the nature versus nurture debate has been largely termed obsolete by many researchers, because both innate characteristics and environment play a huge role in development, and they often intersect”. (Smith, 2010 p. 1)
Pregnancy can be an exciting and sometimes frightening experience for many women. It was a snowy Sunday afternoon, and I was not feeling very well. I remember all week long, every morning I felt nauseated. I was craving odd foods, and foods I normally would not eat together. I was on the phone with my best friend explaining to her how I was feeling. She said “It sounds like you are pregnant.” That thought never even crossed my mind until that moment. Sure enough she was right, I was pregnant for the first time. I was excited to have a baby and never realized how many emotions or complications can take place during a pregnancy. Everybody that I knew that had babies, had such wonderful experiences. Unfortunately, this happy moment became such a monumental, emotional and stressful time in my life. During my pregnancy, I went through many emotional experiences from almost losing my child, to the uncertainty of a birth defect and early delivery.
Joseph Lee describes childbirth as a pathologic process that damages both mothers and babies “often and much.” He said that if birth were properly viewed as a destructive pathology rather than as a normal function, “the midwife would be impossible even of mention.” In the first issue of the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, DeLee proposed a sequence of interventions designed to save women from the ‘evils natural to labor.” The interventions included routine use of sedatives, ether, episiotomies, and forceps. (Put Citation)