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Birthing practices of united states
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Historical Perspectives on Birth: Part Two
There were two contrasting views presented in the book The Birth House. In spite of the fact that many of women, in the small community located in Nova Scotia, had experienced safe, natural-deliveries with assistance from the towns’ midwife, Miss Babineau, it appeared that a great deal of them quickly adopted Dr. Thomas’s views regarding childbirth. Sadly, practices they once considered safe, were challenged and dramatically portrayed as dangerous and less sophisticated. Dr. Thomas manipulated women’s thinking and judgement, through statements such as “most homes, even the nicest, cleanest of homes, do not meet today's medical standards for childbirth, and as caring as Miss Babineau is, there’s proper
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Thomas and Miss Babineau in The Birth House, well when she noted that it was “split along gender and philosophical lines” (p. 132). The dishonest practices implemented by early obstetricians, such as Smellie’s fraudulent dressing to preserve his identity in the event of a poor outcome (Cassidy, 2007, p. 134) and Dr. Thomas’s insinuation that midwives could not offer “reasonable assistance during childbirth” (McKay, 2009, p. 36), indicated the change in culture that took place during the inception of obstetric practices. Although certain advancements improved maternal and infant mortality and wellbeing, such as Semmelweis’s discovery regarding hand hygiene (Dick-Read, 2013, p. 5) and Dick-Read’s findings regarding the relationship between the sympathetic nervous response and birth progression (Cassidy, 2007, p. 145), following my exploration of the evolution of women’s healthcare through the Dawn of Doctors and The Birth House, it was clear that women have endured men’s unethical practices and have suffered from corrupted perceptions regarding …show more content…
However, it was evident that the impetuous confidence women had in male physicians was also the result of the influential power and superior role the male gender had. Sadly, transitioning care from homes to medical centers and allowing the transfer of care from wise women who had gained their knowledge through experience and the sharing of information from previous generations to obstetricians who were merely book trained (Cassidy, 2007, p.132), ultimately suppressed women’s power, strength, and freedom by not allowing them to direct their own care. Unlike the midwives, who encouraged women to remain in their homes and preform traditions such as making groaning cakes as Mabel wished (McKay, 2009, p. 55), physician’s striped woman from their ability to be in control. In fact, anesthesia, referred to as “twilight sleep” in The Birth House, was even noted to be administered to cause laboring women to have no memories regarding the birthing process which often included dangerous interventions and the use of new surgical instruments such as forceps (McKay, 2009, p. 103). The lack of liberty women had to voice their own wishes and make their own decisions is disheartening and almost surprising due to the freedom I have experienced throughout my
Mary Zimmerman framed that women have not had ultimate control over their own bodies and health as a fundamental assumption underlying women’s health movement. Men control and dominate a huge portion of the of decision making roles in the healthcare field, such as health related research, health policy etc. Whereas women are more seen in social positions. According to the article “The Women’s Health Movement” by Mary K. Zimmerman, the concept of medicalization is the “increasing tendency to apply medical definitions and control to phenomena not previously thought of as medical problems (Zola, 1972; Conrad and Schneider, 1980). In the 1950’s a drug called Thalidomide was created by a German company, claiming that it was safe for pregnant women. Although many women were still using this drug during this time, in 1961, reports began to surface that this drug was causing several birth defects and other health problems. The author presented the Thalidomide case as an example of medicalization by showing us the potential consequences of a style medical
This lecture on the Pill will focus on the introduction, controversies, and outcome of women’s control of contraception during the mid 20th century. It will also discuss how the Pill became an influential stepping-stone for women activists. I chose to focus this discussion on three questions. First, what did the Pill teach us about the role of women in the middle 20th century? Second, what were the arguments for and against the Pill? Lastly, how safe was the Pill and what effects did women experience from taking it? By centering in on these questions, I hope to provide insight on the struggles women faced before and after this birth control technology became readily available to women in the United States.
“The Birth-Mark” was written in 1844; by Nathaniel Hawthorne. The story describes Aylmer as a successful scientist. He discovers many mysteries of nature, such as what causes volcanoes and earthquakes; however, it is ironic that even though the story was written in the 1840s, which was the peak of the second great awakening, Aylmer did not believe in God. Georgiana is Aylmer’s faithful wife. She is born with a birth-mark in the form of a very tiny hand on her left cheek.
Childbirth was the leading cause of death among young women. Approximately 20% of women died in childbirth because of poor medical care. Women who were poor had a lifespan of about 40 years (Trueman, “Medieval Women”). A caesarean section was normally only performed if the mother was dead or dying as it was in...
Although abortions were very dangerous, as well as socially unacceptable during the nineteenth century, women were not altogether unable to obtain abortions and many suffered accusations of infanticide. Here I will present a few of the more famous cases from the period, demonstrating the occurrence of abortion, the availability of providers, and the consequences faced by those who necessitated the procedure.
Women throughout time have been compelled to cope with the remonstrances of motherhood along with society’s anticipations
Monique was the midwife and practitioner of her small village of Nampossela. She helped mothers fight child malnutrition and illness, and did pregnancy consultations, including birth. She was one of a kind, extraordinary at that, and became so popular in her village and surrounding villages that she had women from six different villages coming to her, totaling up to a hundred and forty prenatal consultations a month and birthing more than ten babies (Page 199). Monique opened the clinic early each day, and would stay late into the evenings to care to her pregnant patients. The conditions of the birthing house were horrific. “The structure’s cement venner was chipped and failing, revealing mud brick. A corner of the corrugated tin roof gaped” (Page 6). Covering a majority of the birthing room “was an immense concrete block that served as the delivery table” (Page 6), and adjacent to that was a “plastic tub for the afterbirth, a medical kit in a tin box, and a frayed birth ledger” (Page 7). Giving birth in Mali in the twentieth century was light years away from the luxurious childbirth in the States. All Monique had was “simple tools, clean hands, and a sharp mind. If a woman needed an IV, or a Cesarean section, or a fetal monitor, it was not an option” (Page 89). Medication was not offered to ease the pain and induce labor, a
... the United States, the simple and hard work of the midwife Monique sharply contrasts Holloway’s perspective. With the death of Bintou during childbirth, Holloway realizes the reality of the situations Monique and other midwives faced everyday (88). When complications emerge, midwives lack the equipment to help save the mother and child. In the United States, children are normally born in a hospital or within a drive away from a health center.
Ami McKay’s The Birth House follows Dora Rare through her life in Scots Bay. Facing challenges at every turn, women in the town find it difficult to live as others threaten their ability to live comfortable in their society. Reclaiming their rights to their own body becomes challenging as the ever changing dynamics between males and females affects the lives those living in Scots Bay. In a time of societal and medical advancement during World War I, McKay explores themes of male dominance, feminism, and the medicalization of childbirth.
Wood, Ann Douglas. "'The Fashionable Diseases': Women's Complaints and Their Treatment in Nineteenth-Century America." Women and Health in America. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, Ltd., 1984.
Margaret Sanger was, at large, a birth control activist, but this speech was more about the questioning of birth control corrupting morality in women. People must remember, in the day and age where Sanger presented this speech, November 1921, women were considered very far from equal and much closer to servants or maids. In her speech, I saw that ethos was present in the sense that she gave herself credibility. Through Sanger’s detailed words and actions, and her statements including the presence of scientists and, or, professionals, the masses of listening people could infer that she was very well informed and solid in her statements. Though she presented herself as agreeable, Sanger was firm in her beliefs. In addition, Sanger says, “We desire to stop at its source the disease, poverty and feeble-mindedness and insanity which exist today, for these lower the standards of civilization and make for race deterioration. We know that the masses of people are growing wiser and are using their own minds to decide their individual conduct” (Sanger, par.15). To me, Sanger made herself appeal to the audience by using the word ‘we.’ In the practice of ethos, this focused on the author more than...
Though, it is work of Monique as a midwife which makes this book predominantly useful for learning the cultural dynamics in Mali of sexuality, childbirth and reproductive health of women. The young midwife Monique Dembele working in Nampossela and to the east of Bamako, the Malian villages, is the center of this appealing narrative penned by Kris Holloway who was helping in the Peace Corps in Mali from 1989 to 1991. Kris as instructed by Monique assists in midwifery work in the small, ruined birthing house, which was built by the Chinese in an earlier initiative of
Goody Osburn were midwife to me three times. I begged my husband, I begged him not to call Osburn because I feared her. My babies always shriveled in her hands!”-Mrs. Putnam
For one woman, this vision of childbirth is not the norm. Ana Rhodes is a midwife, and she is one of the only birth attendants available to...
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...