In the documentary, Babies by Thomas Balmés, the hillsides of Mongolia held a humble farming family. The mother, father and expected newborn traveled to a remote hospital for the birth. Once the baby was born, the nurse tightly bound the infant in several blankets with two strong ropes. This was the first action that struck me as odd. I was uneasy at the sight of the immovable baby. Could it breath properly? Would the constricting blankets break the infant's fragile bones? These were a few of the questions I had racing through my mind during this moment. As the family was preparing to leave the hospital, the father rode up on his motorcycle with limited room for the mother and her newborn. Once the mother and her baby mounted the motorcycle, the mother clutched her child with one arm and held onto her husband with the other. The grassy hills had no paved roads and the …show more content…
The family did not possess a car and could not have walked the extended distance to the hospital, thus, the motorcycle was the best option. Binding the baby so tightly may have been to protect the newborn from the motorcycle. Just like a helmet and knee pads, all of the blankets could have acted as protection for the child. The hills of Mongolia don’t have many other inhabitants, making the drive easier for the father. As the baby grew older, the parents were shown taking care of him less and less, however, it’s sibling, a toddler, undertook the baby’s care to help their parents. Working on a farm is tedious work, so while the mother and father attended to their duties, the baby remained with it’s sibling. The baby was also commonly surrounded by farm animals, which never harmed the child and kept the baby entertained. The infant’s weird pacifier made of meat and a match stick is just another demonstration of the families abilities. While they didn’t have typical plastic pacifier, the family made due with what they
Whenever Sira, Aminata’s mother went to help women deliver their babies, Aminata would go along too. She would watch and help her mother, eventually le...
That thing in the Dumpster--and he refused to call it human, let alone a baby--was nobody's business but his and China's. That's what he'd told his attorney, Mrs. Teagues, and his mother and her boyfriend,and he'd told them over and over again: I didn't do anything wrong. Even if it was alive, and it was, he knew in his heart that it was, even before the state prosecutor represented evidence of blunt-force trauma and death by asphyxiation and exposure, it didn't matter, or shouldn't have mattered. There was no baby. There was nothing but a mistake, a mistake clothed in blood and mucus. When he really thought about it, thought it through on its merits and dissected all his mother's pathetic arguments about where he'd be today if she'd felt as he did when she was pregnant herself, he hardened like a rock, like sand turning to stone under all the pressure the planet can bring to bear. Another unwanted child in an overpopulated world? They should have given him a medal. (623)
She bore in her arms a child, a baby of some three months old, who winked and turned aside its little face from the too vivid light of day; because its experience, heretofore, had brought it acquainted only with the gray twilight of a dungeon, or other darksome apartment of the prison (49).
The movie Titus directed by Julie Taymor a well awarded director who has created many visual arts, made countless thought-provoking choices when directing Titus, a movie based off the book Titus Andronicus by William Shakespeare. Titus Andronicus is a tragedy highlighting Titus, a roman general that becomes obsessed with getting revenge with Tamora, a previous prisoner of his and the Queen of Goths. When Taymor directed the film Titus she incorporated many aspects from the present (when the movie was made) and the era the book was written in, during Shakespearean times, to relate to the audience at that time and still remain true to the story. She tried her best to stay as close to the book as possible and portray the characters as well as they could be interpreted. In some illustrations she was spot on and in others she was not.
Million Dollar Baby Million Dollar Baby, Clint Eastwood’s latest movie as a director, has been getting more and more positive reviews recently and it is even better than Mystic River. At first glance, the film looks like another boxing movie cliché. However, Eastwood has succeeded in creating a compelling and moving story about the intricate world of human relationships, the price of success and the realization of dreams. The movie explores many different subject matters. Million Dollar Baby is about friendship and respect.
Infanticide is a way to alter the reproductive stream before the child has the status of a real person, which is culturally defined (source). The deaths of weak, illegitimate, excess, deformed and unwanted infants are not defined as murder when the infants have not yet been born into the social world. Infanticide occurs cross-culturally for a multitude of causes. The reasons for infanticide can be summed up into three categories: biological (including the health of the child and twin stigmas), economical (relation to other children, women's workload, and available resources) and cultural (preferred gender, illegitimate children). This essay will examine cross-culturally the biological, economic and cultural factors for infanticide.
All of the tears, grief, and heartbreak of parents, family, and friends combine to transform into something much greater. Infant mortality is caused by a variety of factors including cultural, environmental, and health issues. In addition, statistics can also be based off geography, poverty, and race. It is evident that some countries, like Finland, are doing much better in their attempts to provide for expecting mothers and their newborns. Unfortunately, some countries just do not have the means to do so, such as
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.
She was given her due date, July 17. Shortly after, she would feel the thump, thump of mine and my sisters ' kicks against her stomach, you could even see our hand and foot-prints extending out from her stomach. On the 22 of may, my mother was awoken in horror, surrounded in a puddle of blood. She was rushed to the hospital where she was told she had hemorrhaged, one of her children went into respiratory distress, and she had placental abruption which caused the hemorrhaging. An emergency C-section was needed immediately if she wanted my sister and me to live. They wheeled her in, and began the procedure. At 7:40 in the morning, my sister was taken from my mothers uterus, not breathing or eating; I followed two minutes later, perfectly healthy. A breathing tube was placed into my sister, pumping her small fragile lungs with essential oxygen, and later a feeding tube was placed. Because of our prematurity, we were extremely small. My sister, who my mother decided on naming Taylor, weighed four pounds two ounces, I was three pounds twelve ounces. We had to be incubated until was at a healthy weight for an infant, and until Taylor reached the breathing and feeding stage. We shared an incubator, I would scoot towards her. Doctors were not sure whether I did this to make sure she was okay, to protect her, to give her warmth, or because we were in the same position in the womb. They released us from the hospital a few weeks later
After reading the book which mentions the maternal and neonatal situation in Mali, one of the poorest countries in the world, is pitiable. (1) Child birth takes place under lantern light, in Mud bricks with profuse sweating without electricity, no running water, no emergency backup. With only the grace of God and the skill of a midwife that child birth takes place in remote villages in the country of Mali, West Africa, having the third highest total fertility
Babies is a 2010 French film, by Thomas Balmes, that follows four babies from birth to their first steps around the world. Two of the babies are from rural areas: Panijao from Opuwo, Namibia, and Bayarjargal from Bayanchandmani, Mongolia. The other two babies are from urban areas: Mari from Tokyo, Japan, and Hattie from San Francisco, United States. This documentary is different because the whole film is from the babies perceptive. Everything that is shot is at the babies level. There is very little dialogue throughout this film. The focus is not on the parents at all. You will see the parent’s faces through out the film. But mostly all you see is nipples, arms, hands and their chest. You see the parts the baby tends to have the most interest
The procedure, known as the ‘Strange Situation’, was conducted by observing the behavior of the infant in a series of eight episodes lasting approximately 3 minutes each:
Babies is a documentary that centers around four diverse infants throughout their first year on Earth. These four babies are born in four different areas of the world. The film demonstrates how people from different parts of the world can grow up completely different than other parts, while still sharing many similarities. Ponijao is an African baby who is born in Opuwo, Namibia. Mari is a young Japanese girl who was born in Tokyo, Japan. Bayar is a baby who was born in Bayanchandmani, Mongolia. The fourth baby’s name is Hattie, born in San Francisco, California. While viewing the documentary, many theories and concepts in psychology are portrayed.
Water birth is definitely something different from a live birth in a hospital or in any other place such as the car. In the video I watched, the women was giving labor in a birth center. The birth center looks very calm and relaxing, they even had inspiring quotes. For instance, “She believed she could. So she did.” is one of the inspiring quotes they have hang up on their walls. This quote was located close to the big tube in where the mother gave labor. The labor video started off by showing how the father was sitting in a position where he was in back of the women and hugging her from the back. This makes me think that they are in this position to make the labor less complicated. Near the tub, there was also a doctor telling the mother what to do and motivating her. For example in a time where the mother was complaining the women told her “take it slow” and “stretch your back.” The doctor also advised her to open her legs more to make it easier. Which actually worked because when she opened her legs more is when she was able to give birth. When the baby was born the mother herself grab the baby and she put it on her chest. After that, they cut the baby’s belly core and then the parents and the baby went to rest to the bed. Some few minutes later they all went back to the tube. Finally, after getting out the tub the doctor was able to check the baby’s heartbeat, did some footprints, measure her weight and
The movie “In Time” takes place in a world where time has become the currency. People use time ultimately to stay alive, to pay for rent, and pay for foods and goods. Once you hit the age of 25, you stop aging but you’re genetically engineered to live only one more year unless you can buy your way out of it. The people who live the longest are the wealthiest people, they can live forever and are essentially immortal. The rest of the people who live in the ghettos live day by day by working very low paying jobs, stealing or begging for time. When the clock on the persons arm hits zero they die. Time on these clocks has become the universal currency; by touching arms, one person can transfer it to another, or to or from a separate clock that can be shipped or safely stored in a "time bank". The country is divided into "time zones" based on the wealth of its population. We have a saying that many people use today “Time is money” but in this movie Time is literally money. “In time” relates to the topic of macroeconomics greatly. This movie brings up many topics in economics such as distribution of wealth, labor force, scarcity and inflation. It shows us how differently people look at the economy when the currency is no longer physical money and how there is a separation in the rich and poor.