One night at a Cocktail party… Sarah runs into Jennifer Block…
"Hey - thanks for writing Pushed. Your emphasis on the importance of a woman’s right to choose really made me rethink about the way our country approaches pregnancy and birth.
But Jennifer was surprised to be talking to someone who instead of sharing their own birth story actually rephrased the main idea of the text she had spent months giving birth to and asked, "Really, which parts were most effective or important for you?"
"Well, in the last third of the book you focused on the struggle of woman and how they are intertwined within the institutions which further developed the first 2/3rds of Pushed. But let me be more specific."
“You discussed the amount of tension between the hospitals, the midwives and the mothers. The power struggle between whose voice is the most important in the time of birth. I happen to have my copy of Pushed with me, on page 212 you quoted mid-wife Betty-Anne Daviss, “That’s the way medicine works. That is the way midwives and physicians work all around the world, and very well together… The trouble and the increased risk to mothers and babies, come in states where medical and state authority don’t recognize midwives’ role in maternity care and react with hostility. “And that is a problem,” says Daviss, “because what it means is that they’re not willing to recognize the woman’s choice in that community.” Before reading your book I was very unaware of the lack of voice the mother has within a hospital. When the media portrays pregnancy they make it out to be a quick, loud and painful experience. There is no mention of the induced c-sections and the forced drugs, it almost makes it seem as though the media purposely hides the truth because our society doesn’t want women using a different method, or shifting the “normal”.”
“I was speechless at the beginning of Chapter Eight, entitled ‘Rights’, You begin with mentioning that Laura Pemberton had been, “forced out my home by armed men,” as she tells it, while attempting birth (249), you continue on page 251 by saying, “A judge had issued a court order, and he had no choice but to take me in.” First of all, at this point in time I cannot imagine giving birth but let alone being disrupted by literally complete strangers who were there to ruin a moment that is irreplaceable… It seems as though people are constantly trying to take away the natural and bring in the forcefulness.”
“Lastly, when you go into the sub-chapter of A Scattered Minority on page 262, I was fascinated by your simple yet complex questions… “Who owns birth? Women or doctors? A perinatologist who experienced the births of his children at home explains to me why the hospital is a strange place for a normal birth. “If you’re a first time mom, you’re strong, and you’re scared to death. And when you’re strong and scared to death, you can’t relax and let the baby fall in your pelvis… nobody’s helping you to relax.” It’s almost to say that hospitals are intentionally set up to turn on your headlights. When I think of hospitals I think of death and sick people, someone who is at the end, who has little or no hope and are simply quite unsure about what comes next. Birth on the other hand is the complete opposite it is the beginning of something new but I think most people know to a certain extent what they are getting into. So it seems kind of ironic that these two events would take place under the same roof, and so I agree with the perinatologist, women are under a state of fear and with that comes the inability to use her body in the way it can work naturally.”
At this point, Jennifer realized she was having a unique conversation with a serious reader of her book, and asked me - "But what could I have done to make this a better book - that would more effectively fulfill its mission?"
"Well, let's be clear – Pushed sought to provide narratives, historical analysis, journalistic analysis, policy analysis from the perspective of a someone who understood their field, for the book-reading-public to better understand pregnancy & birth in our culture. Given that aim, and your book, the best advice I would give for a 2nd edition of the text would include even more personal stories of women and less concrete numbers, percentages etc. Although those are important I felt as though I wasn’t retaining the number of c-sections conducted in 1992 to the number happening today. 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 how our normal is weird and how as a woman I think it is extremely important for all women to understand how complex pregnancy and birth truly is. Since reading your book I have decided to have a natural birth when the day comes and if in the near future I have friends who are contemplating their destination route, I will recommend reading this text.
Jennifer then said, "Thanks! Talking to you gives me hope about our future as a society!"
