HW 40 - Insights into Book Part Three

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!"

HW 39 - Insights from Book - Part Two

Block, Jennifer. Pushed: The Painful Truth about Childbirth and Modern Maternity Care. Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Lifelong, 2007. Print.

In a country where freedom of speech is strongly recognized, one would think that this act would apply to all elements of someone’s life. The one place where a woman should have complete control of both her body and her ideas is taken away from her so quickly that she doesn’t even realize what is going on. After continuing my reading of Pushed and furthering my watching of “Business of Being Born”, I can confidently say that the delivery room should be put under investigation for going directly against what our country was founded on. Although the “Business of Being Born” focuses a tremendous amount on midwives they don’t really touch upon Doulas, Pushed however goes into great depth as to their purpose in the delivery room and how much they guard over the woman in labor. The Doula becomes the voice and the brain of the woman in labor while she undergoes an out of this world experience, making sure the woman knows exactly what is going on before a needle, scissor or a drug enters her body. The Doula treats her as a person not an object, the Doula gives the constant comfort to another human being, encouraging them throughout the process of labor and reassuring the them that amidst all of the pain she is doing a great job. The “Business of Being Born” certainly focuses on the difference between a stressful, loud, fast moving and chaotic birth verses a natural, personal and beautiful birth but in Pushed the reader really hears the perspectives of women who all felt as though this magical and beautiful part of their existence was stolen from them.

The song Neopolitan Dreams by Lisa Mitchell has a couple of lines that I believe are completely parallel with Pushed… “It sure takes its precious time, but it’s got rights and so have I…I turn my head up to the sky I focus one thought at a time I do not let the little thieves under my tightly buttoned sleeves… I don’t think you’re ever A hundred percent in the room.” Essentially I think Jennifer Block is trying to make the point that giving birth can’t be compared to anything else in this world and to speed it up is taking away its beauty, women should have the right to say what is done to their body and what cannot be done. They should be able to walk, to stretch, to sing, to scream and to feel everything that is happening from moment to moment, doctors should not be able to take advantage of women because when it comes down to it they are only briefly in the room with the mother and give her no real support.

I couldn’t help myself from smiling on page 100 when Goorchenko finished giving birth to her twins in her home, without the assistance of a midwife, just the fact that she knew her body so well and was confident that it knew what it was doing and didn’t feel fear without the drugs and the “experts.” I think that the term maternal instinct doesn’t just play into a woman’s life after the baby is born but while the baby is making its way into the world, women are made for this, and for hundreds of thousands of years female species have been giving successful births without the intervention of man made discoveries, so why now there is such a demand for it puzzles me. Carol Sakala has studied the cesarean section and concluded that there is no need for intervention or assistance in the room unless it is crucially necessary, for mothers and babies are in a safer condition without these medical procedures (126). Hearing more about Oxytocin was quite interesting; it made me realize that without this hormone setting off a woman may have a hard time embracing her newborn child, and if labors are induced how can this hormone do its job? (135) Furthermore if inducing labors are happening then babies are coming out before they are truly ready and if babies are manually taken out then their lungs are not truly cleared of fluid, making it harder for the babies to breathe. Is the doctor’s time really worth the risk of a baby who could be under developed and unable to breathe on its own? (140) Lastly, I was in shock when reading about the comparison between rape and abusive childbirth. Something that should be one of the most amazing moments in ones life is turned into a moment that is haunted and feared. (146)

Considering Pushed focuses a lot on the comparison between vaginal births and cesarean sections I decided to investigate the direct comparison between the two. On the American Pregnancy Association website there were ten risks for the mother and four risks for the baby. The ones that stood out to me the most were risk of additional surgery (Mom), Infections (Mom), Average recovery time six months (Mom), Fetal Injury (Baby) and breathing problems (Baby). While looking over the midwife section there were hardly any risks in comparison to cesarean sections, the only one that I found to be a bit freighting was that 20 to 40 percent of pregnancies could have complications, so this method of birthing is really only ideal for low risk pregnancies. (http://www.americanpregnancy.org/) However, over the past couple of weeks I have come to realize that it doesn’t make sense why society has altered a perfectly “normal” way of giving birth, it’s funny that although we live longer today we try to squeeze in as much as possible in the time we have and instead of taking our time and appreciating the moment we try to make sure that moment is condensed for convenience.

HW 38

Pushed – The Painful Truth About Childbirth And Modern Maternity Care by Jennifer Block is broke up into eight chapters. Within each of the chapters are sub-chapters that have a tie within the subject of the section.

Block questions how “normal” has shifted in the world of childbirth. Personally my ideas behind the “normality” of birth have shifted as well. As a reader it is key to understand a sort of unveiling she performs and as a woman up until this point in my life, hospitals, doctors and medication have always seemed guarantees when pregnant. My initial response was, Oh! Here we go again, another “secret” our institutions keep hush hush, to move the time we have a little faster…

There is no personal connection between the mother and the receiver anymore, it’s all about getting in and getting out, ASAP. “OB is a business. It’s a volume business,” chimes in another doctor Stephen Crane, MD. “If you get paid $2400 to deliver a baby and you pay out $90,000 in malpractice insurance, you have to do a lot of deliveries to pay that fee.” (Page 60 – Pushed) “Cesareans are labeled either “elective” or “emergency.” But most are done in more of a gray zone; it’s neither a clear emergency, but nor are things progressing smoothly, and what happens next is a judgment call. “Will the woman dilate and push the baby out efficiently and easily in the next couple hours?” says Richard Fian…” (Page 59 - Pushed)

For a very long time I thought I was in the special birth category, always bragging about how I was a c-section baby and how I could of died. Little did I know though that I was not even close to alone in this category. Up until about a week till my birth I was a breeched baby, my moms OB/GYN turned me the right way but when my mom went into labor (which she had planned on being drug free) it seemed as though I was still facing the wrong way. They claimed I was stressed and that both her and I would die if they didn’t perform a c-section… “A breech birth, Jane Evans explains to her audience, can’t be induced. It can’t be rushed with artificial oxytocin or rupture of the membranes… The breech baby demands patience; she rejects active management; she demands normal, physiological birth.” (Page 75 – Pushed) I find it ironic that a process in which a woman should have full control of her body it is completely avoided by drugs, “Let’s see if this baby is coming,” she said, her fingers still inside. “That’s great!” she said. “Really?” asked the woman. “I can’t feel anything.” “Don’t worry, you just need to follow directions,” said the doctor.” (Page 68 – Pushed) You would think that it would be better to make a manual on how to give birth the “normal” way but yet both the doctor and the patient know this isn’t normal. When Hurricane Charley hit Block describes births that were natural without any intervention being completely successful… “We had an incredibly low cesarean rate. Amazingly, the babies were about evenly distributed between day and night shifts.” (Page 2-3 – Pushed)

Block has hardcore evidence backing up her ideas on the birth system. Her choice of commentators varies for every subject although most people are in the world of birthing she reveals the ideas of the patients as well. I looked up the cesarean rate in this country and discovered that Block is accurate, it has continued to rise and in 2007 1/3 of the births performed were cesarean. (http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/databriefs/db35.htm)

HW 37

From Casey: Sarah,
Your post hit upon many interesting ideas I think could have benefitted from further elaboration. For example: "After hearing a very similar story to my first interviewee it made me wonder if subconsciously we set up the type of image we want to be seen as a pregnant person. If through our choices we connect the dots to make one sort of person. It then made me think about the stereotypical types of pregnant people floating around our society. The teenage mom, the Zen mom, the older mom, when and how we give birth seems to make more of a statement than the birth itself." Perhaps you could have touched upon this topic later, in connection to how your interviewees fit into these stereotypes.I liked your quote in the beginning, although (forgive my slowness) I didn't quite see its relevance to your interviews.

From Natalie: I thought this line was interesting: "However she joked that being pregnant made her feel like a queen, anything she wished for was someone else’s command."

We treat pregnant women so differently, but why? Is it because we want the best for the baby, this fresh new life coming into the world? Or are we really concerned with the mother, the pain she is going to feel? I believe most times people think about the baby when they do favors for the mother and no longer see her as her own person. One of my interviewees talked about how uncomfortable she felt with people touching her stomach, when they normally wouldn't have. I think this furthers the point that people see women as simple objects when they are pregnant. Everything is done in hopes that it will better the experience of the child on its journey into our world. People are consumed with the idea that this new impressionable life will appear, more than the place from which it comes.

From Rebecca (Younger): a. "No matter what mood she was in, one could always tell exactly how she was feeling."

b. It's weird that just because she was pregnant people could tell how she was feeling. It makes me question whether our personalities will change once we have children. Birth seems very complicated but pregnancy seems even more so...

from Rebecca

_________________________________________________________________________________________________

To Casey: Casey: I really liked your post, and was struck by this line, “making families was just what people did. Family wasn’t really a question…the only question was timing”. This got me thinking about how our society maps out the normal way to live. It seems as though marriage and babies come hand in hand. It poses as sort of strange that if two people were to make a baby and didn't have the golden rings on their left hand then society as a whole would frown upon their decision... Why do the two have to go hand in hand? Why can't two people create something or move forward without a certificate?

To Natalie: Natalie: I really liked the contrast between all three of your interviewees. I found this line to be very insightful, "She feels deep compassion for the mother and the family and tries to achieve the perfect environment for the baby to come into and for the mother to thrive in. As sacred as she tries to make birth for the woman, she said that after becoming a midwife, she “realized how normal birth is.” " I was reading an article online about how woman have the instinct to give birth and yet we completely undermine this and go forward with different techniques. I wonder though if c-sections and hospital births were to become obsolete would the death rate rise? Is natural birth enough for the survival? Or would survival of the fittest become part of the picture?

HW 36 - Pregnancy & Birth Stories

As Benjamin Disraeli once said, “We are all born for love. It is the principle of existence, and its only end.” Human existence relies on the hope that each one of us will find a mate to continue the cycle. After interviewing three people who have experienced birth and pregnancy, an obvious connection between them is that they all seem to be following the social norm society sets up; a set path of, “soul mate”, marriage, baby and death. It poses as sort of strange that most of us will or have followed a similar route.

My first interviewee explained to me that she felt as though she were a different person, someone who no longer could physically hold her emotions inside for they had become a part of the surface. No matter what mood she was in, one could always tell exactly how she was feeling. Although she took good care of herself and avoided foods that were exposed to flame since they caused her to feel nauseous, she couldn’t avoid the weight gain. She went by the books, attending pre-natal exercise classes, seeing an obstetrician regularly and even took part in a Lamaze class, where she learned how to give birth naturally without drugs. She then explained to me that after months of preparing for her natural birth, complications from the baby prevented it from happening. She was upset that a sea section would have to be performed on her but knew that it was the only solution to bringing her baby safely into the world. She had hoped her whole life that she would have a child but knew that it needed to be with the right person. Throughout her pregnancy she felt anticipation, excitement, fear of the unknown and pure joy.

Listening to this person speak about their experience confirmed my initial thoughts on birth. Although we have a sense of what it is going to be like, we truly don’t know exactly what is going to happen until the moment it does. The fact that she had to have a sea section made me understand how birth has advanced so much. In history women and babies died all the time from complications, she prepared for a birth more similar to those of history and yet due to conflict had to resort to the more dominant manor of going about.

The second person I interviewed was very similar to the first. She went up in shoe size, experienced stretch marks and gained a lot of weight. She also took part in Lamaze classes and successfully gave birth naturally. She explained that before she was pregnant drinking was very much a part of her social life and it was difficult to have to stop drinking. However she joked that being pregnant made her feel like a queen, anything she wished for was someone else’s command. She made it very clear that if she hadn’t had such a supportive family she wouldn’t of made it through the pregnancy. She advised me to consider my financial circumstances before deciding to have a baby, although her pregnancy wasn’t planned she felt responsible enough to be able to provide for it. Since she had a natural birth, she felt all of the pain but it was amazing to see her very own child.

After hearing a very similar story to my first interviewee it made me wonder if subconsciously we set up the type of image we want to be seen as a pregnant person. If through our choices we connect the dots to make one sort of person. It then made me think about the stereotypical types of pregnant people floating around our society. The teenage mom, the Zen mom, the older mom, when and how we give birth seems to make more of a statement than the birth itself.

For my final interview I decided it was probably a good idea to hear a story from the opposite gender. Surprisingly he felt many of the same emotions that the women did, very proud and excited but a little bit anxious. Although physically he wasn’t affected he could empathize with his wife. He expressed that while she was going through the pregnancy everyone around him was very excited and happy for both of them, people were constantly asking about the development of the baby and were both concerned and curious. He found the moment of birth to be exciting and amazing that another creature could be brought into the world.

Emotions seem to be quite similar for both male and female during pregnancy. However it seems as though the female has more say in how she will spend the nine months. It seems like besides giving their mate full on support and comfort there really isn’t much for the man to do. He is there for her every need, from food to foot massages, physically speaking though he isn’t affected in the least bit. Yet part of me thinks the way the two people interact throughout the pregnancy in many ways does affect the physical aspects of both.

What are the pros and cons of having a natural birth? Are you setting yourself up for risk, would it just be safer to take drugs?

HW 35 - Other Peoples' Perspectives 1

I came home this evening smelling like baby spit and an endless amount of tears. The six month old that I sit for has just begun teething and isn't handling it too well. It's always a big battle between us, we both know when he is going to cry and prepare ourselves for the moment. I start singing and bouncing around the room, he adjusts his head to watch himself in the mirror. It’s kind of remarkable how two individuals without communication know exactly what is going on. As he finally began to fall asleep he starred deeply in my eyes, and I thought to myself how great it would be to be able to interview him. His memories of the womb were fresh and he probably knows exactly what his grand entrance felt like. I began to think about the irony in the idea behind interviewing someone our own age, someone who has neither given birth or has experienced being born recently. It got me thinking about how little we know at our current stage and how a six month old probably knows more.

After interviewing three of my friends they all seemed quite naïve about the subject of birth. I find it kind of ironic that all three of these girls want to have babies and yet know so little about it. It’s like if you decided to buy a car and knew nothing about how it worked until you had signed the papers and were in the drivers seat. I know a baby and a car are not at the same level but it still does pose as sort of strange. I am very curious about how a baby knows when it’s time to say hello… I decided to ask my friends to see if they had any knowledge on the question. My friend K.B. said, “They don’t, there are certain stages in a human and the first stage is called the sensory motor stage. The most they know is who their mom is, but they aren’t aware of actual existence or their own existence, so there is no way that they know when to come out.” I decided to look up what exactly sensory motor stage was and found that it happens when the baby is already out of the womb. Then I asked my friend E.R. the same question, she said, “Babies know when to come out of the womb when they are ready to come out of the birth canal, which usually occurs at about nine months.” Her understanding seemed about the same as mine and so I asked my friend R,F., “Honestly, I have no idea. Scientifically, babies are expected to come out of the womb approximately 9 months after conception. Spiritually, I know that some people believe G*d "tells" the baby the time to be born. Although I am not exceptionally religious, I believe babies know to come out after 9 months because we as humans are designed that way, so perhaps there is some sort of greater force delegating these things.” I decided my best bet was to look it up myself… Surprisingly enough there was hardly any information on Google except for websites like answers.com… I found a website called kgb answers which said, “When the placenta can no longer feed the baby, the mother's body releases oxytocin, a hormone, which causes contractions and soften the tissue of the cervix.” Considering the little I know about birth this seemed like the most logical answer I could find.

At a more intellectual level of birth I wonder if the baby I sit for is even truly living at this point. Most of us come in and out the same way. Someone else feeds us, someone else changes us and we cry hoping for the comfort of someone else. Is this really living or are we merely waiting for beginnings and endings? I posed the question to my friends, K.B. said, “When we experience adrenaline, whether it’s on a rollercoaster or we just performed a play, essentially when we reach that level of excitement. I think we are living but until that moment we aren’t alive.” I wondered though what if a person never rode a rollercoaster or performed a play, would that mean they went their whole life without actually living? However my friend R.F. felt the complete opposite, “I think we truly become alive the moment we begin breathing after being born, because alive does technically mean living, not dead, breathing, etc. There are a great many things people do to feel alive, myself included, but I don't think one is not truly "alive" before experiencing them.” Defining life by a scientific variable seemed sort of odd to me as well. E.R. responded by saying, “One is truly alive the moment they begin to develop in the womb. Scientifically, when a mother is pregnant she is no longer just responsible for her own health, yet is responsible for the health of her child who lives off her nutrients.” I found it interesting that all three of them thought life began at very different stages. It made me realize that a question such as this one is honestly defined by each individual, for the moment we decide to become alive, will be the moment we start to truly live.

HW 34 - Initial Thoughts on Birth

Mentally I don't think we are ready for birth. We've seen it in the movies, we have heard our share of stories but in reality we don't know exactly what is going to happen. It makes me wonder if preparing for birth is really necessary? Would it be better to just go with the flow, let nature take it's course? This idea led me to think about how a baby knows when it is ready to make its first appearance. The difference between a premature baby and a "normal" baby. Do babies have thoughts in the womb? How do they pass the time? Are they nearly in a unconscious state for nine months? Society focuses so much attention on what happens after but yet hardly is there ever discussion about who we were before.

How do our minds and spirits become attached to our physical bodies? Are they always a package deal or do they grow progressively throughout our initial hibernation? Once the baby leaves the warm inside do they feel equal amount of pain in comparison to the mother? Beneath all of our memories does this one exist? Are birthing classes really just another excuse to make money? In so many other societies girls give birth at very young ages but in our country teenage pregnancy is strongly frowned upon. Doesn't it seem strange that MTV chooses to document and exploit examples of who our culture stigmatizes?

1. Why does a "normal" pregnancy last nine months?
2. What are the advantages and disadvantages of an at home birth?
3. Is it painful to be born from the babies perspective?
4. What triggers premature pregnancy?