CHiLDBiRTH.

I think that was poll was a good idea, it's interesting to see that only 1 girl got all of those questions correct. It's not very suprising to me that none of the guys did, however I think that shows an important method that none of us are as in tuned to the birthing process as we probably should be. I think that child birth is definitely becoming more and more medicalized. I'm not sure if that is a good or bad thing. Although the online article we read gave many statistics where midwives had less infant mortality I believe that you can make statistics to say anything you want. I don't actually believe that midwives are safer than hospitals with trained docters. However, maybe I'm just another American brainwashed by the media.

Birth is the most natural phenomenon, and it should be treated as such, natural. Although new technology and advancements in science and medicine have saved many lives and prevented a lot of pain and suffering, I think that when it comes to childbirth there should be as little interference as possible.

Giving birth at home, being in control of your body well enough to produce a healthy baby I think for a woman would have to be one of the most fulfilling experiences in her lifetime. By no means is being drugged, put to sleep, strapped in bed and being told when to push a giant watermelon out of your vagina anything that can be called dignified and natural.

I think that this passage from the reading makes this point all too clear. In her 1975 book, Immaculate Deception, Suzanne Arms described the manner in which obstetricians justify preventive interferences during childbirth "to [turn] sloppy old nature into a clean, safe science:" [J]ust in case you hemorrhage, we'll give you simulated hormones before you expel the placenta; just in case your perineum tears, we'll make a nice clean incision before delivery; just in case labor tires you out, we'll give you an early sedative; just in case you need a general anesthesia [for an emergency caesarean], we'll keep a vein open [put in an IV] and stop you from eating and drinking throughout labor, even if it takes twenty-four hours; and just in case you totally lose control, we'll knock you right out ...

I think that being trained to handle birth on an emotional level is the best way to go. Midwives can be more involved because they are dealing with one baby and one mother, not 10 others at the same time as many doctors do at hospitals. How can they really assess what is best when they have so much to worry about? More women need to be educated about birth alternatives and midwives. They should be able to know and judge their bodies well enough to know if they are going to put themselves and their baby at risk. Women today rely too much on other people telling them how their bodies are. We need to just listen and feel for ourselves once and a while.

The problem is that many women are uneducated when it comes to child birth. Not just the basics but all of the new procedures that can be done. Did you know that an epidural is given with huge needle put directly into your spine and then a tube is inserted? What’s more is that spinal fluid leaks out and the only ting doctors can do to stop it is to inject your own blood to try to clot the hole? My point is even though there are tons of new options for child birth doesn’t mean that they should be used without due consideration.

A woman's sense of "dignity, fulfillment, and autonomy" I feel doesn't have to come from giving birth with a midwife or without the hospital. Why does going to a hospital decrease the way they feel about bringing a life into the world. I don't think that medicine and science have done anything to erase the ways in which a birth affects a woman. A birth is a birth no matter the circumstances.

As for being well educated, I do not feel that I have been well educated at all. I have no idea what to expect when it comes time for me to have a baby and I have even had the opportunity to sit in on a live birth. But seeing is not doing and when it comes down to it you can be as prepared as anyone but when the time comes to have your baby nothing is going to happen the way you planned it would. There are always extra things that seem to pop up. Also, I think that your little survey helped to make this point. We may be educated in birth but to what extent. I think it would be even more interesting to know which questions those you surveyed got wrong the most because that could explain a little more what areas we are lacking in.

All in all, I feel that there is still a sense of pride in bringing another living being into the world. I do not think that the means in which this happens alters your feelings at all. And when it comes down to it we are never fully prepared for any action we take in life so why would we expect anything different from a birth. Not even those who have practiced medicine or midwifery for years really know what to expect because as I said...each birth is different.

Childbirth has definitely become more and more medicalized and as time goes on that will only continue. As our society becomes more wrapped around technology and its newer and more efficient ways then medicalized methods during child birth will continue to take effect.

I don't believe that such strategies are responsible for the disintegration of women's sense of dignity, fulfillment, and autonomy. However, I believe that it is a personal matter . Many women have different views and some women may believe that they would withhold the upmost fullilment by knowing they are under the care of a doctor and hospital crew who have sciences around them that will provide the best child laboring procedures. Once again, it becomes a personal matter.

I was shocked to see the results of the poll and how very lil educated people are about pregnancy. I guess for males it would be a bit more understabdable because there bodies are not the ones undergoing the child laboring. It's really not a comical matter, nonetheless, it is kind of sad to know that so little people are aware of what goes on during pregnancy. Some of the things that occur during pregnancy should definitely be common knowledge but needless to say, it is definitely not.

It is very common to see pregnant women in movies reading the book "What to expect when you're expecting" and men tossing the same book aside as boring and I-can't-believe-my-wife-is-making-me-read-this-crap crap. There are now books out there written for guys when their wife/girlfriend gets pregnant such as "My Boys Can Swim!: The Official Guys Guide to Pregnancy" which features topics such as:
The Maternity Wardrobe: "A key part of the maternity wardrobe is maternity underwear—parachute-like undies big enough to fit an NFL defensive lineman."
Baby Names: "Don't give your kids mockable names like Thaddeus, which is Greek for 'I'm a dork and should be beaten up.'"
The Birth: "No one told me it's normal that babies' heads can be misshapen at birth. I was convinced that my wife gave birth to Veldar, the conehead."
Check out the book here

So guys, would you read that book? Or a book like it? Or for the rest of the class do you think that if men were seen reading books in the media that men in real life might be more inclined to read. I have always thought that books were a great way for people to get more informed on something. And people really don't pay attention to what they are taught until it really effects them. Therefore, I think that books like these that are targeted to people right in the midst of pregnancy could be a very helpful tool for men and women to make the right choices about the type of birth that they should have.

I think that currently the bearing of new children has become desensitized. It's become more scientific than emotional. Some women, for instance, have C sections, by choice, to avoid the risk of having their vaginal structures from being stretched. And sometimes women are so laced with drugs during childbirth that they don't remember anything that happened. Science has also developed to the point where parents can learn of their child's gender long before it is born.

Science has made great strides to make pregnancy and childbirth more efficient. While safer, which is of utmost importance, is it worth the sacrifice of the appreciation we have for such "miracles"?

But regardless of the existence of all the scientific options we have today, mothers still have the choice of which treatments and procedures they experience, a majority of the time. I don't feel that mothers are being deprived. They are simply being given more freedoms. And those parents who are deprived of any emotional experiences are depriving themselves.

Well not to tute my own horn but I am a guy and would have gotten all of your questions right, but then I have an unfair advantage in that my fiancé is a nurse. In all seriousness this stuff should be common knowledge. On the topic of disassociation with intimacy when giving birth I do not think this is the case. The infant mortality rate goes down every year and couples that couldn’t even conceive a child 5 years ago can utilize the newest technology to have a child of their own (not that adopting isn’t a noble act). The fact of the matter is that everything is left up to the mother unless there is imminent danger to her or the baby. If anything the mother is simply given more options.

So far in this class, I've realized that I have never given thought to many of the our topics of discussion. After all, I took this class to expose myself to some other ideas besides economics. But, this topic, unlike other topics we have discussed, should be known by everyone. I would consider myself ignorant in regards to women's menstruel cycles and how media portrayed women, partly because Im a man, and partly because they arent really part of my everyday life. On the contrary, pregnancy is something that should be taught, embraced, and understood. It seems as though pregnancy is portrayed in an "evil" light. For high school students, its an akward discussion with your parents, it its even an discussion at all. In college, pregnancy is almost a forbidden word. Its becomes clear if you think about why people dont know anything about pregnancy. In the past, families were generally larger in numbers, and a good numbers of child births were at home. Tips and medical solutions were all passed down from generation to generation, and were more or less common knowledge. People of today seem to delay having children because they are a huge responsibility, but also an economic issue. With all of this being said, I would have to say its because of the negativity associated with pregnancy that women, and from this poll, men, are ignorant in regards to pregnancy.

I am kind of shocked at all of the men who failed your quiz. I wouldn't have because I thought that it was common knowledge for people to know these things. Even thought men aren't the ones who are pregnant they should still know what is going on if their partner gets pregnant. Not knowing is scary in itself especially when its happeneing to someone you love. I think that men and women should take classes on childbirth when they are expecting so that they know what to expect. Midwives are great to have in certain situations like when the man isn't able to be there or if there is no father. I think that all men should take the responsibility if it is their child to be there and know everything about the situation. If people are going to bring a child into this world it would be smart to know what is going to happen!

It does not suprise me to see that the people polled knew very little about pregnancy. I think that pregnancy is a topic in which people don't want to engage or learn. Furthermore I think that for a lot of people the bare minimum of info is enough. I imagine that when asked about giving birth alot of women would respond with an answer indicating the want of drugs during, furthermore not knowing what type of drugs or precedures used to adminstor drugs. For men, pregnancy is taught at a young age to avoid and fear somewhat. By having the fear of getting someone pregnant, men tend to avoid the topic and issue, therfore increasing their uncertainty of the facts. However the ignorance of some to the actual happenings of birth do lend to the fact that birth is natural and will happen on its own without the help of the medical community. Everyone has to remember that people were born in caves and shacks for more than half of mankind's existence.

It is shocking to discove how much people really know about such important topics, like childbirth. You would think that a lot of peopl would be well educated and would want to know about the process, however it is a lot more complicated than that. I took those same questions and asked five guys and five girls, and got results that resemebled yours. One girl knew 7 questions, 1 guy knew 5 questions, and the rest of the people knew about 3 each. When I look at these questions it seems like more people should know this stuff... is that right to think that way - I don't know..

I think the pole shows that people aren't as educated as they think they are about having a baby. It is even scarier to think of this when the rate of teen childbearing in the US is the highest in the developed world. In 2003 10% of childbirths were from teens. Some reasons they gave for other countries being lower were: "
* mandatory, medically accurate sexuality education programs that provide comprehensive information and encourage teens to make responsible choices
* easy access to contraception and other forms of reproductive health care, including abortion
* social acceptance of adolescent sexual expression as normal and healthy
* straightforward public health media campaigns
* government support for the right of teens to accurate information and confidential services (Berne & Huberman, 1999)"

This goes along with the lesson and project that we did on sex education. Teens, it seems, are not getting the right knowledge which is leading to a very high pregnancy rate. I wouldn't say that sex education is the only important topic to teach teens though. Like you said, midwives cared much more about the emotional aspect of giving birth - which I agree is much more important. I know in high school I had to carry a doll around school for a week to show how hard it was to take care of a child. - It wasn't hard at all. It wasn't one of the new fancy one that cries all the time so it was easily ignored. The guys all thought they were the funnies thing (as none of them had to partake in the activity as it was an elective child development course). Did anyone else have more experience in high school of sex education or other courses where you talked about what happened after you had sex? I think that teens take sex too casually because they are not thinking of the consequences it may have - getting pregnant. I would also have to say that women do not have the same sense of intimacy as they once did in giving birth to their child.

I believe I have been well educated on the topic of child birth. In all your school health classes in high school and middle school they make sure you understand everything about birth, You even have to watch a baby being born a couple times. I think the answers to the questions that were asked were not surprising. I mean not everyone is educated, especially boys. You cant expect boys to care or know about things that dont happen to their body. I was however a little surprised by the girls. You would have thought that they would have known more since this will be happening to them one day. I could answer all 5. Maybe the school system or the home needs to be a little more specific in their teaching. Good questions.

I do think that the medicalization of childbirth has turned it into an impersonal factory like procedure, often dehumanizing women and making them feel as though birth is a dangerous illness instead of a natural process. I do think women have been negatively changed by this birthing procedure. With the uS being number 42 among nations for birth mortality rates, more women should fear the doctors instead of fearing the trials of childbirth. WIth a statistic like that, why arn't women being informed of the potential dangers lurking in what we are lead to believe is a safe hospital? WHy isn't the government trying to protect women and babies from harm? WHy do the money making hospital seem to have more rights than the mothers? Education about childbirth is needed but education about the current situation for birthing in the US is also important.