Hw - 38 Insights from Pregnancy & Birth Book

In Tina Cassidy's "Birth", the organizational aspect of the book is told through different personal stories, ranging from Cassidy's own experience in birth to the statistical and anecdotal experiences of others. Her decision to make it this way provides a sense of relatedness but also explicitly showing the distances in birth itself. She begins with the birthing stories of her grandmother and mother and then on to her own and contrasting how each birth was different.

There are multiple focuses in birth and "Birth", but some of the main focuses have been the difficulty of women delivering their child and how the perception of midwives have changed. The author's choice to focus on these two important aspects of birth as a whole is very well related with what birth is looked upon now. For instance, the perception of mid wives changing because of the ever growing "industrial medical doctor" way of delivering a child and how the outside experiences of birth is a matter of business on both ends. The mother/child and the doctor.

Major insights the book is communicating with me are the multiple different birth stories and advocating how the differences are leading to a higher need of doctors and the loosing interest in midwives and the "naturalness" aspect of birth. It's interesting to read about a dying art being revived by someone who notices it and chooses to write about it. Its a gaining experience of learning from the old and on to the improved new. The contrast between the two are collective thoughts that bring fourth a new outcome and knowing the history of what has become today.

1. The perspective of Midwives.
2. Role of men during the pregnancy and birth.
3. "Naturalness" versus "Idustrialness"
4. The danger in childbirth.
5. What is the "Perfect Birth?"

The style of evidence Cassidy chooses is a balance of all, starting with personal experiences that communicate a sense of relatedness and statistical evidence that provides a relevant fact about what is shared universally amongst all. For what I have been reading, this strategy so far has been convincing but not manipulative which is important because she provides a balance of what the reader needs to know instead of the one way tunnel of thought that does not invite other developing thoughts.