Hw - 39 Insights from Book - Part 2

Cassidy, Tina. Birth The Surprising History of How We Are Born. New York: Grove Press, 2006. Press.

• Arranged births and its development in "changing the perspective of women's thoughts on vaginal birth."
• The empowerment of vaginal births being given back to the "woman."
• The "black hole" system hospitals attend to, displaying little then less information to women about birthing strategies.

In Tina Cassidy's "Birth", the next 100 pages explored, explicitly focused on the method and tools doctors used during a women's pregnancy. From the horrid treatment of women back in the 19th century to the comparisson of the 21st century and how women are somewhat still treated similarly of course with many exceptions. Although in "Business of Being Born" there was not much of historical time periods being named, some of the methods the doctors used on women, heavily drugging and giving little then less information or option of birth strategies can easily been seen in what Cassidy describes to us. The establishment of fads from one generation to the next under the light of doctors practically experimenting possible and still very dangerous methods of creating the "perfect birth" to this day is still demonstrated in hospitals such as, the drugs that supposedly accelerate or ease the challenge of birth. To the growing popularity of C-sections now, presumed as the new fad of this generation so women could hold on to their "appeal" to their significant others and on other hand not actually realizing the possible and threatening danger their is to it.

"[A Cesarean Section]...has become such a routine operation that nearly one out of every three babies in developed countries arrives by cesarean section...Cesareans have become so commonplace that we refer to the discreet six-inch scar as a bikini cut."(103)

"In his 1930 encyclical Pope Pius XI declared that doctors could not take a baby's life to save a woman's. After the pope's directive, Cesarean rates spiked, as indeed did maternal mortality, since the operation was still far from safe."(105)

"...Women clung to the old-fashioned comfort of other females but also were beginning to believe they should have the more educated physician there, just in case. Doctors generally didn't like having all these women watching them work and questioning practices."(139)

"I had to perform the delivery alone. I had no experience. Medical school has only offered us theory. But I threw myself into what was one of the most meaningful experiences of my life...romantic intimacy pales in comparison to the bond an obstetrician feels with a woman in labor. You become a creator. You are given the chance to give life, to bring a human being out of the depths and into the light."(149)

"Some of the more remarkable obstetric fads were not methods or techniques at all. They were tools. And their vast permutations over the centuries tell dramatic stories of difficult births, of ignorant attempts to help, and of swashbuckling stupidity."(162)

The focus of particularly safe/unsafe procedures, methods, preparations and tools used during a woman's pregnancy versus the role of a midwife is a battle that generally is not seen. A pregnant women delivers her child in a hospital which is commonly known amongst women who have not and have gone through the process of delivering their child. Why is that? Tina Cassidy mentions that it is because focuses are mainly structured around popularity's, and midwives are falling short to that popularity line. Doing some research I discovered that even though midwifery has started to gain in popularity, only of those who are well-educated about the other options of choice in whether you want a obstetrician to deliver or a midwife are know, and the rest fall to the hospitalization of child births. In other reasons, women who do know about the other option and still choose to go with an obstetrician tend to be the ones who would like to attain their appeal or would rather not deal with the pain.