HW 41- Independent Research

(Gordon, Suzanne. "Hospitals Cost Too Much for Long Birth Stays." New York Times (2010): 1-2. Web. 31 Mar 2011. .)

This citation is for an article regarding the cost of having a child in America. The article is based off of another published article, where this person talks about there own personal experience in having kids. She talks about using a midwife when giving birth, which is traditionally a cheaper cost then the hospital because there is less medicine and there is also no need for staying at the hospital. I think this source is useful because all sources are useful since it is all information. This source won't be a primary piece of evidence in my project however because it has to do with midwifery and my project is more about how birth is done in the hospital in contrast to all of the midwife footage seen in class. But it does provide an alternative using one of the biggest aspects that people base decisions off of now, which is money.

Wolfe, Sidney. "Guide to Avoiding Unnecessary Cesarean Sections in New York State." Public Citizen (2010): 1-5. Web. 31 Mar 2011. .

This citation is for an article that talks about unnecessary C-sections and because a lot of the unit was focused on how C-Sections can affect the body and whether or not they should be done at such a high rate I think this was something that should be looked at during my project and looked at through statistics. This article gives a lot of statistics on how the rate that C-Sections have increased, and the number that they have increased by is so large that it makes a person question how many of these were actually needed. In the early 1980's the number was at the highest but what is the difference between the people who were giving birth before this time and how come the people who are giving birth in a more modern time need to have so many C-Sections. I can use a lot of this information in my project to form questions and use as evidence in any possible interviews to talk to doctors about why these are used so frequently and question them on the high percentages and rates that they have grown.

Adams, Samantha. "How Much Does Baby Delivery Cost?." Cost Helper (2008): 1-11. Web. 31 Mar 2011.

This citation connects to the first because it also talks about the cost of having a baby. However the first one is more of a story about the person's own life and because of that they don't have numbers about how much birth cost. This link has a lot of information on the amount that having a baby cost not only the actual birth but other components of having a baby as well such as nursery, and food. This also has a lot of information about home birth and hospital births as well and gives some specific numbers and a few ranges of how much is expected in different areas and for different kinds of birth. I also won't be using this information as much but it can help me formulate questions and take into account more about hospital births. Throughout all the unit it seems as if I am only supposed to think one way, so getting some evidence on the alternative even if it only helps push the idea on home birth I still become more educated.

"Harlem Hospital." Department Of Health (2009): 1-6. Web. 31 Mar 2011. .

"Beth Israel Medical Center/ Petrie Campus." Department Of Health (2009): 1-6. Web. 31 Mar 2011. .

"NYU Hospitals." Department Of Health (2009): 1-6. Web. 31 Mar 2011. .

These three citations come from the Department of health that displays statistics from different hospitals in New York. They have a lot of different statistics that are very important to what we have been learning and they have all of these numbers compared to averages. This can show what hospitals have a larger amount of C-Sections which is something I can also formulate questions about and they also have a lot of information on midwives. Then theres a section for vaginal births and a section for C-sections which is what this unit has boiled down to. For my project I wanted to interview my friends mom who is a pediatrician and deals with a lot of new born infants. She has been a pediatrician for many years so over a long amount of time I trust her word and her experience. I also wanted to go to Harlem Hospital and try to observe a birth or interview nurses to my best ability (if I am allowed to). If not Harlem Hospital then another hospital but either way these numbers can be something that I personally question the doctors about because they are most likely exact values, I can use as proof.

"Midwifery Facts." Midwife USA (2008): 1-3. Web. 31 Mar 2011. .

The midwifery facts were to be used as alternatives to my pro-hospital point of view evidence. This website only has a few things on it but because of all the work that we have done in class it doesn't really matter because I have more prior knowledge on midwifery compared to the way birth is done in a hospital. There are a lot of pro-midwifery websites and pages on the internet opposed to hospital facts. I only want to use this information to continue to learn a little about midwives and possibly use this information as responses in the interview. Interviewing a doctor with 20 years of experience will be a difficult discussion to win without having as much evidence as I possibly can.

Rubin, Rita. "Answers prove elusive as C-section rate rises." USA TODAY (2008): 1-5. Web. 31 Mar 2011. .

This citation I wanted to primarily use as evidence to go against the idea that hospital births are the better choice. This citation talks about the C-section rate and it goes into the mortality rate of the people who get birth by a C-Section. Because hospitals are the places where these C-Sections happen, I wanted to use this as evidence to be questioned when talking to (hopefully) nurses at the hospitals and the pediatrician who I know thinks that C-Sections can be a very good thing. Compared to home births it seems that there are less deaths and less complications and this is something that continues to give me more knowledge about the topic and make my questions and thoughts stronger.

Barclay, Laurie. "Increased Neonatal Mortality Rate." Medscape (2010): 1-5. Web. 31 Mar 2011. .

This shows the opposite of the evidence before, because I already a good amount about midwifes I wanted to see people who have home births and how this can be bad for the women and even their child. This article talks about the mortality rate of home births. It has references and quotes from colleges and different obstetricians and gynecologist. It also has different statistics from home birth mortality rates in different time periods. I think I can use all of this evidence but the project is focusing on the alternative of what we have been learning in school. So I want to use evidence of something that is not what we've been learning.

I feel like I already did part B of the homework in my part A. After typing all of this I see it says short, so I think this is a combination of A and B

Homework 40 Final Thoughts On Book. Conversation with Author

"Hey - thanks for writing Born In the USA How A Broken Maternity System Must Be Fixed To Put Women and Children First. Your thesis/core argument main idea of fixing the way birth is done, and taking out so much of the hospital aspect in birth and giving the choice back to the women, moved me to rethink the way that I want my child to be born. I don’t think it will be my decision however, because the choice should be up to the woman but I want to advocate for my wife to look into alternate ideas of how to have our baby.”

But the author, surprised to be talking to someone who instead of sharing their own birth story actually rephrased the main idea of the text s/he spent months giving birth to asks, "Really, which parts were most effective or important for you?"
When you answer, "Well, in the last third of the book you focused on the actual steps that need to be taken to get towards the goal of giving women back the power. I have to think this was the most interesting part of the book because when watching the business of being born, toward the end there was a female who felt conflicted about not having a hospital birth as if she was obligated to. The end of the story about taking steps forward connected back the first 2/3rds of the book. But let me be more specific." And then you listed the top 3 ideas/pieces of evidence/insights/questions from that final third of the book (and somehow even listed page number references).


• There are countries with much higher home-birth and mortality rates then the United States which you wrote about on page 145 of your book. (Wagner, 145)
• An idea I agreed with the most even before reading this text, homebirths instead of the hospital, the home is where the woman is the most familiar with everything around her, and hospitals are the place people go to die. This which you wrote about on 186 (Wagner 186)
• And the Idea that ties into the main idea that most, patients have rights that aren't always respected by doctors which you write about on page 174. (Wagner, 174)


At this point, realizing that s/he's having a unique conversation with a serious reader of her/his book, the author asks - "But what could I have done to make this a better book - that would more effectively fulfill its mission?"
You answer, "Well, let's be clear - your text sought to provide (narratives, historical analysis, journalistic analysis, policy analysis) from the perspective of a concerned medical doctor 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 be, to line up the alternative idea presented in a way so the reader understands what part is alternatives and what part is evidence. During your book you use a lot of alternatives but at the same time because they are being refuted, it makes it seem like the book is out of alignment. The evidence and alternatives get in the way of each other that just make it seem as if you are contradicting yourself. 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 putting the choice back into the hands of women, because I have never looked at it like that. As far as making sure the woman is comfortable through either doulas, midwives, taking away medications such as Pitocin that can lead to things like C-sections & separating the place where some people go to die and others go to be born. In fact, I'm likely to do the birth of my own child differently, and try to educate people that I know about birth as well." The author replies, "Thanks! Talking to you gives me hope about our future as a society”

Thank you for your time Mr. Wagner. For school I will be doing a project on birth and everything we have done in our birth unit. To follow up on what I thought about the book and what I plan to do for a project you can visit http://normalisweirdchrisr.blogspot.com/

Homework 39

Christopher R 3/30/11
The main idea that both the book and the movie have taught me about the business of being born is that the main goal for doctors and nurses is to have the baby and then move on to the next person. Tactics like this have gotten certain people who are more devoted to the actual birthing experience upset. In the book I think this is most talked about in the midwifing section of the book where Madsen writes, “The nurse-midwife’s decision to leave the hospital was a predictable outcome. I know quite a few nurse mid-wives who have gotten tired of the prejudice they face in hospitals and have moved into-out of hospital practices” (Wagner 113). Another topic that the book discusses about being in the “business of being born” is the chapter that refers to, where and where not to have a child. Having a home birth versus having a hospital birth and ironically obstetricians and Gynecologists are the people who are talking about the dangers of having a home birth. “ACOG made its position official and published a recommendation against home birth: ‘Labor and delivery, while a physiological process, clearly presents potential hazards to both the mother and the fetus before and after birth” (Wagner 129).

The major insight that the book tries to communicate in the second 100 pages is more about how birth is done in America and he does this by continuing to question some of the motives of the hospital, and referring to better ways birth can be done. The criticisms of home birth, the legal protections that pregnant women have. I think that the most critical part to the argument that the book is trying to make which is America has a broken Maternity system is the way that the Obstetricians feel about the way birth is done. The chapter that talks about obstetric police gives the most insight to how the maternity system is. This part of the book makes it seem as if the doctors are villains because it ties in with the midwife argument. Showing that these doctors in hospitals are almost pushing away the midwives and freedom of the pregnant women which almost pushes away the humanity.
• Pushing away the idea of Home Birth pg. 126
• Pushing away the idea of Midwifing pg. 113
• The Legal Rights of Women pg. 172
• Getting Birth away from Hospitals (considering Hospitals are sometimes places people go to die) pg. 187
• Practices of Midwifery pg. 101
“However in 2005, in the case Meador v. Stabler and Gheridian, a jury awarded a 1.5 million dollar settlement to a Massachusetts woman and her husband for her undergoing a medically unnecessary C-Section.”

The $1.5 million award to a Massachusetts woman and her family in Meador v. Stahler and Gheridian made news as a rare instance of a malpractice judgment based on an allegedly unwanted and unnecessary cesarean section rather than a failure to perform such an operation.
The plaintiff, Mary Meador, did not claim that the procedure was negligently performed or that the rare and disabling physical complications that resulted from it (which left her largely bedridden and unable to work or meet her family responsibilities for several years) were foreseeable. Instead, she claimed that the defendant obstetricians had misrepresented the risks of the alternative procedure (vaginal birth after prior cesarean) and ignored her persistent pleas for this alternative. Moreover, she alleged, they compelled her passive assent to the surgery in an emotionally coercive manner while she was progressing normally in labor, despite their having previously agreed to such a trial of labor.

HOMEWORK 38

The book is organized so that the beginning of the chapter tells the reader what the chapter is going to be about in a few general words. Under this there are a few quotes or something to give a brief insight to what the author might say and then it goes to the author’s actual writing.

The book tries to answer the question, “How is birth done in America?” being part of the medical field himself the author has a lot of different perspectives but I think that many parts of the book the author is actually telling more of the nightmarish side of the birthing process. The beginning of the book talks about the death of a baby during labor and I think a book that is talking about birth’s initial writing should have to do with the opposite being death. The book should be less bias then it seems to be because it gives the reader more to think about.

The major insights that the book tries to get across in the first 100 pages are the ideas of inducing birth, C-sections, obstetricians and what the doctors should do about birth. The most interesting part out of all of these was the part about the obstetricians because it was one of the first times in the book where he used his personal experience. He recalls times where he was encountered by obstetricians personally and the way he dealt with them professionally. Because he can’t give birth, he isn’t as personally familiar with inducing birth and C-sections as he is with working with obstetricians so I feel like it was the more interesting to read.

I think that something that should be talked about more are induction, the idea of a midwife, when to use C-section, a better way that babies can be born and alternatives to what we have in our society now and the role of doctors in the pregnancy. Whether or not they are always needed and what is the exact role when they are needed.

The author usually uses a lot of statistics and being in the medical field himself he has different perspectives that a normal author would have. The evidence that he has is pretty convincing because he himself is in medicine and a lot of things that he talks about he has experiences with and can analyze the way he does things and the way he sees things being done and how he would have them differently. There are many charts throughout the book that have statistics and interesting numbers on different categories. GGGGG

Comments 5

From Sophia

I thought this line was really interesting:

"If a child is a child when its first in the womb at about a month old because it has to be taken care of then how come the men don’t help. If they are only going to help after the baby is born then maybe women are more suitable to take care of the children."

It is interesting how no one ever points out the fact that the baby needs to be taken care of before it's even born. I liked your idea that the father should be willing to help throughout the pregnancy as well as after the birth.

Your interviews seemed to contrast each other - while the mother in the first interview described the father as being extremely involved (which was, as you said, not the expected answer), the mothers in the second interview described the fathers as being less willing to help.

I thought you did a good job of displaying this contrast between the two interviews, and questioning why mothers don't get the support they need during pregnancy. All in all, nice post.

From Amhara

I liked how you started this assignment with an idea/ theme in mind because it shows how much thought you put into your objectives before you actually perform them. Plus it was a pretty cool idea to compare birth stories from different time periods. I thought the most interesting part of this post was comparing the male counterparts participation of the sisters birth process. I could see you were on the brink of asking a very insightful question which is " how involved is too much and how involved is not enough?". Another question you could have asked yourself to take your thought process further is: why did the woman in the first interview think it was strange that her male counterpart was so involved?- those questions would have led you to a lot of good points and thoughts.


From Jasper

Chris,
I like how you had a specific topic about birth that you wanted to look into opposed to just asking about their experiences. My favorite part was: "While the father is usually expected to be there for morale support and to make sure the baby will have a place to live and be happy, in her case the father was more hands on then she wanted and as a result to that it is kind of like he was also taking care of the baby for nine months. ". I thought this was interesting I had never heard of someone getting too much attention from a male during birth. I wonder why this was a problem for her.. Overall I thought it was a good post and I thought you did well explaining your thoughts about the male role during pregnancy and birth and you were able to get good examples that were different from each other.

To Jasper

I think you did a good job in this post with showing a lot of the actual birth stories. The first paragraph is actually really engaging and i think this is because you didn't over analyze things at the beginning you just left it how the actual story was and that made me want to read more. I think you could have gone into more depth about that though to make your post stronger. I think you have some good analysis too but the best part of your post as the actual stories because they are your view of what your mom told you and its interesting to here about what you think. Your best line was "She feels like the way birth is viewed in America is very bad, she feels like it is viewed as scary and everyone wants to be drugged up so they don't feel the pain. She was not yelling while giving birth she was very calm and said it was not that bad" you talk a lot about what she thinks though and not enough about what you think! Thats how I think you can improve.

To Sophia

Wow, this is a really good and complete post, honestly I was thinking for a while how i could try to help you make this better and there are not many ways that I think you can make it better. You did a great job recording your interviews and analyzing what you learned and what you put in bold was a good idea that I had also thought about in many of my class. Its something that i wrote about in my blog post and you'll see this when you read it but here is your best line ""When someone said "it's a girl," I realized my eyes were squeezed shut and there was already a bundled up baby in my arms. Instead of being overcome by instant love like everyone told me I would be, I just felt kind of awkward. I wasn't sure what I was supposed to do or how I felt." I like this a lot even though its a quote because it sounds like something that most moms would say but I think its like this because mothers do love their babies and i talk a lot about why I think this is in my blog so you blog and mine have a lot of the same ideas. Good post.

To Amhara

WELL,
Before I say your best line and how you can improve, Ill say something I liked about the entire assignment, you started to build off ideas and you basically answered the last part of the blog that you did in blog three times. After every story you talked about how it changed your mind and how it made you realize some things. You started to mention some things about how you had some questions and wanted to look into things after the story. Personally I think your best story was your first one but i think you could have analyzed this more. Because you probably know this story I think you analyzed it less and this shows because in your story about the inducing of birth, you say you didn't know a lot about it and you analyzed that the best in my mind. I think thats how you can improve, you started out alright and ended great so if you could start off as great as you ended you would have a even better post. Heres the line I liked the most "Before this, I had no clue that doctor's inducing birth was something standard. I began to wonder how the drugs and gels given by doctors affected the children, and if they were more affective than any natural alternatives" it shows curiosity and willingness to grow.