Kirsti Clapsadle WGS 101 Megan Burke Friday 1-1:50 I Didnt Know...

When my Womens Studies class first began, I didnt necessarily think this will be an easy A, but I did, for some reason, have the idea that I wasnt going to learn too much because I was already pretty aware of the world around me. Some of the topics we talked about I was already familiar with, but of course I learned a lot more than I had previously known. I knew that women generally get paid less than men, and that we have gender norms that society puts on us. It is obvious that women are more often (unfairly) stay-at-home-parents than men. I even knew some information about gender-based violence. One week, however, I was introduced to a topic that I was completely unfamiliar with. That week, I met the subject of what our society in the United States today views as abnormal childbirth. A normal childbirth in our western culture is usually seen as giving birth in a hospital, under the influence of pitocin to cause contrations and epidural to lessen the pain (also slowing the contractions), sometimes ending in a cesarean section due to complications (Epstein). This is the version of childbirth I knew to be normal. Our society assumes that because the United States is so highly developed, our medical methods should be the best. That is what most people (including me before that week of class) assume. I was born through cesarean section, as was my brother, my mom, and my aunt and uncle. If that worked for us and we were here safe, then it should be the normal way, right? The day we viewed a video directed by Abby Epstein, The Business of Being Born, I learned that this isnt actually the safest way for everyone to give birth. The process of cesarean section is actually a major surgery, which is probably one reason why The United States has the

second worst newborn death rate in the developed world (Epstein). Midwives attend over 70% of births in Europe and Japan and less than 8% in the United States (Epstein). This could very well be another reason why our newborn death rate is so bad. In the United States, midwives are still often frowned upon, and in some places, still illegal. Childbirth is a natural thing and unless a person is at a high risk for complications, her childbirth should remain natural but because society has put this image into our heads that hospital births are safer, and we only want our babies to be protected, women usually follow what they see as secure. Hospital births, however, are not safer for most women for a lot of reasons. Cesarean sections have become common because womens bodies are affected by the stresses often put on them by the doctor, causing them to freeze up. Naomi Wolfe tells how they gave her Pitocin and an Epidural and then said things like no progress, failure to progress, and fetal distress (Wolfe 137). If that wouldnt stress someone out, I dont know what would. Following these frightening words, Wolfe was told that she would have twenty-four hours to deliver before they would have to perform surgery (Wolfe 138), which would of course cause much more stress. For those who are not white, the bad experience is only worsened. Joy Harjo, a Native American, went through birth on medications that were known to cause paralysis, so she could not get up after the birth. Then, when she finally was able to hold her son, the nurse stood guard as if [she] would hurt him (Harjo 240). While the health issues here were not as obvious, they were still present. The drugs given to many women during birth often have side effects that are unknown. The medication given to Harjo was known to paralyze and still she was administered the drug. For years, medicine has been given to women that has caused horrible side effects on the babies born (Epstein). For some time, many babies were born without arms or legs. Today, many children are affected by autism or attention deficit disorder, a

possible side effect of the current medicines used (Epstein). Death is even a possible side effect. Of recorded deaths among children under the age of five, seventy-six out of 1,000 died on average around the world in 2005 (Seager 32). Babies, however, are not the only ones at risk. Over half of the 200 million or so women who become pregnant every year will die as a result of the pregnancy (Seager 40). Another quarter of the women will suffer long-term disability or illness as a consequence of pregnancy and childbirth (Seager 40). In the United States, this extreme number is lowered, but still higher than it should be with all of the development we have had. Forty-nine per 100,000 mothers on average died in 2003. If the individual experiences of mothers werent enough, these numbers should show obvious need for change. While I now believe that our societys version of normal births are not so normal, and I would now much prefer a homebirth over a hospital birth, I am still wondering if I am one of the high-risk women who should birth in a hospital. My mother was told she was at high risk because her mother and grandmother both had to have cesarean sections as they did not dilate enough. Her first birth, the birth of my brother, my mom was in labor for over thirty hours before she decided to have the cesarean section because she wasnt dilating nearly enough. How will I know if I have the same problem? Is this thirty-hour labor time even that long? I think it is very possible that my mom was just told that the birth was taking longer than it was supposed to so she went with what the doctors insisted. I have quite a long time to go before I will have to know about my risks, but I dont want to be one of the many who assume that a hospital birth is necessary for the safety of my child when in reality, it is no safer than a homebirth. With the myriad of horrible things pushed on women in our society, I am glad that I learned about this additional societal horror. It is a physical health issue that I am now able to

share with other women and hopefully make at least some amount of difference for myself and within my group of friends and family.

Works Cited The Business of Being Born. Dir. Abby Epstein. Prod. Ricki Lake. By Madeleine Gavin. Perf. Julia Bartnett Tracy, Louann Brizendine. Red Envelope Entertainment, 2008. DVD. Harjo, Joy. "Three Generations of Native American Women's Birth Experience." 1991. Women's Lives. Fifth ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2010. 239-42. Print. Seager, Joni. "Birthrights." The Penguin Atlas of Women in the World. Fourth ed. New York: Penguin Group, 2009. 32-43. Print. Wolfe, Naomi. Giving Birth. Blackboard. 135-43. Web.