HW 40 - Insights from Book - Part 3

"Dear Mr. Wagner

Thanks for writing Born In The USA. Your idea that America's health care system is taking advantage of the trust that pregnant women have in their practices to minimize care and maximize profits with little to no regard to the mother and child, and destroying small practices that still believe in the traditional way of birth, made me rethink the way we go about pregnancy & birth

To me the final third of your book really covered explained in depth how we can fix our broken birthing system in you well explained 10 step process that covers everything from educating the public, to using science to improve home births, which completely complemented the first 2/3rds of the book. But let me be more specific. These were what i thought were the most interesting ideas that really caught my attention in the final third.

1. I really enjoyed the chart of "Global Evolution of Birthing Practices," because it showed not only where we stand in terms of knowledge of birthing, but where other major countries and populations are too. (213)

2. I felt that step three was also hugely important in terms of knowledge for the women who are giving birth, and giving them their rights back. You are right to say that it will not only cut excess by doctors, but that it will make them accountable for their actions and therefore inform women more about the decisions they are about to make. (224)

3. The budget breakdown on page 243 and 244 was really a huge nail in the coffin of hospital health care. You explained how much money we spend on healthcare and how although we spend double on a hospital obstetrician when compared to midwives, we still have a higher infant mortality rate then 22 countries. We need to reassess what we value not only in terms of money, but in terms of the safety of our pregnant wives, friends, mothers, sisters, ect!

To be clear - you sought to provide a policy analysis of the health care system from the perspective of a doctor who had once been there himself, 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 appeal to a more ranged audience by writing a book that even less educated pregnant women, or expecting fathers will be able to read and comprehend, so that they too can be warned of this system they are about to enter. 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 The flaws of the industrialized birthing process from the abuse of birth enhancing drugs, to the shrinking of the practice of midwifery & the ten steps that we as a population can read and replicate in our own lives to simplify and enhance the birthing process by natural and proven methods. This has made me think about what kind of process my parents could have chosen for me and how that could have altered my personality of ideals. It also makes me more conscious about the injustices that are being had every day and the countless women who are lured in by false ideas and then cheated out of an experience that every mother should have the option to have. Thank you for writing this wonderful book and thank you and thank you for taking the time to read my letter.

Sincerely,

Sam Jossen

School of The Future Senior

HW 38 - Insights from pregnancy & birth book - part 1

1. The Author starts out describing some of the major flaws in the birth "industry," then slowly breaks them down into catagories, which he explains in detail. Then he goes into the history of birth, which leads him into what can be done to fix the way it is now so it can be safe and natural.
2. The Question that the author is attempting to answer with this book is: What are the flaws in the birthing industry and what can be done to correct them? Something that i thought would be an appropriate answer would be as simple as lemmings (metaphorically speaking). As a society we are becoming more and more like a pack of lemmings, in which we mindlessly follow each other through the birth process and just do what the person in front of us did and hopefully we make it out okay, not really asking why we did what we did.
3. The major insight that the book has in the first 100 pages is that we are being abused by our health care system. I did not find that to be all that much of an insight, but apparently doctors are abusing their power as doctors and doing what they think is best, when in fact, surgery is not the answer to everything. Potentially harmful practices take place every day in order to speed a women through labor and get her back out of the hospital. I don't feel that this comes as much of a shock, especially after the Health Care unit.
4. 
   

• Fact 1: Midwives attend 70% of births in Europe and Japan, but only 7% in America
• Fact 2: United States has the second worst newborn/maternal mortality rate of the developed world
• Fact 3: In 1955 less then 1% of all births took place at home, and it is still that way today.
• Fact 4: Hospitals aren't legally obligated to give patients statistics of the types of births and information related.
• Fact 5: Doctors regularly give women Pitocin to speed up the birth process, often damaging the women's uterus and potentially killing the baby, so they can have the baby faster for themselves.

5. Marsden Wagner is very good about the way he uses evidence. He doesn't put the source of every citation on the page, but he created a index type bibliography where the words are defined and the sources are expressed. Personally i feel that it is a good way because of the way he personalizes it and makes it more user friendly. It keeps the flow and is easily accessible

HW 37 Comments on Birth & Pregnancy Stories.

Kevin,
I really like your observation of not really understanding what these stories mean especially because you have nothing to compare them to because the t.v. does lie to us. I feel like this blind intelligence is really something that you can build off of to help further your independent research because what do these stories mean? Was what the first women really went through significant in terms of birth stories (it seems so to me). I feel like maybe going in depth a little more on the other stories would have given it something to compare it to. But i can understand your interest in the first one because it caught my attention as well. Good writing Kevin.
Sam

Dean,
I think you really had something with the first story. It was a really interesting point that people sometimes aren't sure about why they have babies but they have them because they feel it is natural and they know that they want it. I feel that if you had continued on that thought then you would have had something. You do have good ideas here but i feel like you rush it a little bit. Take your time and maybe you will surprise yourself.
Sam

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mom (mentor)
Sam,
It's so interesting to see pieces of the stories i have told about having my kids be interpreted by one of them. These experiences are so precious to me and i am proud that you understand that and have crafted meaningful and sensitive stories around them. Having children is one of the most profound experiences a woman can have, and given the enormity of the process of birth and beginning of life, i would have to say my favorite line is "All i know is I am home now". at the end of the day, no matter what your experience, that is where you go to really being your journey of life.
Stephanie

Eli (protege)
Sam,
I love how in each story you give a sense of emotion. Its almost as if you could potentially live three different lives and this is where they all started from. What is also interesting is how you incorporated the feelings and tone of those around you. For example in the 3rd story you quote: "She refused drugs because she didn't believe in them" (Person #3). You are able to subtlety include how the people around you felt and therefore what kind of family you came from.
This makes me wonder...How early is one's life shaped? At what point do you start to become who you are? Could being abandoned as child and brought into a new home make you a completely different person? Seemingly yes, but then the eternal question of nature versus nurture returns...How influenced am I by my first seconds, days, weeks in this world?
Eli

Sam,
Thanks for commenting on my latest post. I thought that your post was really interesting because it showed how our parents affect who we are. For example your second story about the person who was adopted was very different from your first and third story because their relationships with their birth parents are different. Person #2 seemed a little confused even though they love their adoptive parents. On the other hand, people #1 and #3 seem to be content with their parents.

Dean

This post was really cool. I love the first person narrative. I also like that the point of views that were represented were all from the childrens perspectives, the second hand storytelling was interesting. I found the second story to be the most interesting, and I think it inspired one of your bolder questions: "Are they afraid of what will happen after words or are they willing to accept that for what they will be creating?" When you explain the person talked about if the family that gave thier child away knew they could provide for him or her. Like Andy would say, it's developing one of those "bubbles".
Overall I really enjoyed reading your post, partly because it didn't go on and on, partly because it had a great style to it, and partly because of the interesting information it provided. Keep it up.
-Kevin

I liked that one of your interviews had the perspective of an adopted child versus an adoptive parent. It was interesting to see that the person did not care to know their birth story but rather how their known parents came about raising him/her. I also liked the questions you pondered at the end,"What inspires pregnancy in women? Is it a motherly instinct or is it natural? Are they afraid of what will happen after words or are they willing to accept that for what they will be creating?" It'd be interesting to collect answers from several mothers.

Beatrice