Reaction to Ryan C's blog

Ryan, I thought this blog post was very interesting because you (and me) are guys and, likely, we don't have to go through anything as unbearable as birthing a child.

I would also say that I never would have considered my wife and I to have a midwife deliver our child, since it is so unheard of in society today. We truly overlook this "field" because we have doctors who can deliver babies healthy and more efficiently; but at the same time its way more expensive. I believe the video said a midwife would cost around $5,000 and a doctor/hospital at $12,000. That is a huge difference!! (That's the price of a used car to drive on campus).

Now that I have seen this video, I definitely would consider a midwife to help my wife deliver in the future. They seem  like they know what they are doing and its cost-effective too. I mean hospitals are great too but again they just care about getting people in; treating them; and getting them out, to help another patient that needs to recover from a cold or what-have-you. All the hospitals care about is money and they really don't care about their patients' overall well-being. That is just said to me when you think about it.

~Chad S.

“Hardwired Sex Differences: Analysis of a Persistent Claim,” a lecture by Dr. Giordana Grossi

Attending Dr.Grossi's lecture was pretty eye-opening for me. It was for me the continuation of a question I have had swirling around in my head for just about a year now. Last year during woman's history month there was a lecturer presenting research, done on mice, on the subject of gene expression in the brain in relation to exposure to sex- hormones (testosterone and estrogen).

In short, data was presented representing sexual behaviors in mice when within seconds of their birth, female and male mice had been injected with inverse sex hormones. What the study found was that gene expression changed when certain sex hormone was introduced in the brain. So for example, if a female mouse was injected with testosterone shortly after birth, she would exhibit male sexual behavior.

Dr. Grossi's lecture seemed to me to be a reaction against these kinds of studies, and what seems to be a more and more commonly accepted assumption about the inherent differences between Males and Females. I found her argument to be systematic, mythological, and incredibly convincing. She first challenged, linguistically, why the term "hard-wired" is problematic. How "hardwired" as a term is inaccurate and misleading. Then she went on to explain how the results, the data presented in these talks, is at often times unfounded and in-replicable. And then went on to present data which contradicted the hypothesis affirmed by "hardwired" assumptions.

Dr. Grossi's final conclusion was what I have been repeatably been told from different people with which I have been having these talks with, that being that there is a severe lack of data and research with which to validate the claim the gender differences within males and females are hardwired. She then went on to ask, if it even was an important question to answer.

Overall, I really enjoyed her research and the way she constructed her arguments. Despite it being hard to hear through her accent at times, I still found her talk leave a lasting impression.

The Business of Being Born

The debate over Midwives vs. Hospitals has been an ongoing and controversial issue that in my opinion has an extremely obvious answer. Every mother is different, and every woman has a different body type that has very specific wants and needs when it comes to child birth. I think that if a woman is able to have a natural birth at home with a midwife, then she definitely should. A woman will be thankful that she had the chance to have an emotional bond with her child immediately after giving birth. In my opinion, the only time a woman should have a birth in a hospital is if her physical make up would not ensure a safe labor. I guess I should not be giving advice on being pregnant or giving birth because I am not a mother, but from the knowledge I have gained and the research I have done on this topic, I do believe that at home births with a midwife are the best option when it come to child birth.

The Father of Gynecology

When comparing Sartin’s article to that of Washington’s from Medical Apartheid there were some drastic differences. Washington really describes the harsh treatment African American slaves both men and women had to go through while under the care of Dr. Sims. Women were subjected to prodding and poking in more sensitive and private parts. The slaves were thought to be able to tolerate pain and would not be given any anesthetics. This is one example in which Sims was a cruel and selfish man, for putting his scientific drive before the well being of his patients.  Sims made a special hospital building next to his home, but was this really a hospital or just a laboratory for his experiments? Even though this was a time when slaves were considered property I think he could have gone about things differently and for that I see him as a villain. Was it proper and ethical for Sims to carry out his experimental surgeries in the way he did? I think he could have used anesthesia, especially when we know these women were screaming at the top of their lugs and had to be held down. His vaginal surgeries were thought to be minor procedures when described in Sartin’s article, but I think a lot is left out to make Sims seem more of a hero for his gynecological findings. Washington tells a much more descriptive and honest story of the struggle women went through due to Sims’ need for answers in the medical world. I think he was putting his want of fame and fortune first and would do anything in order to gain respect in society as a doctor. As a doctor he definitely over stepped his authority, but this is based on the perspective of what’s acceptable in today’s society.  

-emothersell

A thought on the Business of Being Born

Okay, so a lot of interesting points being brought up here about the video. Amidst the multitude of questions that the film has raised, as well as the graphic imagery, I was very curious to the progression of medicalized births. The film said in 1900 nearly no babies were born in hospitals, but nearly half were born in one by 1940. They said that this was caused the increased feminist movements and their desire to take advantage of new medications to ease to pain and symptoms. This would then be administered in hospitals by OBGYNs. So the "business" formed around this pro-medicine attitude initiated by the women in the 20th century. But I got the vibe that somehow this view as hospitals being pro-women changed in the 1960s when a different kind of feminist empowerment took place. So mid-wives returned as a new pro-women option against the hospitalized industry (which originated from a pro-medicine movement by women,) because hospitals "ruined" the spiritual and emotional parts from giving birth. Please correct if I am wrong, but this is what I picked up on from watching the film.

Regardless, I disagree with the one mid-wives view of hospitals ruining the connection between mother and baby because the mother was "sedated" in the process.  I would assume that an emotional connection to the baby would still exit regardless of its method of birth. If a caring mother spent 9 months tending to her baby, then her method of birth would not change a mother's will to nurture her child.

Artifact

The artifact that I’m presenting from our culture is the speculum. The speculum is a tool used in gynecology for the common procedure, Pap smear. This procedure includes inserting the speculum into the vagina as to be able to gain a more “open” perspective. The common speculum is an artifact of our medical culture and we can deduce quite a bit about how the view of women’s health has changed. The fact that we even have such an instrument shows that we’ve grown in our concern for women’s health. However if we take a look at this speculum versus Sims’ tool:

We can see that there has been some change. There is a clear difference in how we treat and think about women. Our culture has become more updated with a more comfortable way to deal with women’s health

Discussion Question

-Speaking from the artifact its self, what are the clear differences between the beginning of gynecology to now?

-Do you believe Sims’ was malicious or just trying to help or hurt? Was he after advances in medicine or money and a name for himself?

-How do you think Sims’ would have been seen if he had tested his surgery on white women rather than black slaves during that time?

-Consider the many medical experiments that have been done to advance to the point that we are at, would these be plausible now considering our different view for all of humanity?

Joan Welch

In Response to "Hospitalization of Birth"

I was also very surprised by the Business of Being Born video, it brought up many points that I had never even thought about or ever even questioned. As a young college student I don’t plan on having children anytime soon, but I plan on it in the future, and I always figured it would be a normal birth in the hospital. This video takes that image and questions it in many different ways, and it left me thinking what the hell am I ever going to do when I have kids. I see both sides of the video, but one of the things that worried me most was what if a mother chose home birth and something very serious went wrong? Yes, the chance of this happening is very low, but you never know who it’s going to be. I think this is a topic that is very hidden, considering the fact that I have never heard much about the argument, but I think it is very important and shouldn’t go as unnoticed. I think the video makes a great statement that women should have more choice when it comes to giving birth, as it is probably one of the most important aspects of life to a mother. I also think that a reason that mothers don’t have much of a choice is because the hospitals are treating it as a business, they want as many patients they can get to make the money, which means getting others out as quick as possible. It’s also a little scary to think in reality the doctors delivering babies haven’t been trained in delivering babies as they really have been trained more to perform the surgeries. I believe that there is a lot of manipulation taking place in the situation and that it should be brought to more attention because mothers deserve respect when bringing a child in to the world. 

Hospitalization of Birth

I was surprised to learn about the way that hospitals treat birth. I knew hospitals were run as businesses, but it was alarming to find out that they not only try to speed through the birthing product, but that they give dangerous drugs to women in order to induce labor. Its was rather surprising to learn that hospitals and ob/gyns are the probable cause to America's terrible live birth rate. This movie, while graphic, is very important to the way we understand birth and how capitalist society has turned it into a business to make money off of a quick turn over rate for hospital beds.

Business of Born

After watching the Business of Being Born in class on Thursday it brought up many questions. When women go into labor or are induced in a hospital there are doctors and nurses everywhere to help. The video made it seem like these doctors and nurses were there just to hurry the processes along and get the women in and out of the hospital as fast as they can. When in reality the doctors and nurses are just trying to make the women as comfortable as possible and insure that the birth of her child is safe. I understand that midwifes are able to do all the test that are needed to insure a baby is fine after birth, but what about when a child is born and things go wrong, i feel that there are just things that can only be done in a hospital.

Midwife Advantages versus Disadvantages

After seeing the first part of The Business of Being Born in class on Thursday I got interested in the advantages of a midwife births versus that of a doctor in a hospital. The first that I found was that a midwife is able to give their full attention to your child’s birth. Where as in a hospital a doctor has to complete their rounds and visit other patients.  The second one that I found was that midwives specialize in childbirth. The process of childbirth is their sole focus and making it as painless as possible for the delivering mother. I also found that midwifes are more open to what the family wants such as a home delivery. Unlike if you voiced your opinion to a doctor they would tell you to take the best course of medical action. This usually ends up being the easiest for the attending physician.

I also wanted to look at some major disadvantages. The first of which was that midwifes for the most part only carry the basic tools needed to deliver a child. The next was that they are often not trained for a high risk pregnancy. If it gets to the point in a delivery where its considered high risk or a cesarean section is need you’ll have to be transferred to a hospital and once there the midwife will be left out of the birth. The next I found is that insurances will not always cover a midwife/ home birth. If you get pregnant and then want to do a midwife birth it may not be covered by your insurance. And once you become pregnant you will not be able to switch the coverage that your insurance provides.
A midwife birth defiantly has positives, but there are also negative that go along with them. When it comes down to it, it all depends on what you as the expecting parents want to do. Because even though it maybe the wife that is pregnant they parents will have to agree on what is best for the child and the mother giving birth.

Reaction to Business of Being Born

   The documentary that we watching in class was definitely an eye opener to say the least.  Perhaps it's just because I'm a male or maybe it's because I've yet to experience the stress of a pregnancy on a couple, but I think it's astonishing that I would have never even considered an in-home birth until after watching the film.  There aren't enough mediums through which the benefits of midwifery and in-home birthing are portrayed.  I think that our country is so dependent on the medical system that we feel that it is the best way to seek advice and aid and often overlook other options due to ignorance and fear of the unknown.
   I also believe that the argument that birthing has been turned into a business by hospitals could be made to almost any medical condition.  The purpose of hospitals is to help the sick, but they rely on income to function.  Salaries have to be paid and supplies bought and governmental funding can't cover it all.  Just like any other factory, I'm sure that hospitals are focused on efficiency.  They are also probably less inclined to think about quality of work because they know that the sick feel the need to rely on them and that their options among hospitals in a city, especially one like Buffalo, are slim.

-Ryan Chilelli

Dehumanized

In class on Tuesday we talked about weather J. Marion Sims actions were moral or not. After thinking about it for a while thought of the idea of Sims being dehumanized. Dehumanized is defined as "to deprive of human qualities or attributes", which I feel Sims, to a certain point, did lack. He listened to women scream with horror from procedures that he knew weren't 100% necessary. I feel like this shows that he was lacking some sort of human quality such as compassion. Some might say that compassion is only half of being human; humans also have the tendency of being ruthless for getting what they want. Perhaps that is true but if your fellow colleges can't even stand being in the same room with you when you preform the procedures on the women, then I feel like that is enough evidence right there to prove that you are doing something wrong. Another person might say that the African American women he was experimenting on were not seen as humans, but merely animals at the time. This is true, and perhaps I might be stretching this a bit, but when you boil everything down no matter what he was experimenting on, man, women, dog; if they are screaming out in pain I feel like just about every living thing would want to try there best to make the situation not as painful as it could be. Sims did what he had to do to get what he wanted. He put his experiment before the human being.This can also be connected to the movie we watched on Thursday. Hospitals today, in a way, do the same thing Sims did. They don't see the care of the baby and the mother before the patient in and out statistics. It is crazy to think that they're the ones that are looking down upon midwifes when in fact its the hospitals that are the ones with the hidden agenda. 

Business of Being Born Causes Lawsuit

After viewing "The Business of Being Born" in class on Thursday, I was inspired to see the reactions of other viewers. I came across this article on the Internet and was very curious and felt obligated to discuss it. http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/midwife-starred-business-born-sued-parents-blame-stillbirth-article-1.383311

It's interesting to see that this couple is going out of their way to sue the midwife Cara Muhlhahn after watching her movie and having her deliver their child. With any birth, there are potential dangers and it seems as though this couple used the media spectacle to blame an unfortunate accident. How does the couple know that there child wouldn't have been stillborn if it were to be delivered in a hospital? They most likely will never know and that's the point.

I can honestly say that I knew very little about midwifery before this video, except that it was popular during the "hippie period"; but while watching it and learning more about how women's options to give birth at home a dwindling, I began to grow interested. When they mentioned that hospital births are usually shown to be agonizing and scary, I could only agree. I know many people who have based their decision on whether they want children or not, on the idea that childbirth is an excruciating experience they're not willing to go through. Would their opinion change if they watched the water birth shown in the video?

 I think it is intriguing that hospital births, even though statistically they cause more defects and are a greater risk for danger of the baby, are a norm in American society. Often, Americans participate in what is viewed as normal and the thing that we are expected to do, without giving a second thought or finding out if it is really the most beneficial thing to do.

Business of Being Born

   After watching the first part of the film yesterday I realized that birth was just the first part of a chain of authority placed on a person.  In the hospital giving birth, the mother does not have that much of a say in what happens during her birth.  Like one of the doctors said, birth was something that he could do on his time.  The mother's priorities aren't taken into account, it's just getting the baby out one way or another.  I also noticed how during the home birth, the mother was usually the first person to touch the baby AND she was the first to hold it.  There wasn't the typical rush of taking the baby away from the mother, cleaning it, and then handing it back all neatly bundled.  I'm not going to play psychologist, but I feel like taking the baby away from a mother does some psychological to the mother apart from what they discussed and called hormones.  When people question the safety of a midwife, I think they are forgetting all the pre-natal care that women have now and how many defects they can detect before the baby is even born.  Although I don't think that every birth should be a home birth and ultimately it is the choice of the mother and father, there should be more information about midwives available and they should be accepted as a medical entity for whatever insurance companies need to pay them.  As the United States healthcare system is changing, I can see that midwives may disappear altogether with few exceptions.  Not one option is better than the other but without proper education the right individual decision cannot be properly made.  
-Lindsay Rynders

Changes in Midwifery?

After watching the documentary today I was curious to find out more about if any changes have occurred in the rate of midwifes in the U.S. or if possibly this documentary has been influential at all. One article says that in 2009, midwives delivered 8.1% of U.S. babies. This article also discusses some recent change in attitudes regarding midwifery. One women is even quoted that midwives have become   a "trend", which contradicts the documentary's claim that c-sections are the trend.

http://healthland.time.com/2012/06/25/midwife-mania-more-u-s-babies-than-ever-are-delivered-by-midwives/

I also found a site, http://pushformidwives.org/, shown to be advocating midwifery to be taken more seriously and be implemented in all states. This organization pushes for the organizational, community, and policy-making levels of the issue. Research is being done by the organization to provide support as well as ongoing advocacy. Hopefully with organizations such as this midwifery can be reclaimed as a worthy practice for birthing because I feel that what the documentary said and showed the audience was important to recognize and take into account when thinking about giving birth.

Women's & Gender Studies site

http://www.fredonia.edu/womensstudies/

Above is the link to the Women's and Gender Studies program website in case anyone has any questions about it or wants to view the poster for the upcoming events!

"The Business of Being Born" Reaction

After watching the documentary on home birth in class today, my eyes were definitely opened to a subject I didn't have much knowledge of and never really took the time to look into.  I probably didn't care too much to explore the subject because I am a college student working on studies and pursuing a career and haven't reached that point yet where I am planning a family.  This documentary really made me think about the whole birthing process, of course, personally, but mainly about how it is relevant to the course.  Seeing the differences in natural versus all that goes into a hospital birth, the process, the drugs, the interventions and alternatives, and other factors.  Hearing the reactions of "medical professions" to the natural birth process and differing opinions and knowledge among them related to the material discussed in the reading, and how there is less of a chance of something going wrong with midwives than there is with doctors who work in hospitals and practice a less, or entirely non-natural birth process. It just made me think about the pressure of authority in medicine and how much it has affected the feminist movement and how progress has been made in this specific area, even though there is a still a long way to go.  A few years ago, I had a friend who was working for the state and was not content in her job.  She recently completed her training to be a doula and has witnessed and helped during the process of natural childbirth.  I learned from her that the process isn't just amazing for the mother, but also for all involved in it.

Vaginal Mutilation: Gynecology Ethics

I hate the gynecologist. Any woman would hate the gynecologist  But let's also keep in mind, that us women should be lucky to deal with the modern day gynecologist. Back in the day, in the old Chinese culture, there were practices in removing the clitoris (a source of female sexual pleasure), just so women could not have pleasure during intercourse. And there is removal of the labia at times as well.  Some people even do these practices today. With these people still doing practices today, do you think that Vaginal mutilation would be ethical now? What do you think would happen if a doctor in the U.S. would be caught doing this?

Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Female_genital_mutilation

-Courtney O'Donnell

Women in the Medical Field: A Story of Evolution

Thinking about our readings for this week I have come to one very real conclusion about the landscape of men vs. women when it comes to the medical profession, men can be monsters. Reading some of the information on "Doctor" Sims I could not help but wish he were dead to the world. He ruthlessly damaged several women beyond belief then turned it around and called it a simple price to pay for the betterment of mankind. As compared to our other readings which discusses the matter of women making it in the medical field and making it a little safer for those in need. Yet the male monster dressed like gentlemen found and are still trying to find new ways to keep women from entering the medical field and shifting the male dominated society. Yet we have seen through history that women in society will not be held down and every victory no matter how small is still a victory none the less. This was first seen when Elizabeth Blackwell was the first woman to recieve a medical degree all the way back in time to 1849. However, we can see the victories everyday by women in the medical field. If we look in one single hall of a hospital we see that for every one doctor the has got to be three or four nurses on call. So in a way women have already beaten the system and now the only thing left is to produce as many doctors out of society. But in the long run a few things have the greatest message to be seen in our modern day society. First, there is a solid staff of people around every major work enviroment to make sure the betterment and not the harm comes to mankind. Second, the medical field is starting to turn the page on it darker past and has truly become a place for the advancement of human health. Finally, research is no longer about trial and error with lives on the line, it is a constantly moving force which will eventually find the cure or treatment to all health problems without the need to ruin or destroy a life in the process.

In Response to "American Horror Story Discussion"

I think the show American Horror Story is a good comparison to the two readings we discussed about “Sickness” especially in relation to women. Although I did not see the first season I have watched part of the second season and two of the main characters are women. The woman who was placed in the insane asylum by her husband is believed to be severely mentally ill but through out the story she proves that she can outsmart the head controllers of the asylum. The other main female character is the head nun who helps run the asylum, she helps promote all the tortures that happen in the asylum but she seems secretly to be against them. In one of the episodes the nun is basically stripped of her position and forced to become a patient in the asylum. As soon as this happens she immediately loses any control or respect she had over any of the patients, everyone sees her as a crazy person now and does not know how to react to her. After this happened I couldn’t help but think, what if this was the head master who is a male doctor, would things be treated the same way? I don’t think it would, one, because no one ever believed that he was torturing the patients because they had no proof, and two, because the patients would all still fear him and be afraid to disrespect him. Why do you think it is that the difference in characters would change the situation just because they are different gender and of different position? Considering they both took part in controlling the torture of the patients.

J. Marion Sims is a Villain

The reading of the history of gynecology includes the founding father, J. Marion Sims who developed treatments for infections in gynecology. His introduction of new instruments and techniques were able to help doctors and nurses help women in combating disease of the female reproductive system. The reading’s title suggests that J. Marion Sims can be portrayed as either a “hero” or “villain”. My argument will focus on his villainous characteristics, despite his contributions to gynecology. Feel free to refute this argument or support it in the comments section; I would like to hear what you think about J. Marion Sims.

                I see J. Marion Sims as a villain because of his harsh treatment of slave women in order to progress in new techniques in health practices. Sims also had a forceful personality and was kicked out of the hospital he worked at for the public surgeries that he performed since he refused to make the surgeries private or at least not exploit women as much during his surgeries. The reading does point out however that it was believed that Sims wanted the best for his patients but used slaves to help better these patients. There are many questions about the use of race in his findings and the idea that Sims blamed the slave mothers for the death of their children.

                Sims can be looked at positively in society, since he was able to expand gynecology to places it had not reached before. The techniques that he used were questioned and frowned upon by today’s society. Perhaps without him, there may not have been an advancement in fighting these diseases for quite some time and more lives would have been lost.

What do you think? Should he be considered a hero or villain?

Darren Pope