Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Monday, March 14, 2011
Insights from Born in the USA --part1
Born in the USA by Dr. Marsden Wagner is organized in such a way that is reminiscent of Fast Food Nation. Now maybe I’m just saying that because the color scheme, size and font are the same, but each of the nine chapters focuses on an aspect that connects to the major theme that pregnancy is designed for the ease of the doctor and not for the care of the child and mother. About every time Dr. Wagner makes a claim or refutes one he has a superscript to back up his claim that when done with the chapter one could check the source of evidence for if one was so inclined.
The question Dr. Wagner tries to answer is: how is the maternity system in the USA broken and how are we to fix it? Dr. Wagner clearly states his views on the maternity system and what safer alternatives are available. I don’t think “fixing” is the best word however, I think Americans need an entirely new outlook on how birth is dealt with, and our maternity system shouldn’t be fixed it should be burned and from the ashes of sonographs and lithotomies rises a new system dominated by midwives and doulas.
The major insight Dr. Wagner establishes in Born in the USA is that there has been a curtain pulled, it separates the large population of the US from the procedures performed by obstetricians. It separates the truth from the reason, the logic from science, the nature from life and most importantly the options from the mother. This is not any individuals fault but a fault on the development into what is now the USA’s maternity system. The book is a clear example to me the dangers of hierarchy and absolute power. A reminder that education is not always preventing ignorance but can actually breed an I’m the expert consciousness that will result in closed minded followers. And most profoundly it criticizes society as it accepts knowledge; that once a group of experts in a given field reach a consensus on anything that may pertain to that field, whether it be right or wrong, everyone else will follow blindly.
Both Dr. Wagner and I agree that the structure of power within maternity care must be reshaped as it encourages pregnant women to yield to their doctor’s will. The ease of performing certain pregnancy procedures such as cesarean sections should be restricted because of the health risks and contingent nature of the procedures. People should also be aware doctors make mistakes, and often don’t see that they made a mistake because the procedure they are following has not been criticized. People should know that pregnancy and pain aren’t synonymous. The most important thing that should be put under public eye is the options available to pregnant woman, the alternatives to having birth in a hospital and the probable sequence of events of their decision.
Dr. Wagner’s use of evidence is very strong. Much of the evidence is firsthand accounts as he is well experienced in the workings of medical practice because he is (or was at some point) a doctor. Because of his direct experience he shares rare insight and has irrefutable testimony to the maternal system. That which he can’t support by pure firsthand account he supports with statistics and historical context. He does not cite the evidence in text, but he does make superscripts so if one were to doubt a claim one could flip over and see where its source is.
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
comments
Luke Jensen (protege) said...
Hey John, I enjoyed reading this post and not just because I know Izzy and her family, although it was cool to see, at least partly, why and how Izzy came to exist. I think your best line would probably have to be, "Marriage without the birth is often looked at with suspicion while the other way around it is shameful" because i think it is concise,and a perceptive observation. I also feel like it is a good example of how your post as a whole talks about our cultural concepts of marriage,family, and gender roles and their implications, and possibly why they exist. You suggest the possibility of biology being an influence on, if not the reason for, some of the roles certain people play out in society, specifically gender roles. I wonder how much biology plays into how mothers and fathers interact with child birth or the raising of children. And I think a cross-cultural analysis of how mothers and fathers, or men and women in general,interact with child birth, marriage, and family would be interesting and insightful in terms of explaining if Tom and Jackie's experience is unique and culturally different from others or if there is at least some nugget of universality in their experiences with child birth and family life. Emily (mentor) said... Hi John!
This was a great small interview with Tom, and on a topic that's personal and can be hard to boil down in a 100 word wrap-up. I liked two aspects of this interview-analysis. 1) You delved into a topic that not many parents are so willing to express: how their lives are going to change after having a kid--for the worse. Or at least, that was his initial thinking. Clearly, that has changed. And 2) the social expectations of a married couple with or without children, and vice versa, a unmarried couple having a baby and the stigmas that follow along.
I suggest that you look over your work, as there were some grammatical errors. Also, you touched briefly on Jackie's pregnancy as a tumor. It's true! Fetutes are parasites, it would be funny to explore that idea in juxtaposition to the "pregancy is beautiful!" idea. ElizabethM (Elizabeth Mallinson) said... Hey John,
I think that the first topic you'd like to explore further is a really interesting one (what are the reasons for marriage and birth to be so interconnected in our society?). Another thing that I liked was that in your response paragraph, you talked about society and then compared society's standards back to Tom and Jackie.
One thing I'd suggest is proofreading your work. There were a few minor grammar mistakes that you would have noticed i you'd combed through your work. Another benefit from proofreading is that you could probably see room for expansion and, by doing so, add some more "beauty" to your work.
Good Job!
Lucas L (Lucas London) said...
John,
I enjoyed that your post was short and straight to the point. It's interesting that Tom views marriage and pregnancy as a 'rite of passage', perhaps it truly is the most basic of such displays of passage, because the act of procreation is so universal amongst organisms. Your comparison of a fetus to a tumor was slightly funny, in a dark sort of way, but fetuses tend not to kill their mothers... (most of the time). Thanks for the good read.
-Lucas ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- JohnMT1a said... Lucas,
like always i enjoyed reading your post, your thoughts are always concise and you can so clearly spill them out. the way you kept the interviewees anonymous with letters annoyed me, i would have much preferred names even if they were made up, i soon realized i could just do that in my head though. back to the good stuff, your variety was also something i enjoyed aswell and i was impressed you were able to find people wit such stories, perhaps this shows how much i previously had not known and assumed i had. i also like the topic you chose to investigate, its a bit of a touchy subject but those are always the best.
great post,
john tabor Elizabeth!
Your interviews were interesting and you presented each one with something of a narrative arc, different from mine which is something i think i could work on. the details were the most nice spice, like how the doctor made threats and the nurse was incompetant. the one that struck me the most was the first interviewee only got offered a seat twice on the train in those 9 months, maybe my social obligations are more different than i thought than of others. im curious to know what neighborhood she would get off and on. another thing i also liked was how i could also very easily follow your thought process which almost made me feel im not alone at night looking at a computer reading someones blog. thanks for the stories,
John
This was a great small interview with Tom, and on a topic that's personal and can be hard to boil down in a 100 word wrap-up. I liked two aspects of this interview-analysis. 1) You delved into a topic that not many parents are so willing to express: how their lives are going to change after having a kid--for the worse. Or at least, that was his initial thinking. Clearly, that has changed. And 2) the social expectations of a married couple with or without children, and vice versa, a unmarried couple having a baby and the stigmas that follow along.
I suggest that you look over your work, as there were some grammatical errors. Also, you touched briefly on Jackie's pregnancy as a tumor. It's true! Fetutes are parasites, it would be funny to explore that idea in juxtaposition to the "pregancy is beautiful!" idea.
I think that the first topic you'd like to explore further is a really interesting one (what are the reasons for marriage and birth to be so interconnected in our society?). Another thing that I liked was that in your response paragraph, you talked about society and then compared society's standards back to Tom and Jackie.
One thing I'd suggest is proofreading your work. There were a few minor grammar mistakes that you would have noticed i you'd combed through your work. Another benefit from proofreading is that you could probably see room for expansion and, by doing so, add some more "beauty" to your work.
Good Job!
I enjoyed that your post was short and straight to the point. It's interesting that Tom views marriage and pregnancy as a 'rite of passage', perhaps it truly is the most basic of such displays of passage, because the act of procreation is so universal amongst organisms. Your comparison of a fetus to a tumor was slightly funny, in a dark sort of way, but fetuses tend not to kill their mothers... (most of the time). Thanks for the good read.
-Lucas
like always i enjoyed reading your post, your thoughts are always concise and you can so clearly spill them out. the way you kept the interviewees anonymous with letters annoyed me, i would have much preferred names even if they were made up, i soon realized i could just do that in my head though. back to the good stuff, your variety was also something i enjoyed aswell and i was impressed you were able to find people wit such stories, perhaps this shows how much i previously had not known and assumed i had. i also like the topic you chose to investigate, its a bit of a touchy subject but those are always the best.
great post,
john tabor
Your interviews were interesting and you presented each one with something of a narrative arc, different from mine which is something i think i could work on. the details were the most nice spice, like how the doctor made threats and the nurse was incompetant. the one that struck me the most was the first interviewee only got offered a seat twice on the train in those 9 months, maybe my social obligations are more different than i thought than of others. im curious to know what neighborhood she would get off and on. another thing i also liked was how i could also very easily follow your thought process which almost made me feel im not alone at night looking at a computer reading someones blog. thanks for the stories,
John
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