Kristen:
Just curious - what were, if any, the repercussions on the doctors that helped abort that little girl's twins and her family? I know in the US, you're supposed to have parental consent to get an abortion if you're under 18 in some locations but what about the parents? Were they blamed? Just as scornful?
More coming. Computer needs to work faster.
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Elevator Speech
Emily didn't mean to kill her baby, but she couldn't help it. It was out of her control and some might even argue it wasn't her fault. Still, it came as a shock. How could something like this have happened when she wanted nothing more than to be a mother? How could she have possibly lost interest in her child, so quickly and how, after birthing her child, could she have gained any sort of detachment towards it? What sounds like a horror story straight from a TV series like House MD, is a complete and total possibility in real life. Stories like Emily's do exist and between 5-25% of American woman are at risk for this worst case scenario. It's called Postpartum Depression, something that leading researchers think may be due to the sudden hormone crash experienced within twenty four hours from giving birth. (While giving birth, women experience extreme spikes of hormones and an adrenaline rush to help them through the process.) But this hasn't been confirmed. Even experts aren't entirely sure what causes PPD, however, they are aware of what can increase a woman's chances of developing it.
The first and main factor is if she develops 'normal' depression during her pregnancy. Continuing from there on, history of depression or mental illness either personally or in the family, a lack of support from friends and family, anxiety, negative feelings about the pregnancy, previous problematic pregnancies, marriage problems, financial problems, being a young mother, drug or alcohol abuse and stress in general can all increase the odds of depression in a mother-to-be. Once a mother-to-be has already developed depression, she increases her chances of getting PPD. An estimated 40% of PPD related deaths occur withing the first few days following the child's birth. General symptoms of PPD include harmful thoughts revolving the baby or the mother herself and simply not having any interest in the child.
A further, more serious version of PPD has further symptoms, including hallucinations and rapid mood swings and trying to act out on the thoughts and desires to hurt the baby. I don't know much about this PP Pyschosis however, since it seems to be affiliated with women already with mental disorders, it seems like these women should especially seek out treatment.
The first and main factor is if she develops 'normal' depression during her pregnancy. Continuing from there on, history of depression or mental illness either personally or in the family, a lack of support from friends and family, anxiety, negative feelings about the pregnancy, previous problematic pregnancies, marriage problems, financial problems, being a young mother, drug or alcohol abuse and stress in general can all increase the odds of depression in a mother-to-be. Once a mother-to-be has already developed depression, she increases her chances of getting PPD. An estimated 40% of PPD related deaths occur withing the first few days following the child's birth. General symptoms of PPD include harmful thoughts revolving the baby or the mother herself and simply not having any interest in the child.
A further, more serious version of PPD has further symptoms, including hallucinations and rapid mood swings and trying to act out on the thoughts and desires to hurt the baby. I don't know much about this PP Pyschosis however, since it seems to be affiliated with women already with mental disorders, it seems like these women should especially seek out treatment.
· Bibliography
David B. , Merrill. "Depression - postpartum; Postnatal depression." National Center for Biotechnology Information, U.S. National Library of Medicine. Pub Med Health, 02 Sep 2010. Web. 30 Mar 2011. <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0004481/>.
David B. , Merrill. "Depression - postpartum; Postnatal depression." National Center for Biotechnology Information, U.S. National Library of Medicine. Pub Med Health, 02 Sep 2010. Web. 30 Mar 2011. <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0004481/>.
· Unknown. "Depression During and After Pregnancy." the Office on Women's Health in the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health. Women's Health, 06 Mar 2009. Web. 30 Mar 2011. <http://www.womenshealth.gov/faq/depression-pregnancy.cfm>.
· Phend, Crystal. "Postpartum Depression Affects Dads Too Condition Can Affect Parenting, Researchers Say." ABC News (2011): n. pag. Web. 30 Mar 2011. <http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Wellness/postpartum-depression-affects-dads/story?id=13132665>.
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
HW 42
Choice 3: Write a 2-5 page essay that assembles powerful evidence to analyze a particular aspect of the dominant social practices around pregnancy & birth. Post it on your blog with an MLA works cited section. Due Wednesday, April 6 at 8pm.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"This comic benefit was supposed to be for the benefit of children in Africa, but Brad and Angelina seemed to have adopted them all...." As the comedian on TV rattled on, I wasn't the only one who snickered at the ill humor. During years of Angelina Jolie and her adopted children getting mentioned in gossip column after gossip column, seeing her face slapped on the face of the National Enquirer in my grandmother's house, I never paid her much mind. In school, I still paid no mind to her in relation to 'curve the bullet' jokes I made no sense of until she was mentioned in a documentary we were watching in history class. The documentary was The Business of Being Born and on screen was a mother commenting on the high rates of Cesarean births in hospitals instead of at home. In the next moment, a midwife was shown adding on that if fashionable, popular celebrities like Angelina Jolie were to have home births, or midwife assisted births, more middle and low class women might opt to follow the 'trend' instead of the 'order your baby, pick your delivery day' option. This was advertised in some magazines after Britney Spears and other famous women opted for it and were interviewed on their method on giving birth. The Business of Being Born went on to announce that in some hospitals, mothers can also have a tummy-tuck just after giving birth while their on the operating table to lose the weight. "We need celebrities to endorse what we do," the midwife concluded. It was what she claimed would solve the current and literally largest problem of the birthing business.
99% of births occur in a hospital setting, as of the 21st century. "Whereas in 1900 almost all U.S. births occurred outside a hospital." (Marian F. MacDorman 17-23)
Bibliography:
Marian F. MacDorman , Eugene. Birth: Issues in Perinatal Care. 1. 38. Hoboken, NJ: Blackwell Publishing, 2009. 17-23. Print.
Lake, Ricki, Prod. The Business of Being Born. Dir. Abby Epstein." Perf. Barnett Tracy, Julia, Louann Brizendine, Michael Brodman, Patricia Burkhardt, and Tina Cassidy. 2008, Film.
Vincent, Peggy. Baby Catcher: the Chronicles of a Modern Midwife. 1st ed. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster, 2002. Print.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"This comic benefit was supposed to be for the benefit of children in Africa, but Brad and Angelina seemed to have adopted them all...." As the comedian on TV rattled on, I wasn't the only one who snickered at the ill humor. During years of Angelina Jolie and her adopted children getting mentioned in gossip column after gossip column, seeing her face slapped on the face of the National Enquirer in my grandmother's house, I never paid her much mind. In school, I still paid no mind to her in relation to 'curve the bullet' jokes I made no sense of until she was mentioned in a documentary we were watching in history class. The documentary was The Business of Being Born and on screen was a mother commenting on the high rates of Cesarean births in hospitals instead of at home. In the next moment, a midwife was shown adding on that if fashionable, popular celebrities like Angelina Jolie were to have home births, or midwife assisted births, more middle and low class women might opt to follow the 'trend' instead of the 'order your baby, pick your delivery day' option. This was advertised in some magazines after Britney Spears and other famous women opted for it and were interviewed on their method on giving birth. The Business of Being Born went on to announce that in some hospitals, mothers can also have a tummy-tuck just after giving birth while their on the operating table to lose the weight. "We need celebrities to endorse what we do," the midwife concluded. It was what she claimed would solve the current and literally largest problem of the birthing business.
99% of births occur in a hospital setting, as of the 21st century. "Whereas in 1900 almost all U.S. births occurred outside a hospital." (Marian F. MacDorman 17-23)
Bibliography:
Marian F. MacDorman , Eugene. Birth: Issues in Perinatal Care. 1. 38. Hoboken, NJ: Blackwell Publishing, 2009. 17-23. Print.
Lake, Ricki, Prod. The Business of Being Born. Dir. Abby Epstein." Perf. Barnett Tracy, Julia, Louann Brizendine, Michael Brodman, Patricia Burkhardt, and Tina Cassidy. 2008, Film.
Vincent, Peggy. Baby Catcher: the Chronicles of a Modern Midwife. 1st ed. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster, 2002. Print.
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
41 - Independent Research
Topic one: postpartum depression
About 13 percent of pregnant women and new mothers have depression. (Womenshealth)
Depression after childbirth is called postpartum depression. Hormonal changes may trigger symptoms of postpartum depression. When you are pregnant, levels of the female hormones estrogen (ESS-truh-jen) and progesterone (proh-JESS-tur-ohn) increase greatly. In the first 24 hours after childbirth, hormone levels quickly return to normal. Researchers think the big change in hormone levels may lead to depression. This is much like the way smaller hormone changes can affect a woman’s moods before she gets her period.
Levels of thyroid hormones may also drop after giving birth. The thyroid is a small gland in the neck that helps regulate how your body uses and stores energy from food. Low levels of thyroid hormones can cause symptoms of depression. A simple blood test can tell if this condition is causing your symptoms. If so, your doctor can prescribe thyroid medicine.
Certain factors may increase your risk of depression during and after pregnancy:
Postpartum psychosis (seye-KOH-suhss) is rare. It occurs in about 1 to 4 out of every 1,000 births. It usually begins in the first 2 weeks after childbirth. Women who have bipolar disorder or another mental health problem called schizoaffective (SKIT-soh-uh-FEK-tiv) disorder have a higher risk for postpartum psychosis. Symptoms may include:
The study, of more than 1,700 fathers of 1-year-olds, found that depression occurred in 7 percent of those dads, and increased the odds of recent spankings nearly four-fold and more than halved the likelihood of the men reading with their child most days of the week, reported Dr. R. Neal Davis and colleagues at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. (Phend)
Depressed fathers were 62 percent less likely to report reading to their children at least three days a week and 3.92-fold more likely to have spanked them in the past month. (Phend)
About 13 percent of pregnant women and new mothers have depression. (Womenshealth)
Depression after childbirth is called postpartum depression. Hormonal changes may trigger symptoms of postpartum depression. When you are pregnant, levels of the female hormones estrogen (ESS-truh-jen) and progesterone (proh-JESS-tur-ohn) increase greatly. In the first 24 hours after childbirth, hormone levels quickly return to normal. Researchers think the big change in hormone levels may lead to depression. This is much like the way smaller hormone changes can affect a woman’s moods before she gets her period.
Levels of thyroid hormones may also drop after giving birth. The thyroid is a small gland in the neck that helps regulate how your body uses and stores energy from food. Low levels of thyroid hormones can cause symptoms of depression. A simple blood test can tell if this condition is causing your symptoms. If so, your doctor can prescribe thyroid medicine.
Certain factors may increase your risk of depression during and after pregnancy:
- A personal history of depression or another mental illness
- A family history of depression or another mental illness
- A lack of support from family and friends
- Anxiety or negative feelings about the pregnancy
- Problems with a previous pregnancy or birth
- Marriage or money problems
- Stressful life events
- Young age
- Substance abuse
- Thoughts of hurting the baby
- Thoughts of hurting yourself
- Not having any interest in the baby
Postpartum psychosis (seye-KOH-suhss) is rare. It occurs in about 1 to 4 out of every 1,000 births. It usually begins in the first 2 weeks after childbirth. Women who have bipolar disorder or another mental health problem called schizoaffective (SKIT-soh-uh-FEK-tiv) disorder have a higher risk for postpartum psychosis. Symptoms may include:
- Seeing things that aren’t there
- Feeling confused
- Having rapid mood swings
- Trying to hurt yourself or your baby
The study, of more than 1,700 fathers of 1-year-olds, found that depression occurred in 7 percent of those dads, and increased the odds of recent spankings nearly four-fold and more than halved the likelihood of the men reading with their child most days of the week, reported Dr. R. Neal Davis and colleagues at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. (Phend)
Depressed fathers were 62 percent less likely to report reading to their children at least three days a week and 3.92-fold more likely to have spanked them in the past month. (Phend)
Bibliography
· David B. , Merrill. "Depression - postpartum; Postnatal depression." National Center for Biotechnology Information, U.S. National Library of Medicine. Pub Med Health, 02 Sep 2010. Web. 30 Mar 2011. <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0004481/>.
· Unknown. "Depression During and After Pregnancy." the Office on Women's Health in the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health. Women's Health, 06 Mar 2009. Web. 30 Mar 2011. <http://www.womenshealth.gov/faq/depression-pregnancy.cfm>.
· Phend, Crystal. "Postpartum Depression Affects Dads Too Condition Can Affect Parenting, Researchers Say." ABC News (2011): n. pag. Web. 30 Mar 2011. <http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Wellness/postpartum-depression-affects-dads/story?id=13132665>.
Thursday, March 17, 2011
38
Baby Catcher: Chronicles of a Modern Midwife by Peggy Vincent is a book that's straight to the point in describing it's contents and structure. Every few pages jumps between the stories of a new birth significant to the forthcoming of Ms. Vincent changing from a nurse to the midwife. Not every story is directly related to birth, some 'chapters' are dedicated to classes and other people or experiences that separate her from the rest of her peers such as Kennedy's death and Ms. Vincent's disconnect from it and the national depression that followed it. As the reader, we follow her as a nursing student and her beginning to question why the birthing system is set up the way it is. How did it become inhumane enough that a mother wasn't allowed to hold her own child? What made the doctor the God of the delivery room and the woman's body instead of the woman herself?
major insight goes here
Through reading this book, while there were some of these things I also learned from my birthing stories, there were a few (some horrifying, other shocking) things that came up in the book. It's easiest to list them as bullet points:
major insight goes here
Through reading this book, while there were some of these things I also learned from my birthing stories, there were a few (some horrifying, other shocking) things that came up in the book. It's easiest to list them as bullet points:
- During about the fifties and sixties, there was a drug (which Vee from my interviews called Twilight) that made the mothers forget most of the process and supposedly remove the pain.
- At the time of Ms. Vincent's nurses, mothers who didn't follow the norm of what the doctors wanted and expected, they were mocked and considered crazy by the doctors
- While now, as I discovered with my little brother's birth, people can just walk in and out of the delivery room. However, during the time at the start of the book, this wasn't typical or allowed.
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Birth Interviews
Interviewees:
1) "Vee"; mother of one; "senior citizen"
2) "Dee"; mother of two; "old enough"
To start off with, the women I interviewed asked for me to quickly summarize their experience of giving birth. For my first interviewee, Vee, she had a natural birth in the hospital and was put in one of those mock hot tubs they have to 'help calm us down'. The second interviewee, Dee, had one botched C-section and nine years later, a natural birth and an extended period of labor due to the baby twisting it's arm around their head. Both women focused mainly on the actual day of the birth for the interview and have extremely different stories.
Vee's story came off somewhat vague as it happened over forty years ago but she says while she couldn't verbally explain most of it, she remembers it vividly. Her daughter who was present disagreed, saying that every woman of her mother's generation was put under some sort of medicine nicknamed Twilight which in hindsight, made the birthing process seem painless. "But of course it hurt," Vee kept insisting, throwing her daughter disagreeing looks. "I just had it easy, God bless." Her water broke in the morning and she had time to shower before her husband could take her to the hospital. Indeed, details from there out were quick and blurred together. She remembers being put into what she describes as a hot tub of sorts to relax her, "...maybe the muscles as well.... It's the best thing you can do for the mother." However, she did not give birth in that tub. They led her onto the bed, much more like a table, and once she was settled, they wouldn't let her leave it even to use the bathroom. She found this upsetting since she had always taken long walks during the pregnancy, even days before 'the big day'. Perhaps her twenty block hike home had something to do with her water breaking the next day?
Dee, similiar to Vee, made sure to always excerise during the pregnancy of her first child. As her stomach started to grow, she
1) "Vee"; mother of one; "senior citizen"
2) "Dee"; mother of two; "old enough"
To start off with, the women I interviewed asked for me to quickly summarize their experience of giving birth. For my first interviewee, Vee, she had a natural birth in the hospital and was put in one of those mock hot tubs they have to 'help calm us down'. The second interviewee, Dee, had one botched C-section and nine years later, a natural birth and an extended period of labor due to the baby twisting it's arm around their head. Both women focused mainly on the actual day of the birth for the interview and have extremely different stories.
Vee's story came off somewhat vague as it happened over forty years ago but she says while she couldn't verbally explain most of it, she remembers it vividly. Her daughter who was present disagreed, saying that every woman of her mother's generation was put under some sort of medicine nicknamed Twilight which in hindsight, made the birthing process seem painless. "But of course it hurt," Vee kept insisting, throwing her daughter disagreeing looks. "I just had it easy, God bless." Her water broke in the morning and she had time to shower before her husband could take her to the hospital. Indeed, details from there out were quick and blurred together. She remembers being put into what she describes as a hot tub of sorts to relax her, "...maybe the muscles as well.... It's the best thing you can do for the mother." However, she did not give birth in that tub. They led her onto the bed, much more like a table, and once she was settled, they wouldn't let her leave it even to use the bathroom. She found this upsetting since she had always taken long walks during the pregnancy, even days before 'the big day'. Perhaps her twenty block hike home had something to do with her water breaking the next day?
Dee, similiar to Vee, made sure to always excerise during the pregnancy of her first child. As her stomach started to grow, she
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Birth Unit Interviews
The was a general consensus among the people that I interviewed that there are certain things - "common courtesy," as my oldest interviewee called it and "good manners," my younger brother referred to it - that should be considered standard treatment for pregnant women. While no one came out and said that they considered pregnant women to be scared, as we discussed in class, they all agreed that at the very least, seats should be given up for them and people who are sick should be kept away. While my older friends, all girls as I couldn't get any guy to allow me to interview them, said that it was keeping the health and comfort of the mother at it's highest standard, my little brother was the only one who considered what it would do to the actual baby.
Throughout the interview, he kept repeating that people had to be careful around pregnant women, "So the baby doesn't have problems.... So the baby doesn't come out the wrong way, like sick or diseased or hurt." Things like giving up your seat he says he learned from a friend - not from all the signs on the buses asking you to do such. He also said that he wouldn't treat a woman any differently according to her age. In fact, he went on about how he would go out of his way to make sure her baby was okay. "... tell her not to work hard or at all and I would do all her work. I don't know why.... Pick it up for them, they aren't supposed to bend down." That last piece he claims to have learned from the TV show House.
I think the biggest contrasts came in my interview with my little brother and my friends in college. While he said that birth made him want to faint, that it was scary to give birth or be pregnant because it was "... like a monster popping outta the belly, like a Lord of the Rings troll." On the other hand, most of my friends did say that they would like to have kids one day and of those three, one would want to solely adopt, one would like to do both and one would only like to have their own. One friend, Liz, says she grew up in a very church based community where most of the 'common courtesy' she learned came from always being surrounded by at least one or two women who were pregnant. She said that she thought, "... pregnancy is amazing and so are babies, especially after getting to hold my best friends' firstborn child not long ago." Her only strong fear mentioned was the fear of the pain even though she has been told by mothers, "..it's worth it. I also hear that your hormones are at work so that you're attached to the baby despite being kinda miserable"
Throughout the interview, he kept repeating that people had to be careful around pregnant women, "So the baby doesn't have problems.... So the baby doesn't come out the wrong way, like sick or diseased or hurt." Things like giving up your seat he says he learned from a friend - not from all the signs on the buses asking you to do such. He also said that he wouldn't treat a woman any differently according to her age. In fact, he went on about how he would go out of his way to make sure her baby was okay. "... tell her not to work hard or at all and I would do all her work. I don't know why.... Pick it up for them, they aren't supposed to bend down." That last piece he claims to have learned from the TV show House.
I think the biggest contrasts came in my interview with my little brother and my friends in college. While he said that birth made him want to faint, that it was scary to give birth or be pregnant because it was "... like a monster popping outta the belly, like a Lord of the Rings troll." On the other hand, most of my friends did say that they would like to have kids one day and of those three, one would want to solely adopt, one would like to do both and one would only like to have their own. One friend, Liz, says she grew up in a very church based community where most of the 'common courtesy' she learned came from always being surrounded by at least one or two women who were pregnant. She said that she thought, "... pregnancy is amazing and so are babies, especially after getting to hold my best friends' firstborn child not long ago." Her only strong fear mentioned was the fear of the pain even though she has been told by mothers, "..it's worth it. I also hear that your hormones are at work so that you're attached to the baby despite being kinda miserable"
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