Part I:
Birth and death are all something that every person experiences no matter where one lives. However, the differences come with the culture that you live in. One of the biggest things that has modernized birth in the US, is where the birth happens. In the past, having a home birth was very popular and having a midwife was favored over a doctor. The lecture makes a comment where giving birth was a normal for family life, not a medical procedure. Now, I feel as though having a child in your home isn’t very popular. I think this is due to the technology, resources available, sanitary exposure, and the amount of staff that is available to help, attracts more and more mothers to have their children in a hospital just in case something was to happen.
Cross culturally, birth and death are a little different than in the US. The US has a pretty high C-section rate and a low use of midwives. Those countries that have the best outcomes and lowest infant mortality rate are due to midwives being their care takers and using at home births. Home births in the Netherlands is considered a first choice for giving birth. Some of the theoretical perspectives of de Jonge A., et al., kind of shocked me. I realized that it really stuck to women that had already had previous children and were from a certain ethnicity. What I also found interesting was that regardless if the mother had the baby at home or in the hospital, the baby had an equal chance of being admitted into to NICU. After reading the article, I realized that the reason it was like that was because in the Netherlands, since most people have their baby at home, the system changed itself to meet the needs of those who wanted to give a home birth. So, they bring the proper resources with them and also have emergency services ready in case something goes wrong. That definitely changes in my viewpoint on at home births and I appreciate that they normalize it and accommodate the wishes of mothers.
For the Inuit, the father plays an important role in the spiritual and physical health of the baby and the mother. The elders also play a role in making the child feel welcomed by shaking his or her hand. They also don’t give the child a name right away until they figure out who in their community was reincarnated and determine the name from that. There is also a ceremony that makes the baby a real human being. Giving birth to a baby is really important and sacred in other parts of the world. It is a rite of passage that also makes the mother a better person.
In Vietnam, the maternal mortality rate is 10x higher than in other parts of the world. Midwives play an extremely important role in this area. Medical centers are very far away, so it makes it difficult to travel to. In this area, having a child at home gives them a 50% chance survival rate than if they went to a medical center. I found it very interesting how young children were having babies in this area. It really made me want to ask a lot of questions. Such as: is the death rate of mother and infant so high not only because they aren’t in an area that has the resources and doctors to help if something goes wrong, or is it because the mothers are also very young that their bodies aren’t fully developed so giving birth at a young age raises their risk of altercations? I understand that they want to perform religious celebrations and ceremonies, but I think it is past that. Too many mothers are put at risk when it can be avoided easily with the help of a medical center. It was interesting to see that the midwife was basically begging mothers to go to the medical center because they know it is better to have their baby there then at home.
To conclude, I think that it really just depends on where you live and the culture you grew up in that ultimately shapes your ideas. Hospitals are huge here in the US and I think they are very important; I hope that in the Inuit and Vietnamese communities see the good that hospitals bring to a community and ultimately decide to normalize going there in their areas. As far as the Netherlands, I think at home births are great if they get the proper medical attention they need.
Part II:
What really grabs my attention about this photo is that the woman pictured is eating all healthy and raw foods. She happily prepared it for herself and is eating it with a smile on her face. This shows that the mother is ensuring that she is nourishing her body with great foods not only for herself but her baby. I understand the idea of this advertisement to show the dominant idea of women eating healthy but at the same time I could also see this as a stay at home mom that spends her time preparing meals happily in the kitchen with the husband not around. The US has planted this idea in people’s heads that mothers are supposed to be these strong, independent women that can also do 100 tasks by herself when in reality, it isn’t possible. Eating healthy is a good thing but there are also other cravings that are okay. I definitely think society needs to start incorporating the male role into these ads because they play an equal role in growing a child.
I really think the US could learn from the Norwegian’s perspective on birth. I liked what you said about how the Norwegian’s have realized that having an at home birth is just as safe as having one in the hospital, and that they have equipped the midwife’s with all the knowledge they need to make sure it stays that way. Do you think that the US will ever get back to this perspective? When listening to the lecture about birth in the US, it touched on how much the medical field has changed since the Flexner Report came out. Now with biomedicine, the primary and solely accepted form in the US, many people who choose to go a more homeopathic route are typically scrutinized. I have noticed a more rapid movement towards homeopathic practices, but there is still a lack of acceptance. How do you think the Norwegian’s came to accept that a homeopathic practice is just as safe and can be just as effective; and can the US achieve this view point?
The United States differs so much from the rest of the world when it comes to birth. In the United States, we have medicalized birth so much that we have lost a cultural perspective while in other countries birth can be seen as someone intimate and sacred. Culture shapes these events in physical, biological ways. Years ago, many women gave birth inside their homes. While mothers in the United States now prefer hospital births with a physician by their side, 60.7% of women in the Netherlands planned an at-home birth with a midwife. As you looked into Vietnam, I looked into Kenya and how medicalized births vs. midwives compare to each other. Medicalized births also increase survival rate in Kenya. In countries like Kenya and Vietnam, midwives may not be trained properly which is something I believe people tend to ignore. I think a great question to ask is how can we balance cultural expectations and safety concerns in these countries so women can have a more pleasant childbirth experience?