Part I:

In the United States, it is often believed that births are supposed to happen in the hospital setting. It is very rare to see home births and it sends most people into a panic if they cannot get to a hospital when their water breaks. However, this is very different from a lot of countries all over the world. For example, in the Netherlands, 60.7% of women plan to give birth at home and 30.8% plan to give birth at the hospital. Going along with these statistics, it was found that there was no difference between perinatal mortality in home births and hospital births and there was no difference in admittance to the NICU after birth for both as well. This data lead me to believe that the United States’ suppression of alternative medical ideas should not be an absolute norm in our society. The statistics about home births in the Netherlands prove that they are just as effective as hospital births. This study uses the epidemiological theory because they use data and statistics to show how the population of women in the Netherlands are divided between home births and hospital births.

The Inuit people, however, have very different beliefs about child birth. For example, they believe that when a child is born, they take on the soul and name of a recently deceased relative. Moreover, the mother is assisted in birth by older women who are experienced in childbirth and have gone through the process themselves. This is very different from the United States because in the U.S., midwives were oppressed and mistreated for practicing medicine without any schooling or a license. Additionally, due to the medicalization of births in North America and the world, the Inuit women are now being forced south from their homes to give birth in Canadian hospitals. Unlike the U.S., the Inuit people see birth as a community, social, and spiritual act and by forcing them to give birth in hospitals, that holistic birthing experience is being taken away from them. Davis uses the critical medical anthropology theory in this article because she talks about the fact that the authority in this scenario and the political, economic, and social power is leading to a worse outcome for the Inuit people. Additionally, the Inuit women are suffering because they are being forced to go against their history and culture to give birth in a hospital.

The Hmong people in Vietnam have very different ideas about childbirth than the U.S. For example, they believe in burying the mother’s placenta after the delivery of the baby and pouring the baby’s bath water in the hole for a month to bring about good health for the infant. The people also believe that using their dirty scissors at home is an appropriate tool to cut the umbilical cord with. This is why the village has a maternal mortality rate that is ten times higher than the rest of Vietnam. Moreover, because 70% of Hmong women choose to give birth at home, newborns in the mountains are 50% more likely to die than in the city. However, even with their desire to follow tradition and have home births, there is not a lot of access to medical facilities for the people. The medical center is about an hour and half walk away for most Hmong people and the hospital is a three hour drive away. Moreover, the doctors speak Vietnamese and it is hard to find Hmong people who can translate between the patient and the doctor. The theoretical perspective that Ahlmark and Precel used is the feminist theory because the video shows how the mothers are trying to make their own decision to go to the medical center. Ultimately, the mothers are going to be the ones who suffer if they give birth at home and pass away due to infection or improper practice. However, the Hmong people have to ask their family and husband’s family for permission to go and get the medical attention they need.

Lastly, the Unites States has a different perspective on death in that we refuse to acknowledge or be involved in the process of death for a loved one. Merilynne Rush believes that we deny, avoid, and fear death and do not want to be involved in the pain that comes with death. I think she uses the Interpretive theory in her video because we put meaning to death and it impacts our health and feelings about the experience.

Part II:

I found this image really interesting because it shows a whole bunch of women waiting their turn to give birth at the hospital. This reinforces the dominant idea that most women in America go to hospitals to have their baby. There is not a lot of room for alternative births in the United States and I thought this picture did a nice job of representing this. Moreover, I liked how the picture  shows that their faces are filled with annoyance or exasperation to show that they have definitely been waiting to see a doctor for a while, which also shows that medical staff makes women wait to give birth. They tell them when they can be seen and when to push, when a women should just do what feels natural to them.