Hw 40-Insights From Book Part 3.

 Thank you Ina Mays for writing "Ina Mays Guide To ChildBirth". I personally enjoyed reading your views on midwifery and the flawed and unnecessary policies that is driven down peoples throats when they are expecting and giving birth in our current American hospital system. From reading the episodes of many births that had midwives involved and the positive results and the negative results that hospitals can induce this has persuaded me to re think the topic of pregnancy and birth all together.

 So in the last third part of the book you talked about our flawed medical system that provides and carries outs unnecessary medical procedures that a large percent of our country falls victim to. But as well these procedures are sometimes necessary during extreme circumstances during child birth in hospitals.

"For over a generation, more than one-fifth of U.S. women have had their babies by cesarean surgery. With such a high rate of surgical birth, the question of how to give birth after a previous cesarean comes up for tens of thousands of women every year."( Mays 294) From this piece of information you can infer that to many women are having unnatural surgical births and it is effecting women's natural cycle of giving birth which is suppose to naturally occur. "For most of the twentieth century, North American doctors automatically scheduled repeat cesareans for those women who had a previous cesarean , because they feared that the scar on the women's uterus might rupture during labor. (European physicians have, for the most part , long understood that VBAC's are safe  for most women.)"( Mays 295) You can see how flawed our medical care system is when doctors are scheduling unnecessary medical procedures over and over again as to deter women from giving birth naturally. "Nearly eighty percent of women who tried VBAC were able to give birth vaginally."(Mays 296) It even further supports my claim that the medical system of America is preforming unnecessary procedures and disrupting women's natural birth cycles just for their own profit. I would like to thank you for your time and attention.

-Brendan B.

Hw 36-Pregnancy & Birth Stories.

 So unfortunately I only could interview two people in my family about their pregnancy and birth experiences but I feel during my interviews I was given a perfect documentation of what it's like going through pregnancy and experience giving birth.

 I started off both of y interviews asking: "Please give me some insights and description on your own experience of being pregnant and your own birth process?"

Interview 1: My Mother.

"Child birth is an amazing experience. Actually it's a bit indescribable but not delicious! I experienced three different pregnancies and deliveries. The 1st was by far the toughest as they often are. Due to the fact that I changed doctors in my 8th month because I disagreed with many of her practices. I can only attribute my totally natural childbirth experience to my new doctor's patience and cooperation and his agreement to adhere to my wishes as best he could. Since my daughters presentation or position in my uterus was not head down that could have created a problem for a vaginal delivery and would have warranted a c section. It took many more hours of labor for the traumatic position to change.My labor progressed but it was difficult for my cervix to reach ten centimeters which is required to begin pushing. Imagine doing sit ups for four hours while experiencing horrendous uterine contractions!? Luckily my baby turned head down and was in fact delivered at 8:45PM. 10 hours after my water broke. She was 7lbs & 9oz happy and healthy and I was very sore and tired. My second baby the contractions were not as bad, I was six and a half centimeters already when we got to the hospital. They broke my water and I progressed very quickly to nine centimeters and pushed him out at ten centimeters with a small episiotomy. He was 8lbs & 1oz. My third baby was a breeze. I was watching TV from 1-2 PM and in the hospital at 3PM . The labor was wild, crazy fast and hard. My mail doctor couldn't believe how fast my labor was. Although he wasn't even in the room at the time, I had the best female nurses and doctors by my side that day. He was born at 4:30PM 8lbs & 4oz. And no episiotomy this time , I love those females.

Interview 2: My Eldest Sister.

"There is no book you can read, advice you can hear or class you can take to prepare you for the experiences you face throughout pregnancy and childbirth.  Your body goes through a whirlwind of change and you endure greater pain than you have known before.  However, it is truly a remarkable and extraordinary experience.  The day I gave birth to my son was the best day of my life to date and gave me the most precious and rewarding gift a person can receive.You experience many contractions leading up to the day you actually go into labor; the first "labor" contraction although not that intense has a different feeling however.  It was the beginning of an upward crescendo that would climb to the point of unbearable pain.  I dealt with 7 hours of this discomfort (that is an understatement!) before heading to the hospital.  Although, I had every intention of having a natural, drug-free birth, that idea quickly changed once my labor was in full swing.  Although I made it through 13 hours of labor, excruciating pain every 5 minutes, I gave into an epidural for the final 6 hours.  Making this decision allowed for a much more pleasant time from then on.Although my pregnancy thus far had been without any complications, the doctors began to notice that every time I had a contraction my baby's heartrate would drop.  This meant he was not breathing between each contraction. This was a very scary thought and meant that as the contractions became closer together, he would have less and less time to breathe. My husband and I were starting to become nervous, especially when my doctor told me they were going to prepare the operating room in the case I might need to have an emergency ceasarean section.   He was worried that the umbilical cord might be wrapped around my precious baby's neck. Well the time came for me to start pushing and my doctor assisted the delivery with forceps to pull the baby out in case he did have the cord around his neck. I am extremely happy to report however, it was wrapped around his leg twice and not his neck, thank goodness! Also, a c-section was gladly avoided.  My son was immediately placed on my stomach and the feeling of elation my husband and I felt the first moment we saw our son was indescribable. It was a moment we prepared a long time for after making the decision we were ready to have a baby after almost 10 years together. The entire experience was life-changing and miraculous. Pregnancy, childbirth and now child-rearing have been the hardest but most rewarding time in my life.  I have never been happier than I am with my precious Leo."