birthing

[Pooh]

Terry McTigue (tam2731 at usl.edu) wrote:
: Well, I'm single without children and never put this into action, but I
: would rather give birth in a hospital.  I think there are too many things
: that can go wrong and I rather that my child and I have every option
: available to us.  I know that some of my friends feel that the experience
: of giving birth at home or in a home-like setting is a beautiful one, but
: I'd like the reassurance of medical help being readily available.  Women
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: used to give birth at home as a rule, yes, but childbirth used to be alot
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: more dangerous than it is now, too.
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What about the fact that it is now suspected (and I believe almost 
documented enough) that 3 out of every 4 Cesareans are unnecessary and 
the complications will resolve themselves in a relatively short amount of 
time.  Also, please note that the number of C-sections performed is 
significantly higher on Friday afternoons and weekends than during the week.

I'm only 21 and graduating from college in less than a month, and 
whenever I do choose to have children, I will probably choose to have 
them with a midwife.  Birth, just like many other natural processes in 
life such as death, menopause, etc., has become increasingly medicalized 
since the foundation of modern medical "science".  I don't want a 
doctor telling me what I have to do for my child in any cases, 
especially birth.  I know my body better than any doctor will ever know 
it, and I also feel that I have sound judgment and that i'll be able to 
make an important decision should the need arise during childbirth.  And I 
would put forth the argument that it has in many cases become TOO 
medicalized.  It's also a shame that women have seen a large portion of 
this medicalization by being diagnosed with psychological problems, 
psychosomatic problems, and various other abnormal responses to 
perfectly normal behaviors simply because women have had different 
experiences with illness and health.

--claudia v. scholtz
hoohoohoo!
cscholtz at cs.tufts.edu
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Claudia "Aussie-wanna-be" Scholtz
cscholtz at emerald.tufts.edu              cscholtz at cs.tufts.edu
--------------------------"You never can tell with bees."  --Winnie-the-Pooh"