Jody McGraw Sex, Health, and Birth Journals Journal Entry The Midwife of Hope River pg.

. 3-211 Already, after only a brief class period and the beginnings of our class readings, the topic of this class has captured me. Signing up for this class I was unsure of what I was getting into a class named Sex, Health, and Birth there were so many possibilities in what that could mean. But now with a clarified view of the direction we are heading in, I am so excited for this journey. I began reading The Midwife of Hope River before we had our first class and I was shocked that it was a piece of fiction! Being used to the heavy documents usually used in collegiate history classes this came as a welcomed reprieve, but also what I believe will be a fantastic introduction to the topic of birth and the history of birth. Looking past the entertaining story and secrets of Patience Murphy, the reader can find the science of midwifery and birth during in these somewhat primitive settings. Taking place in the late 1920s the reader is shown the options mothers had regarding childbirth. Through the story of Prudy Ott, the mayors wife, the horrors of twilight sleep are told; the anguish and fear that was placed in the reminder of birth as women were victim to failed drugs and unimaginable conditions in safe hospitals. With the labor of Katherine MacIntosh we can see the role doctors had in birth by the 1920s when difficult situations arose they were called upon to assist or confirm the diagnosis of the midwife. And in numerous other situations Patience Murphy, the midwife, is either elected to be present through the labor process or called in times of dire emergency. Through the soft tale of fiction, the reader is exposed to the scientific and natural process of birth, to the techniques of the midwife, and the issues and potential dangers that faced mothers as they took on the miracle of birth. I am excited to learn more about this topic, to explore the history of birth and the reality of what birth has become. One of my favorite history classes at the University revolved around gender roles and how they were established- so many stemming from the ideas around reproduction and birth. It is extremely sad to look around at how we treat labor and birth today and see that the pain and uncomfortableness that women face is typically subdued and eliminated as it is feared. I believe that it needs to become something that is celebrated, a natural process our bodies as women are built to handle birth, labor should be viewed as an event of empowerment not weakness and fear.

Journal- The Midwife of Hope River and Week 2 As I spend more time reading literature and discussing the topic of midwifery and the history of midwifery I come to realize the impact that a midwife had on her society. In both A Midwifes Tale and The Midwife of Hope River the midwife serves her community in ways beyond just delivering babies. Although that task is one of high importance and integral to the continuation of the communitys population, their role and importance was beyond that. The midwife was a healer. The midwife was a friend. The midwife was a comforter, a neighbor, a person to be trusted with the delicate matter of life and death. In both of their stories, Martha was Ballard and Patience Murphy were called upon in times, not of childbirth even though that happened frequently, but in times of need in times of desperation and despair. In the video documentary of Laurel Thatcher Ulrichs book, The Midwifes Tale, Ulrich describes Martha Ballard as a healer, as someone who attended those in life and death. In the Maine frontier where physicians and doctors offices were in rare supply, it was Martha who went to administer whatever sort of relief she could to the sick members of her community. Although she did not possess the training of any sort of formal medical profession, she knew how the human body worked, how it functioned, and how it reacted to different sorts of cures. Ballard not only delivered life, she tried to stray away death. The same can be said for Patience Murphy, although in a slightly different location and a much more recent time, the rural West Virginia communitys midwife was sought out in lieu of the doctor when doctors could not be found. When mines caved in, it was Patience who was called to attend to the dying and injured miners. The experiences both women had through delivering babies had made them in tune with the human body. Their training had been minimal at best it was instinct and experience that made them so great at what they did. The two stories, although similar in many ways, show that even in very different scenarios the same importance and value were placed on the role of midwife. Not only were they a trusted neighbor called in times of need, but the community gratitude is displayed in other ways as well. In the documentary surrounding Martha Ballards life it is stated that midwifery was the highest paying of all female occupations. In Patience Murphys fictional tale the community gratitude is expressed through the loss of Mrs. Potts and the outpouring of support from the community, as well as the situation Patience faces at the end of the novel and the care and saving she receives from the community in addition to their devotion to her purpose and cause. These examples show both the prominence of midwifes in rural communities as well as the everlasting presence they have had in these communities.

Journal #3 I was not far into the assigned reading when I knew what I wanted to write about for this journal; the power of birth, more specifically who holds the power when dealing with birth. Last year I had several experiences that have since shaped my opinions and interests. The first was a class called Gender Roles in Great Britain and America from 1600-1860, a history class taught by Professor Gasser it made me absolutely fall in love with the topic of gender roles. Now I find myself analyzing everything around me to find gender roles and their effect on our society. The second event that occurred was the Makers documentary on PBS, displaying and glorifying the feminist movement in the mid-20th century. This film made me rethink the word, feminist, a word that I had always thought of as ugly and liberal and the B word. While I am still getting used to calling myself a feminist, and while I still embrace my girly-ness the awareness I have on the subjection and degradation society still places on women and the outrage I feel when I see it occur has made me more proud to be a woman; a woman who strives to break those constructs. So what does this have to do with Daddy? Thats what the reading was about for goodness sakes! Well, it has everything to do with daddy; it has to do with that important placement of power when a couple is experiencing one of the most fundamental and ancient rituals of couple-dom: labor and birth, procreation. For many centuries women held all power in birth. It was women who gave birth, it was women who helped others give birth, and it was women who were midwives birth was the business of women and men had no place, Only a woman can know what a woman has suffered. Even when male doctors were called upon in difficult situations, they understood that it was they who were out of place, they were the ones who had to adapt to this womans world. Birth was the one place in life where women had power, they held the control. Even in the early 20th century as the twilight sleep crept into American hospitals, women had the control; they now had the choice to feel pain. This move into the hospitals proved to be absolutely detrimental to womens role and control in the birthing process. The medicalization of birth was basically complete by the 1950s, 95% of women were giving birth in the hospital and suburbanization and the idea of Masculine Domesticity were popping up across the country. Margaret Marshs Masculine Domesticity was the concept that men were gaining more power in the female sphere of domesticity as they became a larger part of the running of the household and the care of the children. These two factors cast a massive invasion on one of the only aspects of life women held complete power. While the inclusion of fathers more intimately in the birth process has I believe been overall beneficial, it has meant that the importance and power women hold in the event of birth has decreased.

Journal #4 As I turn on my television this morning I am shocked to see a woman in labor across my screen. I think to myself, Didnt I leave the TV on NBC last night? I continue watching to learn that I am in fact watching NBCs Today Show and they are, in fact, live-streaming a woman giving birth. They actually were livestreaming from four the labor and delivery wards of hospitals in Boston, New York City, Cleveland, and Houston. It was all a part of the weeklong series the show is producing, #BornTODAY examining what it means to be a parent in 2013. Todays segment was on why it costs so much to give birth in the United States. It immediately made me think of this class. Here I was, sitting in my living room watching national television and yet I was there, in the delivery room. I and a million other viewers were there with the mother, the father, the doctors and nurses, the NBC correspondent and the entire camera crew. But I dont know if I wanted to be there I dont know if I wanted to share that extremely intimate moment with those families it took me back to Make Room for Daddy. What had started as a long and arduous journey to break through the sphere of women who surrounded the process of birth has ended up on my TV screen. What would those early mothers and midwives have thought of this evolution? It was not till the late 19th century that male doctors were allowed to experience birth. It took about another 50 years for the event of labor and birth to enter the standardization of the hospital. Yet still it was private, almost secretive. Birth first took to the TV screen in the 1950s through I Love Lucys dramatization of the humor surrounding pregnancy and parenthood. Yet it pointed out that fathers were kept separate from the actual labor. By the time another 1950s birth hit the American public many things had in the labor room had changed. On Happy Days, not only is the father allowed in the delivery room as his baby is born, other people were allowed Fonzie stood as the symbolic change in fatherhood and laymens involvement in birth that had occurred since the 1950s. And even more changes have occurred since that episode aired in 1981. Not only have delivery rooms been opened to whomever the mother would like to have present, they have been opened to the world. The intimate circle of women who once shrouded birth in mystery and miracle has evolved and for better or worse into a much larger, much more public arena and I dont sense it reverting back anytime soon.

Journal #5 Unfortunately, the story Vicki Forman tells in This Lovely Life is much too familiar to me and my family. On both my mother and fathers sides of the family there have been instances of premature birth, while most have resulted in a miraculous, positive outcome, not all have. My aunt gave birth to my cousin Costa at about six months gestation. He died only an hour later. It is a topic we do not speak openly about and since my aunt went on to have two beautiful and healthy girls, it is often a topic we forget about. But I know she never forgets. It reminds me of the scenario Forman lays out on page 70 that people who were once loyal friends backed away, no one can understand what it is like to have a dead child. Early after my cousins death my aunt would have people babysit his remains. It was morbid, it still is morbid but it is how she dealt with the pain and eventually she was weaned off of that habit, she allowed his spirit to go like Forman on page 84. More recently we had to deal with this as my cousin on my other side of the family gave birth to a baby at just around the same time my aunt had. It was hard to let my aunt know about this, bringing up old memories, old nightmares. I actually have had two cousins give birth prematurely. I know the anxiety and the pain of the unknown just like the Formans family did. It is the worst. Not knowing. Just seeing this small creature who looks barely human. I have seen the joy that the smallest achievements can stir up in parents and the guilt they experience when they spend a day away from the NICU. The emotion of all, however, is the ecstasy of bringing the baby home- it is a day many believed would never come. Fortunately both of my cousins children have not been developmentally or mentally disabled, as diagnosed of yet. Daniel the more recent birth of the two, had to go home with a cannula. It was scary holding him, thinking I was going to mess up, thinking still how fragile he is. Really that is what Formans story tells us, the fragility of life both new and old. The death of her young daughter examines the fragility of physical life, of a body not yet ready to experience the world; Formans own life examining the frailty of our own mental state when disaster strikes and the choice you have to make, whether to fall victim to the despair or survive. I would like to be a part of the info graphic service learning project through tri-state health. I extremely enjoy creating different sorts of designs and binders and brochures for many of the other organizations I am involved with. I think that creating an innovative, eye-catching design is integral to the spread of ones message. You have to attract people to your cause before they can buy into what you are telling them. I also do not have the most open schedule, I student teach every morning and thus have classes in the evenings. While I would love to be able to go to one of the mentorship activities I just do not think that I would be able to, the info graphic project would allow me to do research and work on my own time- late at night when I am available.

Jody McGraw Birth Matters Journal From the first minutes reading Birth Matters, I knew that I liked where Ina May Gaskin was headed. Beyond even the content, the ease of her story telling truly makes her manifesta an enjoyable read. She interlocks her own experiences and stories she has been told through the factual information which she so passionately advocates for and against. Obviously a very intelligent and well-known midwife, Gaskin is able to create a reputable, in some ways scholastic source of information while never letting go of the humanity which is inherently associated with birth. This book is different from what we have already read because of this; in some spots it reads as a story (Gaskin tells of her appreciation for stories) and in other spots it is very much an informative text. Through this mixed genre I believe we are able to really see some truths of the history of birth, the ideas of birth, and in general birth. The first point that really stuck out to me in this reading was on page 8, pregnancy is not an illness in need of treatment, and natures design of women is not flawed. However, for many, many years it has been viewed as such sometimes even needing the drastic measure of surgery to cure the inflicted mother. While my words may sound strong, I do not judge women for their own choices in birth; I simply believe that Gaskins writing points to a much larger issue than individual choices, it shows us the mindset of our society in America, devaluing the feminine power that is able to create new life. As Gaskin continues she talks about how female students look away from pictures of labor and birth while male students do not, she talks about the fear women have of the pain of childbirth, she talks about feminism drives for equality with men not full empowerment of the female mind and body. That last statement really struck me as I read. That the second wave of feminism in the mid-20th century focused on women getting equal rights as men, in activities men do men cannot give birth and thus female empowerment in birthing scenarios was still somewhat overlooked. While the rest of the work relating to the natural-ness of birth and the ability we could have to increase successful births by using our technological advances to reduce the number of C-sections rather than to make them more efficient is intriguing and I believe would ultimately prove to be beneficial to our society, it is the feminist thought that keeps coming back to me. As strong, independent women are leaning in and taking over board rooms across the country, labor and birth should not be becoming more and more scheduled it should be becoming more and more embraced.

Journal - Cracked Open: Liberty, Fertility, and the Pursuit of High Tech Babies Up to this point in our class we have focused on the nine months of pregnancy and the culminating event of labor. We have discussed the characters involved in this event; the mother, the partner, the doctors, the hospital. We have wondered who holds control through labor. We have debated the changes that a mother is expected to make during her pregnancy. But we have not really touched on what happens before those nine months of pregnancy begin. When does the topic of pregnancy enter a womans life? Hopefully before she is actually pregnant. But Cracked Open: Liberty, Fertility, and the Pursuit of High Tech Babies opens our eyes to the planning of pregnancy and the often times unfortunate result that wanting to be pregnant and actually being pregnant are two very different things. Although this memoir focuses on a different stage on the journey to motherhood than what we have read about in previous books and memoirs, it still brings up many of the same thematic topics. The one that sticks out the most for me is the topic of control. Who has control when it comes to becoming pregnant? In Miriam Zolls case it can be argued that there is no control to be had. The partners have the choice to try for a child and the choice to select the methods they believe will assist them in conceiving a child but there is no control, no guarantee. Ultimately, pregnancy is a biological function that despite technological advances and millions of dollars thrown into the fertility industry remains uncontrollable. Although there are surefire ways to terminate pregnancy there is no all-solving answer to infertility. However, when infertility plagues a couple and they turn to doctor assistance through assisted reproductive technologies or IVF; how much control are they giving to the doctor? While these technologies again do not guarantee pregnancy, the couple is putting all of their faith in the expertise and capabilities of the doctor they select. A doctor who uses their own judgment to make critical decisions regarding the familys well-being. Such a case can be seen with Dr. Michael Kamrava who implanted twelve embryos in a patient a far greater number than the standard 1 or 2. This patient ended up being Nadya Suleman, the octomom. While not stated directly if Suleman knew of his plans, this doctor had monumental control over the lives of Suleman, the six children she already had, and the eight children she gave birth to after his care. While Dr. Kamrava did not do anything illegal, were his actions wise? Were they in the best interest of that family? Or should he even be allowed to have that type of control over family planning? My personal opinion is that he shouldnt, that it takes away some sort of free-will the family might have. But ultimately the couples who turn to ART are willing to give that control to the doctor, to the technologies all in the fight for a child of their own.