Difference between revisions of "Week 6 Questions/Comments-327 09"
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I feel that the idea of men taking over midwife positions was an infringement to women's rights. As midwives, women had a responsibility, and a respectable one at that. Many women worked within their own homes, but these midwives were in the business of helping women outside of their own homes. When male physicians entered the scene, female midwives slowly lost their jobs. At the time, I believe female midwives would have been better than male physicians because the midwives understood the female body, and could sympathize with the women they helped. Also, Scholten talks about how the male physicians could not even look at specific parts of the woman's body... I'm sure that made giving birth even more unsafe than it already was. It just seemed contradictory because people believed that male physicians made childbirth safer because they knew more about medicine and had pain relief, etc, yet they were constrained in their duties by social norms, which sometimes put the woman or baby in danger.I also thought it was interesting how the women supported one another in child birth. It goes back to the idea of women forming bonds with one another through similar experiences, and childbirth was definitely one of those bonding experiences among women, especially how they would take up the pregnant woman's chores and would give moral support. --- Alex Mankarios | I feel that the idea of men taking over midwife positions was an infringement to women's rights. As midwives, women had a responsibility, and a respectable one at that. Many women worked within their own homes, but these midwives were in the business of helping women outside of their own homes. When male physicians entered the scene, female midwives slowly lost their jobs. At the time, I believe female midwives would have been better than male physicians because the midwives understood the female body, and could sympathize with the women they helped. Also, Scholten talks about how the male physicians could not even look at specific parts of the woman's body... I'm sure that made giving birth even more unsafe than it already was. It just seemed contradictory because people believed that male physicians made childbirth safer because they knew more about medicine and had pain relief, etc, yet they were constrained in their duties by social norms, which sometimes put the woman or baby in danger.I also thought it was interesting how the women supported one another in child birth. It goes back to the idea of women forming bonds with one another through similar experiences, and childbirth was definitely one of those bonding experiences among women, especially how they would take up the pregnant woman's chores and would give moral support. --- Alex Mankarios | ||
| − | I also found this piece extremely interesting, as well as thought provoking. I don't think, however, that Catherine Scholten did a very good job of explaining exactly why such a transformation in the childbirth experiences of women occurred when it did. She states that similar changes undoubtedly would have taken place even without the American Revolution, but that "heightened concern with establishing 'American' institutions and expertise speeded the development of medical schools and professional associations in the New Republic." (p.78)I'm still not really convinced. I feel as if this is explaining the changes in terms of the "male" perspective, and while Scholten does include many details as to how women going through childbirth with the assistance of a male physician rather than a midwife felt (such as their initial reservations about the use of "instruments", as well as their embarrassment at being attended to by a person of the opposite sex), I wish she had articulated her argument better and provided more thorough explanations and reasoning. I'm not sure if I'm even articulating my thoughts very well, but at the end of the piece I did feel as if she left several questions unanswered. -Allison Godart | + | I also found this piece extremely interesting, as well as thought provoking. I don't think, however, that Catherine Scholten did a very good job of explaining exactly why such a transformation in the childbirth experiences of women occurred when it did. She states that similar changes undoubtedly would have taken place even without the American Revolution, but that "heightened concern with establishing 'American' institutions and expertise speeded the development of medical schools and professional associations in the New Republic." (p.78)I'm still not really convinced. I feel as if this is explaining the changes in terms of the "male" perspective, and while Scholten does include many details as to how women going through childbirth with the assistance of a male physician rather than a midwife felt (such as their initial reservations about the use of "instruments", as well as their embarrassment at being attended to by a person of the opposite sex), I wish she had articulated her argument better and provided more thorough explanations and reasoning. I'm not sure if I'm even articulating my thoughts very well, but at the end of the piece I did feel as if she left several questions unanswered. -Allison Godart |
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| + | This article was incredibly interesting probably because it brings to light just how different childbirth used to be. Nowadays babies delivered by midwives at home are a rather rare event, though it appears to be an increasing “fad.” The view of childbirth shifted from a rather social event to a medical one. The reason for the pain of child birth was from Eve’s betrayal but slowly the idea changed so that they began to believe the woman did not have to suffer. What stuck out at me most in this article was the fact women were not allowed to put their feet on the ground for weeks after giving birth for fear of getting a cold and the fact that hooks would be used to dismember the baby if the unfortunate thing got stuck in the birth canal. It just goes to show the change in medical practices and beliefs from the time. What I found rather ironic was the idea that the “moral character [of women] disqualified them from medical practice” such as childbirth when for years and years they had been the ones delivering the babies. | ||
| + | -Megan Mc | ||
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