HW 38

Book: Birth by Tina Cassidy
The book is organized with a mixture of Tina Cassidy's own experience with birth and the history of birth so far. She talks about how birth used to be and what it is like in other cultures. She also goes into the physical things about birth like how humans evolved to have wider pelvises. The major question that the book tries to answer is how birth was in the past and how has it changed over time and why? Also: How can we find a way for women to have birth in a safe and joyful way? I think these are really good questions to explore but I wouldn't really know anything about the answer. I think for starters women shouldn't be rushed in a hospital while having birth and they shouldn't be pushed to take drugs and get epidurals etc etc.. I think it should be more of a natural thing and not like a surgery. The major insight the book tries to communicate in the first 100 pages is how midwives' roles has changed through time and it is different in different places. The author talks about how births go better when there is even a midwife just there to comfort the mother. I think that this makes sense and is interesting. But a question that keeps coming up in my head is if there are all the facts and ways that seem to work better than our system how come we don't change? I feel like our country is stubborn sometimes and we don't want to change anything. Some interesting aspects of pregnancy and birth that the author and I agree deserve public attention are: the hospitals should take into consideration how the mother wants to have the birth instead of trying to make them take drugs and do all this stuff that they didn't originally do. Women shouldn't be forced into these multiple interventions. Epidurals have replaced natural things that can help like massaging and breathing exercises. I think overall women should be shown more alternatives for how to have a more joyful birth and a natural birth that is less painful because there are many ways out there. I think the author uses evidence very well. I am convinced by everything the author is writing. Although the book is definitely bias, it only shows one side. The author uses many facts from surveys and some ancient stories. But I think the numbers convince me the most. I can open up to a random page and it'll usually have some type of statistic for example page 14: "Babies born late at night have as much as 16 percent greater change of dying than babies born between 7:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m., a 2005 study found." I think it's good because there is all kind of evidence from surveys, studies, her own/friends experiences, old stories, doctors so you get all these different evidences. Overall, I think the book is very convincing.