For the beginning of this new unit we learned about the American Welfare and Tax system. The U.S. social welfare structure has been shaped both by long standing traditions and by changing economic and social conditions. In welfare, the poverty line for poor people in the United States is 1,400. For many of those who are under this poverty line can be provided with many free programs provided for those who are poor such as food stamps, free child day care centers and many more then imagined. Two key vocabulary words that were brought up is charity and solidarity. The difference between the two is that charity is when someone feels sorry for another person as solidarity is when people work together to help get ahead. A few key vocabulary I learned from learning about the tax system is Flat Tax, Regressive Tax, Progressive Tax. All which describe a little part of different tax systems in the United States. First, a Flat tax is a system that taxes everyone at the same rate, regardless of their income bracket whether you are poor or rich. The tax bracket system is the system of how someone is taxed based of their individual income levels. So those who have a lower income will be in a lower bracket in which pay a lower tax rate. A regressive tax system is a system in which poor people must pay higher percent of income then rich people. For example if a person is buying a product and the tax on the product is one dollar and person a has ten dollars and buys the product his income would be 10% as if a had twenty dollars in his pocket to buy the product of $1 tax his income would be 5%. A progressive tax system is when rich people pay a higher percent of income than poor people. And effective taxes is how much tax payers are taxed despite the bracket system.
I was not present when the Danish Students presented facts about their Danish tax system. With a little research on the Danish tax system I first found that everyone who lives in Denmark must pay tax if they receive any sort of income. In Denmark you have to pay almost any sort of tax to property tax if you are a home owner, corporate tax if you are a owner to a company, and even church tax from the church. Similar to the tax system in the United States the Danish have to pay tax for a number of goods such as cars, petrol, alcohol and tobacco, etc. As a employee in Denmark tax is taken directly from at the source of your employment before receiving a salary. As a Danish person there is almost never a time where someone is unemployed because if there is a person that is unemployed and seeking work the system will try to automatically assign you another job. In the United States there are many programs that can assist with finding people jobs but it may not be as easy as those who are in need of jobs with so little experience end up with very low paying jobs. Compared to the United States the Denmark tax system is more of a progressive tax system, how much a person pays depends on the income and tax allowance of that person. The purpose of this system is to ensure that those who earn most contribute most towards society which is what apparently the united states is trying to do, but we will have to see what the outcome of the United States will be. In my opinion I think that even though the Danish tax system may be a little higher in taxing on things but adopting to the fact that the government are there to provide you with a job when unemployed would definitely benefit a lot of those in America and help those who are hopeless and at least help those get up to the poverty line to be able to afford food and shelter.
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Sunday, March 15, 2009
The American Way of Birth Essay Assignment
Birth to most women should be a joyful and in power experience in which a woman's needs are met and a special bond between the mother and the family is created especially between the mother and the new born child. After the American Way of Birth unit in history class I began to feel that my eyes were being opened to how the birth process in our society is going in the completely opposite direction from the wondrous birth process a woman should experience. Hospitals are to many people are perceive as being a clean, safe and professional place for any medical conditions and is also the most common place where most women give birth. Hospitals are the most common place for births compared to the alternative birth that most people have not even heard of which can be taken place in our own homes or in a actual birth center. This can be done with the supervision and the help from a certified midwife. Midwifes are not as commonly looked at as professional or experienced as people see doctors but midwifes are taught specifically to care for a women and her birth. What is it that people do not see? The American Way of Birth or the Normal way of Birth may not be as safe and comforting as people have been taught to think. The perception of a "safe" hospital with a "professional" doctor may not be as true, a natural birth with midwifes on the other hand may just be a better alternative instead.
In our society a hospital birth is the most common place of 'trained professionals' that will be there to get you through the process. The most common answer people may say is that in hospitals it is more comfortable as the pain of contractions can be melted away by a single epidural. This is one of the reasons why hospitals are so common, it is fear of labor that drives women away from taking control of their own birth."[Women] watch these programs, i think there is a lot of fear distilled in these woman around birth" stated in the documentary The Business of Being Born by Carolyn Havens Neimann, a certified nurse midwife. Many women are given the idea that the process of birth is bad and painful, we see this everyday in movies, television shows, hospital birth stories of women screaming, crying and begging for an epidural. The hospitals, as if giving a big billboard for women to see is suppose to be easier, faster, you can skip the pains but it is really all that comfortable? Women would realize it was not so comfortable if the hospital process would be questioned. One example is the lethotomy position, before this unit even I did not know that the lethotomy position that a women is put in at a hospital birth is completely pointless. The lethotomy position is a position where the women is lying flat on her back with her legs up in the air for her vagina to be exposed for the rest of the room to see. That does not sound as comfortable as it could be for a women in labor. I always thought that it was necessary to be in the position for the baby to come out quicker and the mother to feel for comfortable but in fact this is totally incorrect. In fact it is actually a more comfortable position for the doctor to be able to be in control and see what is going on in a vaginal delivery. "The lethotomy position is the most physiologically dysfunctional position ever invented for birth, because putting a mother flat on her back literally makes the pelvis smaller and makes is much more difficult for the women to use her stomach muscles to push and therefore makes it much more likely that an episiotomy will be cut or forceps will be used..." stated in Business of Being Born by Robbie Davis Floyd, Medical Anthropologist. This position in no way really helps the mother in labor but in rather helps the doctor. It really makes one think who is it suppose to be benefiting, the women or the doctor? No one really questions the way of the doctors do things because they are looked at as 'trained professionals' thus making the idea that women cannot be in control of their own birth. Doctors are being looked at as a higher authority and whatever the doctor says a women will think its right but in other cases most doctors have not ever even seen a real natural birth before, not even in medical school. Women should wonder if the hospital is really giving them their basic needs or if they are just being robbed of that wonderful and in powering birth experience.
Hospitals are meant to be places of safety for those with medical conditions and any birth complications. One thing that is forgotten is that pregnancy is not a medical condition but it is treated like one in a hospital. One of my favorite quotes I heard from the unit is that "Hospitals are businesses, they want those beds filled and emptied. They don't want women hanging around in the labor room"(said by Patricia Burkhardt a clinical associate professor, Business of Being Born). As ironic as this is, it is true. This is what causes what is known as the Snowball Effect. The Snowball effect (got this term and information from Business of Being Born) is the process in which the women ends up for an emergency cesarean. It starts out with a women not giving birth in the schedule that the doctor expects her to give birth, that is when they start their intervention and as the interventions start they won't stop. If a women is not giving birth at the rate the doctor wants she is then given pitocin which is a drug given to women that make longer and harder contractions thus causing the women to have even more pain. Since the women is in more pain they give her an epidural, although the women feels less pain this drug slows down the contractions where it gives the doctor the oppourtunity to put more pitocin since the women does not feel a thing. And although the mother does not feel a thing the baby is overwhelmed by the contractions with causes distress which in the end the doctor will sent off the women for an emergency cesarean. As they eventual get the baby out the doctors are looked at as heroes that saved the baby but in fact no one ever realized that if it wasn't for the overflowing amounts of interventions there would have been no need for a cesarean in the end. Even Dr. Micheal Silverstein an OB/GYN states that "there is clearly an association with induction of labor and cesarean delivery." but as obvious as it is to most doctors, to mothers or other people they have no clue. Through out the birth history in America, in 2006, 31% of U.S. Births were by C-section, a 50% increase over the previous decade(Answer prove elusive as C-section Rate Rises Article by Rita Rubin). As well as the Cesarean rate rising the U.S. has one of the highest infant mortality rates among all the industrialized countries (fact stated in Business of Being Born documentary). There is a possible link between hospitals and the risen rate of deaths of birth and possible cesareans in the U.S. Cesareans are seen by women as a faster way to give birth, well this is mostly true to most doctors as well. Many women are blinded by the 'professionalism' of doctors which gives the doctors control of when they think a women is ready to have their baby. Women have never thought that when their ready to give birth their body will tell them. Cesareans are usually the best types of births for doctors because they are scheduled to the doctor's schedules and are only a quick slice taking 20 minutes or so where the doctor can head home early for dinner at the end of the night. Not only is it more convenient for the doctor but a normal birth is less exciting for the doctors. "The doctors are just not excited by things when there normal" stated by Dr. Jacques Mortiz an OB/GYN. It maybe exciting for the doctor and a quicker way to get home but the thing that is most significantly forgotten which is the mother and the baby. As easy as it is for the doctor no one ever really remembers the safety and the comfort of the mother in the hospital.
A midwife is someone who is trained to handle and assist with the mother before, during, and after birth. According to Stacey Stick on http://www.feminist.com/resources/artspeech/family/stacy.htm one of the best things about having a midwife or about birth is "One of the most holy, natural, energizing (and painful) experiences a woman accomplishes in her lifetime is nurturing her unborn child." Obstetricians are trained for surgery and should not be doing normal births because they are not trained in it as midwifes are. The philosophy of doctor's and hospitals are completely opposite. In the American/Normal way of birth is that many women are being blamed for dysfunctional labors even though this is most obviously not true. Many midwives believe in what is called the Sphincter Law as many obstetricians believe in the Three P's. The Three P's stantds for Passenger which is the baby, the passage which is the vagina and the power which is the strength of thecontractions. According to Ina Gaskin, a certified midwife who wrote the book Ina May's Guide to Childbirth mentions that the three P's law creates misunderstanding of the true potential of a women's body. Most women have so much more potential to give birth and feel the wondrous feeling of accomplishment after having a natural birth rather then a birth at a hospital where that feeling is taken away from the women. The basic philosophy that a midwife follows is the basics of the Sphincter law. Some things that are stated in the Sphincter law is that the cervical or vagina is like a sphincter no different to the anus or any other sphincter in the body. "It may suddenly close down if that person becomes upset, frightened, humiliated, or self conscious. Why? high levels of adrenaline in the bloodstream do not favor(sometimes they actually prevent) the opening of the sphincters." stated in Ina May's book on The Basics of Sphincter Law. Most women are humiliated in hospitals and uncomfortable which according to the sphincter law will cause the women to have a harder time pushing the baby out. Although with a midwife at home or at a birth center a women is pampered, massaged, and to be made as comfortable as possible. These are one of the main differences between a hospital birth and a home birth. And not only does a women have a more relaxed (not saying it is not painful) experience but it gives a women a feeling as if they accomplished it on their own and they can rise up over anything. According to Riki Lake in her documentary in Business of Being born is that birth is not a illness and it isn't something that needs to be numbed. It is something that needs to be experienced, it can give a women an empowering experience.
As Dr. Michel Odent, OB/GYN and Researcher stated "We are completely lost. And we have even forgotten to raise the most simple questions...What are the most basic needs of women in labor?" It is as if we have totally forgotten the basic needs of a women in labor and rather the basic needs of a doctor at a woman's labor. Because of the basic process of a normal birth in the United States, compared to other countries the death rates in birth are a lot lower. Why? This could be because in most other countries births are attended by Midwifes. "Go to all the highly developed countries where they are loosing fewer women and fewer babies around the time of birth, and what do you see? You see midwifes attending 70 or 80 percent of all the births and the doctors are there to take of the small percent that develop the complications." This is a system that mostly all countries follow and America should as well to keep infant death rates from rising. Obstetricians are surgeons and as surgeons should be a back up rather then the first choice to all births. Personally I think its a better idea for all doctors to be the last resort rather then be in charge of the child birth.
I am glad that I've gotten the oppourtunity to learn this subject as many other schools may not teach this. The women that are not taught to be aware of these things really don't have any other option they can think of but go through the hospital system. There are some questions that I still have for the American Way of Birth. One is: What would it take to change the United State's birth system to the hands of people like midwifes that are suppose to handle births? What do more people outside of the United States, in other countries think of the American birth system? If the American Birth system were to change how would it effect the birth rate in the United States and is it necessarily a good thing?
In our society a hospital birth is the most common place of 'trained professionals' that will be there to get you through the process. The most common answer people may say is that in hospitals it is more comfortable as the pain of contractions can be melted away by a single epidural. This is one of the reasons why hospitals are so common, it is fear of labor that drives women away from taking control of their own birth."[Women] watch these programs, i think there is a lot of fear distilled in these woman around birth" stated in the documentary The Business of Being Born by Carolyn Havens Neimann, a certified nurse midwife. Many women are given the idea that the process of birth is bad and painful, we see this everyday in movies, television shows, hospital birth stories of women screaming, crying and begging for an epidural. The hospitals, as if giving a big billboard for women to see is suppose to be easier, faster, you can skip the pains but it is really all that comfortable? Women would realize it was not so comfortable if the hospital process would be questioned. One example is the lethotomy position, before this unit even I did not know that the lethotomy position that a women is put in at a hospital birth is completely pointless. The lethotomy position is a position where the women is lying flat on her back with her legs up in the air for her vagina to be exposed for the rest of the room to see. That does not sound as comfortable as it could be for a women in labor. I always thought that it was necessary to be in the position for the baby to come out quicker and the mother to feel for comfortable but in fact this is totally incorrect. In fact it is actually a more comfortable position for the doctor to be able to be in control and see what is going on in a vaginal delivery. "The lethotomy position is the most physiologically dysfunctional position ever invented for birth, because putting a mother flat on her back literally makes the pelvis smaller and makes is much more difficult for the women to use her stomach muscles to push and therefore makes it much more likely that an episiotomy will be cut or forceps will be used..." stated in Business of Being Born by Robbie Davis Floyd, Medical Anthropologist. This position in no way really helps the mother in labor but in rather helps the doctor. It really makes one think who is it suppose to be benefiting, the women or the doctor? No one really questions the way of the doctors do things because they are looked at as 'trained professionals' thus making the idea that women cannot be in control of their own birth. Doctors are being looked at as a higher authority and whatever the doctor says a women will think its right but in other cases most doctors have not ever even seen a real natural birth before, not even in medical school. Women should wonder if the hospital is really giving them their basic needs or if they are just being robbed of that wonderful and in powering birth experience.
Hospitals are meant to be places of safety for those with medical conditions and any birth complications. One thing that is forgotten is that pregnancy is not a medical condition but it is treated like one in a hospital. One of my favorite quotes I heard from the unit is that "Hospitals are businesses, they want those beds filled and emptied. They don't want women hanging around in the labor room"(said by Patricia Burkhardt a clinical associate professor, Business of Being Born). As ironic as this is, it is true. This is what causes what is known as the Snowball Effect. The Snowball effect (got this term and information from Business of Being Born) is the process in which the women ends up for an emergency cesarean. It starts out with a women not giving birth in the schedule that the doctor expects her to give birth, that is when they start their intervention and as the interventions start they won't stop. If a women is not giving birth at the rate the doctor wants she is then given pitocin which is a drug given to women that make longer and harder contractions thus causing the women to have even more pain. Since the women is in more pain they give her an epidural, although the women feels less pain this drug slows down the contractions where it gives the doctor the oppourtunity to put more pitocin since the women does not feel a thing. And although the mother does not feel a thing the baby is overwhelmed by the contractions with causes distress which in the end the doctor will sent off the women for an emergency cesarean. As they eventual get the baby out the doctors are looked at as heroes that saved the baby but in fact no one ever realized that if it wasn't for the overflowing amounts of interventions there would have been no need for a cesarean in the end. Even Dr. Micheal Silverstein an OB/GYN states that "there is clearly an association with induction of labor and cesarean delivery." but as obvious as it is to most doctors, to mothers or other people they have no clue. Through out the birth history in America, in 2006, 31% of U.S. Births were by C-section, a 50% increase over the previous decade(Answer prove elusive as C-section Rate Rises Article by Rita Rubin). As well as the Cesarean rate rising the U.S. has one of the highest infant mortality rates among all the industrialized countries (fact stated in Business of Being Born documentary). There is a possible link between hospitals and the risen rate of deaths of birth and possible cesareans in the U.S. Cesareans are seen by women as a faster way to give birth, well this is mostly true to most doctors as well. Many women are blinded by the 'professionalism' of doctors which gives the doctors control of when they think a women is ready to have their baby. Women have never thought that when their ready to give birth their body will tell them. Cesareans are usually the best types of births for doctors because they are scheduled to the doctor's schedules and are only a quick slice taking 20 minutes or so where the doctor can head home early for dinner at the end of the night. Not only is it more convenient for the doctor but a normal birth is less exciting for the doctors. "The doctors are just not excited by things when there normal" stated by Dr. Jacques Mortiz an OB/GYN. It maybe exciting for the doctor and a quicker way to get home but the thing that is most significantly forgotten which is the mother and the baby. As easy as it is for the doctor no one ever really remembers the safety and the comfort of the mother in the hospital.
A midwife is someone who is trained to handle and assist with the mother before, during, and after birth. According to Stacey Stick on http://www.feminist.com/resources/artspeech/family/stacy.htm one of the best things about having a midwife or about birth is "One of the most holy, natural, energizing (and painful) experiences a woman accomplishes in her lifetime is nurturing her unborn child." Obstetricians are trained for surgery and should not be doing normal births because they are not trained in it as midwifes are. The philosophy of doctor's and hospitals are completely opposite. In the American/Normal way of birth is that many women are being blamed for dysfunctional labors even though this is most obviously not true. Many midwives believe in what is called the Sphincter Law as many obstetricians believe in the Three P's. The Three P's stantds for Passenger which is the baby, the passage which is the vagina and the power which is the strength of thecontractions. According to Ina Gaskin, a certified midwife who wrote the book Ina May's Guide to Childbirth mentions that the three P's law creates misunderstanding of the true potential of a women's body. Most women have so much more potential to give birth and feel the wondrous feeling of accomplishment after having a natural birth rather then a birth at a hospital where that feeling is taken away from the women. The basic philosophy that a midwife follows is the basics of the Sphincter law. Some things that are stated in the Sphincter law is that the cervical or vagina is like a sphincter no different to the anus or any other sphincter in the body. "It may suddenly close down if that person becomes upset, frightened, humiliated, or self conscious. Why? high levels of adrenaline in the bloodstream do not favor(sometimes they actually prevent) the opening of the sphincters." stated in Ina May's book on The Basics of Sphincter Law. Most women are humiliated in hospitals and uncomfortable which according to the sphincter law will cause the women to have a harder time pushing the baby out. Although with a midwife at home or at a birth center a women is pampered, massaged, and to be made as comfortable as possible. These are one of the main differences between a hospital birth and a home birth. And not only does a women have a more relaxed (not saying it is not painful) experience but it gives a women a feeling as if they accomplished it on their own and they can rise up over anything. According to Riki Lake in her documentary in Business of Being born is that birth is not a illness and it isn't something that needs to be numbed. It is something that needs to be experienced, it can give a women an empowering experience.
As Dr. Michel Odent, OB/GYN and Researcher stated "We are completely lost. And we have even forgotten to raise the most simple questions...What are the most basic needs of women in labor?" It is as if we have totally forgotten the basic needs of a women in labor and rather the basic needs of a doctor at a woman's labor. Because of the basic process of a normal birth in the United States, compared to other countries the death rates in birth are a lot lower. Why? This could be because in most other countries births are attended by Midwifes. "Go to all the highly developed countries where they are loosing fewer women and fewer babies around the time of birth, and what do you see? You see midwifes attending 70 or 80 percent of all the births and the doctors are there to take of the small percent that develop the complications." This is a system that mostly all countries follow and America should as well to keep infant death rates from rising. Obstetricians are surgeons and as surgeons should be a back up rather then the first choice to all births. Personally I think its a better idea for all doctors to be the last resort rather then be in charge of the child birth.
I am glad that I've gotten the oppourtunity to learn this subject as many other schools may not teach this. The women that are not taught to be aware of these things really don't have any other option they can think of but go through the hospital system. There are some questions that I still have for the American Way of Birth. One is: What would it take to change the United State's birth system to the hands of people like midwifes that are suppose to handle births? What do more people outside of the United States, in other countries think of the American birth system? If the American Birth system were to change how would it effect the birth rate in the United States and is it necessarily a good thing?
Friday, March 6, 2009
Outline of Normal Way of Birth vs. Natural Way of Birth
Intro
-Basic of Unit
-What women need to know
-Why women need to know
-Decision making
-Process of the life changing experience
-What to expect in essay
1. Natural Birth
-Why its alienated (because of technology, fears, seen as unsafe and unfamiliar, not common in US, hospitals want all the money, etc.)
-Process and choices (midwives, Douala, home, healthier for baby and mother...)
-Evidence of why its better: Guest Speakers, video/films(business of being born), break homework videos, sphincter readings,Comfort = less pain, stats (Europe and Japan have 70% of midwives, US only has 8%. Very few doctors have observed a natural birth. Comparing it to animals[giraffe, etc). The Sphincter Law.
-What are the benefits: Mother child connections, tends needs of the mother not doctors, more comfortable, no drugs, gives the women the empowering feeling, follows the women body.
2. The negatives of natural birth
-***This will maybe change, depending on if we actually learn about the negatives of it in up coming classes.
3. The Hospital Birth
-What they offer that home cannot (emergencies like Riki Lake in Business of being born) and C-sections.
-Doctor's opinions.
-Process( Epidural, pitocin, etc).
-The benefits
-***This might also change, depending on if we learn about the positives of hospital births in up coming class.
4. Negatives of hospital birth
-"Hospitals are like businesses, get in and get out" They just want your money and out for the next women to fill you bed.
-Not respecting the needs of the women and rather the needs of the doctors(cause of why there are so many C-sections, pitocin, doctors want to get home).
-Cost
-Risks (C-section, malpractice).
-*Takes away the mother-child connections.
-Sphincter article (The 3 P's, sphincter needs to be comfortable and not frightened shut...)
-"Very few doctors have ever observed a natural birth in medical school"-Susan Hodges
5. Personal
-Personal choice, insight, opinions.
-What was more convince and why?
I think that a natural birth is the right way to go because its a women's body and a woman's body does not need steering. It will react on its own and it gives it a more wondrous and joyful experience. Thus not saying that hospitals are evil but that hospitals should at most be a 'just in case' and back- up, in case of any emergencies, issues of why a women cannot have a vaginal birth, etc, etc.............
***Outline and other things may change depending on while I write the essay or what else I will learn in up coming class***
-Basic of Unit
-What women need to know
-Why women need to know
-Decision making
-Process of the life changing experience
-What to expect in essay
1. Natural Birth
-Why its alienated (because of technology, fears, seen as unsafe and unfamiliar, not common in US, hospitals want all the money, etc.)
-Process and choices (midwives, Douala, home, healthier for baby and mother...)
-Evidence of why its better: Guest Speakers, video/films(business of being born), break homework videos, sphincter readings,Comfort = less pain, stats (Europe and Japan have 70% of midwives, US only has 8%. Very few doctors have observed a natural birth. Comparing it to animals[giraffe, etc). The Sphincter Law.
-What are the benefits: Mother child connections, tends needs of the mother not doctors, more comfortable, no drugs, gives the women the empowering feeling, follows the women body.
2. The negatives of natural birth
-***This will maybe change, depending on if we actually learn about the negatives of it in up coming classes.
3. The Hospital Birth
-What they offer that home cannot (emergencies like Riki Lake in Business of being born) and C-sections.
-Doctor's opinions.
-Process( Epidural, pitocin, etc).
-The benefits
-***This might also change, depending on if we learn about the positives of hospital births in up coming class.
4. Negatives of hospital birth
-"Hospitals are like businesses, get in and get out" They just want your money and out for the next women to fill you bed.
-Not respecting the needs of the women and rather the needs of the doctors(cause of why there are so many C-sections, pitocin, doctors want to get home).
-Cost
-Risks (C-section, malpractice).
-*Takes away the mother-child connections.
-Sphincter article (The 3 P's, sphincter needs to be comfortable and not frightened shut...)
-"Very few doctors have ever observed a natural birth in medical school"-Susan Hodges
5. Personal
-Personal choice, insight, opinions.
-What was more convince and why?
I think that a natural birth is the right way to go because its a women's body and a woman's body does not need steering. It will react on its own and it gives it a more wondrous and joyful experience. Thus not saying that hospitals are evil but that hospitals should at most be a 'just in case' and back- up, in case of any emergencies, issues of why a women cannot have a vaginal birth, etc, etc.............
***Outline and other things may change depending on while I write the essay or what else I will learn in up coming class***
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