Women and Health

1. The problem that I chose to address is women and childbirth in our society. Watching The Business of Being Born was an enormous wake-up call for me on the issue. In the film it explains that infant mortality rates are higher for hospital births than they are at home births, due to infection, and surgical complications from C-sections.It is a MAJOR surgery to have, and one of the things I found interesting was the idea that women are looking at it now as almost an extension of plastic surgery. Women are misinformed by the notion that the knowledge of midwives are "old wives tales" and medieval compared to the medicalization of childbirth in hospitals (Kirk/Okazawa-rey, p.215). Also, the issue of infant mortality rates in the U.S. is disturbing, as there is a clear connection between mortality and race where there shouldn't be. "Black infants continue to die at more than twice the rate of white infants,"(Kirk/Okazawa-rey, p.218) and I believe that the shortcomings of women and childbirthnhave everything to with lack of access to information and alternative treatments, and societal inequalities.

2. "In 2005, 30 percent of births in the United States were C-Sections, the highest rate in the world" (Kirk/Okazawa-rey, p.215). I believe this problem is attributed to the medicalization of childbirth, and how the system of patriarchy has found another way to put women's bodies in the hands of people in power. Women are not informed of holistic and alternative approaches to childbirth, because the system wants women to pay more to give birth in the hospitals. Like Harjo's story of childbirths over the course of three generations, the practice of hospital births has become cold and calculating, more impersonal and less caring. It is all about keeping women in the dark about their options, keeping them ignorant, and taking away power over their own bodies. C-sections are now being done to save the doctor's from "malpractice suits" (Kirk/Okazawa-rey, p.215), and it was mentioned in The Business of Being Born that they were performed mostly between 4 and 10pm which indicates that doctors care only about getting home at a decent time. Women are not objects, and childbirth should not be just another routine surgery. It is a pivotal moment in a woman's life and should be treated as such. Black infant mortality rates are linked to "external environmental factors like contamination due to lead, chemical weed-killers, and other hazardous substances" (Kirk/Okazawa-Rey, p.218). Women of color are typically exposed to more stress due to racism, poverty and other factors, that affect their habits while pregnant (i.e drinking, smoking) and affect the life of the child.

3. My “pro-woman” vision would be more adequate health care in areas that are stricken with poverty, and more information to women of all races, about what their options really are. Alternative treatments should be covered by insurance companies. Childbirth needs to be taken out of the hands of people in power, and put back into the hands of women themselves. What it in essence goes back to, is a call for social equality for people of all races, and a crack in the system of patriarchy. Women need to revert back to the days when they had self-knowledge and self education, where they have control, and are held accountable for the life of their baby. Women of all classes and races should be included in the mission for better lifestyles, because a lot of those goals don’t take into account the external environment that some women live within.   

4. As soon as I finished watching The Business of Being Born, I called my mother an told her that I was having a home-birth and that I was going to encourage other women to do. I urge women to know their options, and hold themselves accountable to get out there, ask questions, and SELF-EDUCATE themselves about what their options are. My plan is to let women know what I have now learned, and hopefully open their eyes like mine have been opened. Keeping women out of the dark is the key to reclaiming power over their overall health and well-being.    

Work Cited:
Kirk, Okazawa-rey, and Margo GwGwyn. Women's Lives, A Multicultural Perspective. 5th. New York, New York: McGraw-Hill, 2010. p.215-218. Print.