HW 36

Interview 1

From the first interview the interviewee had a relatively "easy" birth. One point that she reiterated was that she was so scared going into labor from all the terror stories she read and her friends told her. Although the birth was painful she had her husband to help her relax and that made a very significant difference. She found the birth process much easier to handle when she focused on relaxation. Although she had her birth in a hospital she refused the epidural. She made a point of the importance of her husbands help and the difference that made in her situation.

This story was very different from many of the terrible stories that one many times associates with birth. The fact that the birthing process was less painful then she expected reflects a lot on our society's persepective on birth. Howevern of course every woman's experience is different so although she found relaxing helped her significantly that is not the case for everybody. Birth is a difficult subject to study and categorize since experiences vary so drastically. However, one thing that can be studied in a more concrete way, or at least more accurate, is society perspective on birth. This story showed the transformation of birth as a natural process into something that is medical. The fear and the medicalization of birth could be a coincidence, but I believe they are not. As is many other things connected woth medicine. Much of the fear of birth is warranted as so much can go wrong during birth. However, in the end if birth is a medical process more drugs can be used, hence creating more profit. As we learned in the illness and dying unit those in charge of the health care and hospitals in this country are very insensitive to human issues and feelings. I don't see why birth would be treated any different in the eyes of those in power.

Interview 2

Interviewee 2 had a relatively "easy" birth as well. However, she did not make as much of a point of emphasizing the difference in her birth from stories she read/heard. Her birth was still very painful, in fact it was the most pain she ever felt. She talked about focusing on breathing and relaxing. She also gave birth in a hospital. However, the relaxation seemed less theraputic for her. She was able to make it through the birth by keeping in mind the outcome and the reward of the process. She was so excited to be a mother that this became her drive during the actual birth.

With this interview I got much less insight on societal views in relation to birth. However, there seems to be a common theme between this interviewee and the last one. They both had something to push them through, something to use a drive to make it through the birth. They also birth described their birth as fairly easy s o it seems this is a pretty good method. Or maybe they are just lucky

Interview 3

Interviewee three had a very different birth from the first two. She, like the last two interviewee's gave birth in a hospital. Similar too the last two she also wanted to have a birth without the epidural. She seemed to follow many of the same things that helped alleviate the pain of the last two women. Unfortunately this was not as helpful for her as she gave in and got the epidural. She seemed fine with getting the epidural and although the birth was very difficult she emphasized that it was not as scary as it was made to see.

This last interview was most interesting to me because although she had a very difficult birth, especially compared to the last two interviewee's she also emphasized that the stories she heard/read had her overly scared. Once again the societal views on birth have shown to have a big impact on the mother emotionally. It can not be helpful to have someone go into a painful experience believing the experience will be in some cases will not be as painful. The mindset someone has will greatly affect the way the feel and react, and ultimately have some impact on the way the birth goes.

From these interviews the biggest point I extracted was that a womans mindset going in to birth is very highly correlated with the severity of pain and stress she feels during birth. Furthermore, societies perspective on birth has not shown to beneficial for woman as in general in our society birth is viewed as a medical issue doctors have to "fix" rather than a natural process that should take it's course naturally.