Homework #44: Comments

To Sarah: In this piece you describe the lack of care pregnant women in jails receive due to neglect. 

I liked the way you incorporated women's personal stories into your writing in order to create a much more vivid image. 
This topic is extremely important, mainly due to the fact that so little light is shed upon it. People do not really think to consider the pregnant women in jail. While there is a reason for them being there (usually), it is no reason to treat their child badly. Many times in pregnancy fetus and mother are see as one entity, however in this case I believe it is best to view them as two separate beings. 
Perhaps next time you could propose how you think this should be changed.

To Devin: Here you discussed the benefits and risks of cutting the umbilical cord directly versus waiting a couple minutes. 

I liked that although you were supporting the idea that the umbilical cord should not be immediately cut, you still wrote out the risks. It shows that you understand that there is no perfect way, only a more beneficial one.

I think this is a really significant aspect of pregnancy and birth that gets overlooked. I doubt that I would have ever thought about my placenta and when the cord should be cut from my child. After reading this, I hope I remember later on when I plan to have children to wait a while before cutting the cord. 

It would have been nice however to have a visual, rather than a description of your pamphlet. 

To Amanda: You wrote about teen pregnancy and the lack of prenatal care that they receive. 

I thought that the part about how teenagers struggle with eating disorders and do not necessarily understand the importance of giving up drugs and alcohol was very important. While older mothers have a lot on their hands, we must realize that teen mothers need a different kind of support, as they have so much social pressure upon them, especially for something they do not necessarily want to go through. 

This matters to me because it is about people in my age group. Just to be aware of this is important. Everyone hears about how to not get pregnant, but not necessarily what to do once you're pregnant. I think you clearly demonstrated the importance of prenatal care for teens here. 

Maybe next time you could find a couple examples of teens and their stories. 

To Ariel: Your piece revolved around the birth of your sister and your experience watching your mother receive less than adequate care. You then connected this to your own future and how you might have gone about the situation. 

I valued how personal you were able to get with this post. It was nice to hear a first hand account of what went on, from someone other than the mother's perspective. 

I think this is significant because it really illustrates how a hospital works with the convenience of the doctor in mind. The fact that the nurse would even attempt to push the baby back into the mother is horrifying. 

Next time I might put even a little more of your own analysis, but otherwise I really enjoyed it. 

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From Bjorn: As always your text are very informative and filled with lots of interesting thoughts. Something that I reacted on was the sentence: 

"A fetus is dependent on its mother; therefore it is subject to her rule, even if doctors feel she is endangering the child. Up until birth, the mother’s life is that for which society must look out for."
Which was something that goes against my personal belief about childbirth since a fetus is considered a human being 8 weeks after fertilization why both human beings should be equally valued at birth. The mother, therefore should not be granted the right to endanger the fetus by any circumstances.

From Devin: WOW!!! You have really written a manifesto for the right of women to fight court-ordered cesareans when the mothers are of sound mind. You go on to make a strong case for why pregnant women's own health should come before the health of the fetus.

I was impressed with the way you documented your points, stating the legal rights of the mother as upheld by the Supreme Court. 

A reason why I think your project is so important is because of the people in this country who would like to reverse the Roe vs Wade decision of the Supreme Court and ban abortion. Obviously, these people don't think that women should have control over their own lives and bodies, and I think they are completely wrong. 

There is one area though that is complicated and that is that a pregnant woman cannot know all the dangers to her un-born child. She has to trust her doctor, and the problem seems to be that doctors, because of lawsuits and convenience are delivering too many babies by cesaerean section. This fact makes women not be able to trust doctors, and this is obviously a bad situation. My point is that there can be some women who might be willing to take a risk by not having a cesaearen and regret it later if the child turns out to be in great danger.

Johnny: This is a really well written very informative post and clear post. I understood basically everything and I knew what points you were trying to get across. 

I was shocked to see how many women had to go to the hospital to do a mandatory abortion. 
The reason why I think your project is important is because you cite a whole bunch of things having to do with unecessary maandatory abortions and just in general this topic is really interesting and i think everyone should know about this. 
Even though this was a good paper the only two little pieces of cold feedback i have is, you kind of repeat yourself in two paragraphs, and the other suggestion is to make it a little shorter. But besides that it was a really enjoyable paper to read and i definantly gained some new insights out of reading this.

Lindsay: I think that you analysis of the way that hospitals and the courts can interfere with a woman's body, particularly in a way that no other person in the country would be asked to do for someone else.

In the beginning of this unit I made a comment that the consideration of race and class would be an interesting lens to look through these power issues of pregnancy and birth. I wonder what kinds of patterns you would find in which areas court ordered cesarians happen most. Really great topic!

From Casey: Natalie,

Great job of describing the various ways that women are abused via judicial systems and doctors, and why it is considered abuse. I felt your passion oozing out of the computer screen. It was engaging and educational.
I particularly valued your insight that soon-to-be-mothers are the only people in society who are forced to undergo invasive surgery and even abuse for the sake of another life, and an un-born, dependent one at that. This had never occured to me, and I think it is particularly persuasive.
This project matters to me because I have empathy for all the women who have to fight for their ideal births, and for my future, potentially pregnant self. I sincerely recommend that you do send this blog post to an editorial-writing contest or another means of getting it published. I think this is worth reading, for many.