MLA Citation: Cassidy, Tina. Birth: The Surprising History of How We Are Born . 1. Grove Press, 2007. Print.
Just like every book and movie, the book had much more details about everything the movie discussed plus some additional information. One example of the additional information is: The historical aspects that surround birth and how homo sapiens have presumably changed from how they used to give birth to how they give birth now. The difference in diets between the first homo sapiens and the modern day woman plays a big role as to how their pelvises were and are shaped. One example of something that “The Business of Being Born” treated differently was that the movie started with some of the positive aspects of birth in hospitals. Some women in the intro said something along the lines of, “you go in and you come out”. Even though there was a lot of corny music playing in the background which degraded those women’s opinions, the movie still had some positives to say about birth in hospital while the book was completely biased about how birth should be handled the “natural” way. To sum it up, the book, Birth, had a lot more historical references that predates modern equipments (ie: forceps, sutures, fetal heart rate monitors) while the movie only discusses what happened in the past 100 years or so and all of its evidences are from statistics or stories that were passed down.
I felt as if the book’s major insight in the mosh-pit of historical evidence was; how midwives struggled through the obnoxiousness of male doctors throughout history to get to the respected position they are at now. Another key insight was; over the course of recent history (100-150 years) doctors have had far less successful delivers compared midwives. This is of course relative to the ratio of women that went to “professional” doctor and to those that had midwives come to them. I personally believe that the stigmatization of midwives is mostly because midwives were women. I think if the first publicized midwives had picked a better name to represent themselves, they would have had much more success with the male dominated world of obstetricians. As for the second possible insight of the book, it is quite obvious as to why doctor have less successful deliveries than midwives. The doctors have no emotional attachment or any sentimental connection with the baby or the mother. Before lawsuits became popular, doctors probably didn’t even care if the baby had lived or died just as long they got paid.
Interesting Aspects of Pregnancy:
1. History of the caesarean section and where it is practiced (103)
2. Too Posh To Push (123)
3. Different types of forceps throughout history (168)
4. Optimal labor positions (181)
5. A father's duties (198)
Independent Research:
Throughout the book Cassidy gives a biased perspective on how home birth is better than hospital birth. I wanted to research more about that issue because that seems to be the main discourse in relation to birth.
"... studies have suggested that planned home birth may be safe and with less interventions than planned hospital birth." (Olsen, Jewell) This statement agrees with the claims by Cassidy in Birth. I am inclined to agree with this statement because it looks at both planned hospital birth and planned home birth. Most hospital births are usually emergencies where the mom gets rushed into the OR for a C-Section just after she heard that her water just broke. "Planned hospital birth may even increase unnecessary interventions and complications without any benefit for low-risk women." People rush to the hospital because it symbolizes a sense of safety which gives people the illusion that if you are in a hospital, you are safe. At least that is what the common people think. That is why it is not surprising that scholars and individuals with college level education prefer using a midwife than an OB/GYN.
Olsen O, Jewell D. Home versus hospital birth. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 1998, Issue 3. Art. No.: CD000352. DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD000352
