AWOB

Doctors are the leaders people look for when they need medical assistance and midwives... most people do not even know what a midwife is. Midwives are people (not just women) who are just as adept as doctors in delivering babies but many people do not see this alternative. Interviews and videos show that having a midwife deliver babies are actually a better option than having doctors deliver babies.

Doctors are not always with their patients, causing the women to feel anxious because no one would know what to do when an emergency happens. In Emily's birth story, her water broke at 3:30am so she called her doctor and went to the hospital but the doctor was not at the hospital. While she waited for her doctor, she had to cope with her pain until the doctor arrived at 8:00am. Emily had to wait for four and a half hours until the doctor came to check up on her. During the four and a half hours, Emily had to endure the pain longer because the doctor was not there to hold the baby. Doctors are not there when Emily need them most in a time of pregnancy. In Emma's birth story, she could not even walk straight when she got to the hospital. On top of that, she had to wait for a while longer because the nurse had to try to find the doctor. She had to suffer more pain because the doctor was not there when she needed someone to do something about the pain. The pain had caused her and her aunt to break down and cry so while feeling the pain, Emma had to use her energy to cry. If something had happened during the times the doctor was not supervising, it would be the doctor's responsibility because the doctor was not there to prevent any emergency from happening.

The woman has to go to the doctor to deliver the baby. Delivering a child should be about the woman so the doctors should go to the woman whenever she needs them and not the other way around. Emma thought she was ready to give birth at 11pm so she went to the hospital but the doctor told her that she was not ready and got sent back home. She has to carry herself and her baby to see the doctor just to find out that she has to take her and herself back home. Then two days later, Emma started to feel pain again but this time she did not want to go to the hospital just to get sent back home again. Emma did not feel comfortable going to the doctor every time she was felt like she was ready to go into labor. If every women chose not to go to the doctor every time they were unsure, then something could happen without their noticing. It is better to have someone be there every time the women need to know what is going on with their body.

Doctors disregard what the women want in their birth plan. Emma had specified that she did not want any observers during her birth process but the doctor came into the room with a medical student. Because Emma was in so much pain, she did not have the energy to reiterate that she does not want any observers. Women may not want people who they are not familiar with to be in the room because it makes the women uncomfortable. If the women becomes uncomfortable, then the women might hold back unconsciously and it makes it harder for women to give birth. It is important for the women to have what she wants during her birth process and doctors fail to do so.

On the other hand, midwives encourage natural birth. Natural births do not include any interventions like cesarean sections so labor is involved in the process. In the interview with Ina May Gaskin, Gaskin mentioned that going through labor releases hormones that cause less pain for the women. These hormones also help the babies by wetter the baby's lungs so that the baby can breathe better. Having an intervention might be more painful, like injecting a drug or having the uterus cut open to push the baby out. Not many doctors allow the women to go through labor because they think it increases the chance of a catastrophic event and because of the duration. Natural births are safer, less painful, and more beneficial than normal births and midwives reinforce the idea.

While midwives recommend natural births, doctors talk women into getting a cesarean section. The cesarean section rate should not be higher than 15% but the cesarean section rate in the US is more than double standard rate. In 2006, the cesarean section rate was 31.1%. Cesarean sections, like any other surgical procedures, are not 100% safe and may cause complications like a uterus rupture. According to the interview with Ina May Gaskin, cesarean sections cause injuries. Cesarean sections involve medical and highly technological tools that may inflict damage to the women and the baby. Gaskin also said that cesarean sections increase death rates. While the goal is to decrease the infant mother mortality rate, doctors increase the use of cesarean rates that increase mortality rates.

Midwives support the women during the birth process. In the video with the giraffe giving birth, another giraffe accompanied the mother giraffe so she would not feel separated. The other giraffe acted as a midwife to support and make the mother giraffe feel comfortable so the birth process can be easier. Like humans, people need a midwife that can make them relax during birth to decrease the chance of complications. Stacy Fine remembered that she was "encouraged by midwives". Fine did not feel alone when she went through the birth process; she had midwives to encourage her. Midwives are there to make the birth process easier and take care of the women while she is having her baby.

Doctors tend to center themselves rather than focusing the attention on the women. In the beginning of the Monty Python video, the doctors emphasized that they wanted to use the most expensive machines. Expensive machines may be harmful to the woman but the doctors still use the expensive machines to impress the administrator. When the doctors finished setting up the procedure, the doctors then noticed that the woman was missing. The doctors were too busy setting up the expensive machines that they did not care to wonder where the patient is. After delivering the baby, the mother did not even get a chance to see the gender of the baby. The doctors did not want to waste any time allowing the mother to see the baby because it prevented the doctor from making money off of other woman. They took away the baby and left at the same time; leaving the woman on the bed not knowing what to do. The doctors do not bother to take care of the woman after delivering because that will also take away their time. While giving birth is all about the women, the doctors make it so that the birth is about them making money.

Midwives allow the women to have power over their birth. In the documentary The Business of Being Born (BoBB), someone had mentioned that the setting of the birth determines who has the power. So if the woman goes to the hospital, then the doctors have the power because the women are in the doctor's 'territory'. On the other hand, if the midwives go to the woman's home, then the woman have power over her birth because she is at her home. Only midwives allow the women to stay at home while the midwives take care of the women at their home. Doctors require the women to go to the hospital, where it makes the women uncomfortable with germs, and the women are not able to do anything because they are in the hospital. It is better for women to have the birth with a midwife because midwives allow the women to stay home for birth.

Doctors make things harder for the women and do not give them priority. The women has to accommodate to the doctor's schedules and they have to be the one traveling around. In contrast, midwives do what is best for the women and support their decisions. They step back and allow the women to choose their birth and only step in when the women need them. Midwives seem to be a better choice plan births with with than with a doctor.

Continuing Thoughts & Questions

• nurses are almost like midwives in that they support the women during birth, 'cept that nurses do not provide as much care as midwives
• birth do not have to be black and white; midwives can operate with doctors in hospitals