HW 36 - Pregnancy & Birth Stories

Interview #1

One thing I initially noticed was that the first interviewee T was far more open about her opinions then all of the teen interviewees. I assume she has told this story many times so it may come easer to her then teenagers who do not fully know what their perspectives are.

I started the interview by saying:

How did pregnancy effect you physically and emotionally?

T: I was very sick the first three months. Every morning no matter what I threw up. I sometimes had to give my self an extra hour in the morning so I could throw up before I had to go to work. Emotionally I was just overwhelmed with joy and excitement. It was one of the happiest times of my life."

This demonstrates the battle of emotional joy and physical pain that occurs when during pregnancy and birth. This seems to be a trent in all of the interviewees's experiences.

Me: Did you encounter mood swings?

T: No. Not that anyone told me about. But I did have anxiety about being able to provide the best life possible for the child. 

What I think she meant by saying that was that she didn't think that she had hormonal mood swings yet she did have mood swings, or deep swaying thoughts, relating to her situation.

Me: DId anyone say anything to make you nervous?

T: Yes! The doctor recommended all of these books about what could possibly go wrong during pregnancy and that really caused me to be nervous. The books did not help me have a baby or be a mother. The books only helped me learn more about what will happen physically.

Me: Would you say you had a stressful pregnancy?

T: No just when my husband had to move to a different city because of work with out my husband for a few months. The only difficult part was being alone.

All of the women I interviewed said that part of the reason they chose to become pregnant was because of there husbands. It is evident that it is easier to rase a child with two parents and all of the women seemed to hate it the most when they felt alone.

Me:What is something you remember about giving birth?

The nurse and my husband miscounting when they were counting my breaths. He'd be saying 'one' while she was saying 'three'. 

Interview #2

R is a woman who has given birth three times. During the interview we didn't specify which birth we were discussing so it just was about her birth experience in general. I asked her how birth effected her physically and emotionally. She said "Physically it started with intense nausea. Then the nausea stooped and everything tasted weird. Emotionally I was really excited. I think I got a little crabby." Like the woman in the first interview she read books about the process of giving birth. She had a better experience with the books then M. She happily mentioned, "The Bradley method". After further research I found that the Bradley method is a company that teaches classes to soon to be parents. Then we discussed the actual act of birth. She said that she liked having a midwife. For one of her births she went to a hospital and she felt like she was being treated for a "disease". The conversation then led to what caused her desire to have kids. She said "love for the person I was with"

One thing I found interesting about R's interview was that she said that what sparked most of her desire to have children was the fact that she was with someone she loved. The other women I interviewed all said that they had wanted children for other reasons. I noticed that the most common story I encountered was that women went about 30 years without wanting children and then bam! They all the sudden wanted to have kids. I can only assume that R had her children at a younger age then the other women I interviewed so she would not have the same hormonal "flashes" of thoughts of being a mother.

hw 35

What are the psychological issues that can be caused by birth?

New mothers can get something called postpartum depression. From what I have heard, this can result in a mother feeling anxiety because she feels that she is an inadequate parent. I wonder if that feeling of inadequacy often comes from the expectations mothers instill in themselves from our society. That would make the feeling of inadequacy a cause of postpartum depression which would account for the increase in amount of women who are diagnosed with postpartum depression. After reading the list of symptoms of postpartum depression from webmd.com, I notice that all of the feeling towards a patients baby are feelings that someone gets when they are around anyone for extended periods of time. I am sure that there is a cretin amount of pressure that comes with being around your own child but that could all connect back to our social obligations to be perfect parents. A question I would like to answer over the course of the unit is how do social obligations effect our mental health when it comes to child birth?

Another aspect of birth I would like to look further into throughout the unit is statistics on infant mortality, birth trauma, and maternal death. I had a discussion with my mothers friend who is a midwife who claims that home births reduce the risk of infant and maternal mortality. I have yet to find statistics on this but I remain optimistic about the claim. Even though women have been able to do births on their own sense the beginning of man kind we seem to have a desire to be assisted. What causes this pressure to get as much assistance with an act that seems to come naturally? It is the desire to do what is best for your unborn child. So I stand inconclusive on wether home birth is healthier then hospital births but I intend on researching the topic.