HW 38: Insights From Pregnancy and Birth Book Part 1

     The way the book Birth: The Surprising History of How we Are Born is organized, it starts off combining historical and statistical evidence for the reader. The book doesn't really include personal accounts from women who have gone through birth except of course the opinion of the author. The book is also organized in a sort of meaningful manner, the author isn't trying to cram all the information on each page, and instead is trying to spread it out which is something a reader like myself can appreciate.The main question the book is trying to answer is how birth and the whole process of how it's handled progressed throughout history and stands where it is today. Something that has become typical with units in the class is that they become to much of  an industrial process instead of something that nature should handle. One common thing that I've noticed in this book and in this unit is that  instead of treating birth as a gift, society views it as a disease and treats it like one by using drugs and surgeries. The major insight that the book attempts to communicate is that birth is a essentially a physical process( not saying that I don't personally think it's an emotional and mental process). It's also very important to be educated and aware as to how birth and the birthing process has changed over time for the worse mainly and  that it's not to late to  change it for the better. On page 44 of the book Tina Cassidy discusses her opinion on the idea of hospitals and births. She states that "There was a good reason for the medical establishment to accept nurse-midwives: as baby boomers began to reproduce, the birthrate outstripped the number of obstetricians- Meanwhile, women, empowered by the liberation movement, were looking for a kinder, gentler birth experience, one that did not involve obstetricians or even hospitals." Tine Cassidy stated that hospitals and obstetricians weren't really sympathetic enough to their patients which is actually much more important than it seems.This showed her opinion on the topic very well. 

Five Aspects

1. Education About Birthing: If anyone finds themselves in the situation regardless if they are the male or the female they should still investigate this so they can be prepared for what's up ahead of them.This is something most Americans surprisingly don't know about. 
2. Historical Research Regarding Birth: Before you even start thinking about having babies you should take the initiative to learn the history of birth and how it has changed over time. If you wanted to go a step further you could even research how birth in humans differs from other mammals and primates since there the most genetically similar animals to us.
3.  Exposure to Alternative Ways to Give birth: It turns out there is usually an alternative way you can go about these things (exp for the food unit one could be whole foods, for the illness and dying unit one could be leaving the country and going to Canada). For this unit it could be midwives.
4. Finding Out The Truth About Hospital Birthing: The American people should be informed about what hospital birth is really like and both the pros and the cons of it.
5. Finding Out The Truth Regarding Home/Natural birth: we both feel that people should be informed about what home birth is really like and both the pros and the cons of it as well. 

     Tina Cassidy used lots of  historical evidence to support her beliefs and  arguments. The sources of her evidence are included in the bibliography that way if you wanted to check something out yourself you can do so. She  communicated her evidence through her  insights. Later in the book I would love to see Tina Cassidy mention some of the pros of hospital births The book would have been so much more  beneficial if she had just put in a little more effort and explored the cons of birthing at home further and exposed her readers to that so that her readers could make the best decision for themselves