Response to Katrina 3/24

Response to Katrina 3/24

I can’t help but agree with both Caren and Katrina that after reading these articles the idea of giving birth is painful to think about! I remember watching some sort of documentary about the birthing process in 8^th grade health (I think it was called “The Miracle of Life” or something to that effect) and remember everyone, myself included, thinking “ewwww!” But now, as a more educated and informed college student, my thoughts remain similar. (The men in class were probably thinking how lucky they are to get to bypass the discomfort!) As does Caren, I really admire the courage of mothers to go through childbirth, as painful and unappealing as it is, especially those who have had more than one child. I don’t want to come off as a wimp but I much rather would have a procedure done that would minimize the discomfort and expedite the process than go through something like Elizabeth Rourke. I also would feel far more comfortable to have a procedure that is relatively standardized and “perfected” than have an incompetent physician attempt the Woods corkscrew maneuver and fail. My mom delivered my younger brother through a C-section and she is doing fine, so I can’t help but think that even though it has a lot of risks, as does any invasive procedure, that it’s not as dangerous and debilitating as Goer makes it out to be. With that said, when Gawande described the details of a Cesearean section that did not sound appealing either! I feel like an extensive and detailed analysis can be performed to compare Goer and Gawande’s articles. The vehement language employed by Goer made me immediately assume that she was overreacting and in my mind made her less credible, though she does have statistical evidence to back up some of her arguments (a stylistic criticism I suppose). At the same time, I think using the term “industrial” in the title of the article is a little strong, though I assume the point was to generate a better standard for child delivery. I think that women to some extent should have a choice in their mode of childbirth (unless of course complications happen that make an emergency C-section seem more necessary/imperative) AND should be informed about the risks and benefits of all possible procedures. Until reading this article I’ll admit I didn’t know too much about the specifics of the process, though I guess that makes sense since I’m not exactly at that point in my life yet. The juxtaposition of these two articles, while it makes sense to put them together, makes me question what is best, though there might not be a right answer. Assuming that I eventually have children I’ll just have to suck it up and do it and hope that my doctor knows what they are doing – it seems like no matter what way you go its going to be uncomfortable!