HW 36

Before my interview I decided to ask people I knew who went through birth more than once that way I can get a bigger view on the subject of birth. If I asked a person who had more than one kid I could get answers on the way they felt the first time and how they felt after they had been in a similar experience. One pattern I found was that different feelings were felt depending on whether the parent/s had one or more kids, there was a very different gap in between the two experiences.

 To start off I asked what actions and attitudes by specific people made your pregnancy experience better or challenging? Both the ladies said that they loved the attention they got, like people rubbing their bellies and asking how many months. Some  negatives would be when people say "your having kids again?" or in Samantha’s case since she is only 17 some people shun her for having a kid at this age and say that she is ruining her life. One negative thing that Brooke shared with me was how the doctors imposed on her to get an abortion because they were afraid that the baby would come out with head issues. Although this did pose a problem she decided to have her kid any way and her son who is now 18 is as normal as can be. The next question that I asked was if birth is so painful why have more than one? Brooke said although I was right to assume that it is a painful experience, the pain was nothing to the joy that kids bring(not that they are perfect), and now that some of her kids are grown she’s glad that she had all the kids she did. This was true for Samantha as well, although she doesn’t plan on having another kid any time soon it she is glad she had a kid. Another question that I asked was when they look back at the experience of birth and labor both of the woman were scared prior to the actual birth because they knew it was painful and for Brooke she was scared she could die.

Although pregnancy is mainly about the woman with the baby (partly cause they are the ones going through big change), I still thought that I should interview a male partner because all though they are not the pregnant one they still play a major role (the actual activity in making the baby, support). Something that was interesting that the ladies didn’t mention (and I didn’t want to ask) was there mood swings. Both Bob and Tim told me in detail of mood swings, and I found this interesting because they ladies I interviewed didn’t mention anything about it, but here on the other hand the guys were. I also asked them how they felt at the beginning and end of the process Bob was grateful at the beginning of the pregnancy, because he was able to have kids which I found interesting because most people are worried about either having or not having kids but there are people who are scared that they won’t be able to have any. Towards the end he was cautious for fear that his wife can get hurt during labor. Tim was scared and excited at the fact that he was going to be in charge of another life.

Although the interviews were very helpful in giving me insight to a topic I don’t know much about, a question that it has made me want to investigate would be is birth considered to be "How have the views on birth changed(if there is a change) from the past to the present?"

HW 34

I think that this is going to be an interesting unit because of the diffrent ways it can be viewed. Is it a good thing is it a bad thing, is it all its cracked up to be? Birth (from my family's point of view) is a very good thing, its the beginning of life, it is a happy occation(for the most part), it links families together, its starts families, and it can also be viewed as the beginning of a generation. Although birth has it pros there are also some cons. Of these are financial responsibilites, stress, single mothers. Birth can even be looked down upon, like in some religions and cultures if a baby is born out of wedlock it is shunned uponed. Although I know some things about birth I dont a lot beause I didnt really didnt take time to look into the topic itself. On the other hand I do have a couple of questions I would like to see investigated this unit:

What are the dominent views on birth?(is it a good thing, bad thing)
What should dictate wether or not a person should have kids or not?
If birth really hurts the mom(which I dont doubt it does), why do they then sometimes have more kids?