Month: January 2018

Reading Log #3

This week’s readings discussed some of the different aspects of pregnancy. Which included Shannon Jette’s conversation about physical exertion during pregnancy and Margaret Macdonald’s article on midwifery and common assumptions about the state of the pregnant body. Finally, Barbara Clow contributed her thoughts on drugs and women’s mental state during pregnancy. All these articles speak to the complicated situations that women are faced with during pregnancy. It’s interesting how so many women have such strong opinions on what is a so called “natural birth”[1] in MacDonald’s article. What became apparent after reading this article was that many woman have their own definition of what a natural birth is. One similar theme throughout all of the stories was that all of the women wanted to feel agency. Whether that be the decision to have a midwife or not or to accept the help of doctor’s and drugs like epidurals. I think the most important thing is to make sure that the baby is healthy no matter what method is employed. For some women the answer is to completely eliminate doctor’s and technology altogether. One women said that it is wrong to “override the body in pregnancy and labor through tests and medications”[2]. Viewpoints like this can be frustrating because it endorses the view of one particular person and may make some women shy away from medical help when they may desperately need it. Overall, this article highlights the many different ways in which women decide to plan their pregnancies. MacDonald does a good job of showing many different viewpoints without prescribing to any particular point. She emphasizes that all the ideas have merit, but it comes down to what is best for each individual women. Similarly, in Jette’s article she speaks about the idea of physical exertion during pregnancy and how society’s ideas have changed on the subject. For example, in the early twentieth century it was common for doctors to preach against the “dangers of overexertion during pregnancy”[3]. This highlights the view of many people during this period, that women were frail creatures to be handled delicately, especially during pregnancy. However, this was proven false as early as the 1950’s when women were competing during “the Olympic Games”[4]. This is interesting because it shows how common misconceptions about gender can be completely false. In today’s society the common practice is to stay physically fit by walking and exercising while maintaining a healthy diet. Although this is not always the case, as many women choose to be just as active before the pregnancy as they are during. Finally, Clow’s chapter in the book Women, Health and Nation helps to show how dangerous drug use can be and also that education is crucial to a healthy pregnancy. For example, she shows how many nervous mothers during the 50’s were scared of the reality of being a single mother and would therefore turn to pills for their anxiety. This is seen when some mother’s were so convinced that they weren’t pregnant that they “attributed their symptoms to tension rather than to pregnancy”[5]. As a result, many women would be prescribed Thalidomide and harm their child in the process. However, there are examples of women who took Thalidomide by accident and chose to take action. Sherri Finkbine took her husbands prescription of Thalidomide and for fear of harm to her unborn child went to Sweden to have an abortion there. By using this example, Clow shows that women were not without agency when it came to these drugs. Which seems to be a thread throughout all these articles. The idea that whether it be exercise, pregnancy plans, or drug use no women was completely without agency when it came to the choices they made during their individual pregnancies.

] Margaret Macdonald, “Gender Expectations: Natural Bodies and Natural Birth n he New Midwifery in Canada,” Medical Anthropology Quarterly, 20, 2 (2006): 248.

[2] Margaret Macdonald, “Gender Expectations: Natural Bodies and Natural Birth n he New Midwifery in Canada,” Medical Anthropology Quarterly, 20, 2 (2006): 246.

[3] Shannon Jette, “Exercising Caution: The Production of Medical Knowledge about Physical Exertion during Pregnancy,” Canadian Bulletin of Medical History, 28,2 (2011): 296.

[4] Shannon Jette, “Exercising Caution: The Production of Medical Knowledge about Physical Exertion during Pregnancy,” Canadian Bulletin of Medical History, 28,2 (2011): 296.

[5] Barbara Clow, “An Illness of Nine Months’ Duration: Pregnancy and Thalidomide Use in Canada and the United States,” in Feldberg, Ladd-Taylor, Li and McPherson, Women, Health, and Nation, Montreal McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2003: 54.

Bibliography

Clow, Barbara. “An Illness of Nine Months’ Duration: Pregnancy and Thalidomide Use in Canada and the United States,” in Feldberg, Ladd-Taylor, Li and McPherson, Women, Health, and Nation, Montreal McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2003: 45-66.

Jette, Shannon. “Exercising Caution: The Production of Medical Knowledge about Physical Exertion during Pregnancy,” Canadian Bulletin of Medical History, 28,2 (2011): 293-313.

Macdonald, Margaret. “Gender Expectations: Natural Bodies and Natural Birth n he New Midwifery in Canada,” Medical Anthropology Quarterly, 20, 2 (2006): 235-256.

Reading Log #2

After reading the articles by Maureen Lux and Ian Mosby and the chapter out of Colonizing Bodies by Mary-Ellen Kelm, there were several ideas that ran throughout all three. The first being that the definition of what health is varies drastically between the indigenous people and Canadians. To many citizens health means taking care of oneself. The common idea is that you will be a more effective member of society if you are healthy. However, indigenous people few health in a very different way. In Lux’s article she explains that indigenous people thought that “individual wellness required community support”[1]. This completely different view of health shows how as a people they do not separate one person from that of the rest of the community. Therefore, it makes it easier to understand how they felt resistant to hospitals that segregated them from there community and holistic medicine. Secondly, throughout all of the readings each one focused on the effect that Tuberculosis has had on the indigenous community. In Kelm’s book she shows the fact that “31 percent”[2] of deaths by diseases were caused by Tuberculosis. This is absolutely astounding and terrifying to see how much the indigenous people of the country suffered under the hands of this terrible disease. In Mosby’s article, he discusses the effects that the different research teams had on individual residential schools. The frightening thing about these studies was the knowledge that the research teams knew that the children were malnourished in these schools, but instead of feeding them properly, they chose to use them as experiments for good health. Now while they may have had intentions on helping the children in some ways, they still let these kids lack some important nutrients in order to test out their hypothesis. It’s interesting how the children responded to the conduct of the research teams. The letters often sounded like they were “spurred by a set of specific instructions from the teacher”[3]. While in reality these children were too frightened to say how they really felt about being poked and prodded and treated like experiments. The overarching thread in all these articles is indigenous health and the way in which their traditional practices influenced their health. Canadian society was trying to push our ways onto the indigenous people. While in some ways this is beneficial, in many ways it makes the indigenous ways of health seem to be inferior. Lux points out that Indigenous people view their health as part of a collective whole, which is something that Canadian society could adopt. Kelm shows the devastating effect that Tuberculosis had on the Indigenous community. Mosby points out that this had a lot to do with their overall health and the fact that many of the children in residential schools were malnourished. In conclusion, these articles show the way in which the Indigenous people of the time handled their health and also how the Canadian government wanted to control this aspect of their lives. This is seen in the hospitals built exclusively for the native people to segregate them from society. It is also present in the research that was done at the residential schools of the time. It’s upsetting that more care was not taken to ensure the health of the indigenous people of Canada.

[1] Maureen Lux, “Care for the ‘Racially Careless’: Indian Hospitals in the Canadian West, 1920-1950s.” The Canadian Historical Review 91, no.3 (September 2010): 411.

[2] Mary Ellen-Kelm, Colonizing Bodies (Vancouver: UBC Press, 1998), 7.

[3] Ian Mosby, “Administering Colonial Science: Nutrition Research and Human Biomedical Experimentation in Aboriginal Communities and Residential Schools, 1942-1952.” Social History 46, no.91 (May 2013): 169.

Bibliography

Ellen-Kelm, Mary. Colonizing Bodies. Vancouver: UBC Press, 1998.

Lux, Maureen. “Care for the ‘Racially Careless’: Indian Hospitals in the Canadian West, 1920-1950s.” The Canadian Historical Review 91, no.3 (September 2010): 407-434.

Mosby, Ian. “Administering Colonial Science: Nutrition Research and Human Biomedical Experimentation in Aboriginal Communities and Residential Schools, 1942-1952.” Social History 46, no.91 (May 2013): 145-172.

Reading Log #1

In Mona Gleason’s article, she discusses the impact that the public health reformation had on indigenous people and children. Gleason focuses primarily in the years between 1890-1930. Although health officials meant well in their interactions with the native community and Asian newcomers they often came across as racist. Health care officials thought there were “unmistakeable connections between Asian newcomers and filth and disease”[1]. What this shows is an inherit superiority that is felt by the health care professionals. In their opinion, their superior knowledge of health and sanitation should be forced upon children and indigenous people in order to make them healthier. These standards were strictly enforced in some schools including one example where a principle “turned the hose on him”[2] while the child screamed “’You’re killing me, you’re killing me’”. Although this example is extreme and horrifying, the motivations were to make children cleaner and thereby prevent disease such as measles and chicken pox. In Myra Rutherdale’s article, she focuses primarily on the impact that missionaries and reformists had on the indigenous communities themselves. Specifically, the process of birthing and bathing. Rutherdale is similar to Gleason in showing specific examples of people who were trying to help the indigenous community but sometimes they did more harm than good. However, this was not always the case some indigenous women accepted the help from Christian missionaries and as a result had a happier and healthier birth. For example, an indigenous woman named Caroline Gibbons refused the help of “’the angakoks and midwives’”[3]. This example shows how some indigenous women accepted the help of Christian missionaries while others like Apphia Awa found her hospital experience “traumatic”[4]. Bathing was also a subject that some children relished and others found utterly terrifying. What both these articles highlight is the fact that the health movement that spread throughout Canada was meant to prevent disease and make a healthier society. However, while this was the case for many people there were many examples of children and women who were traumatized by their experience with this reformation. As a society, the experience that we have had with aboriginals has be strenuous to say the least. Such is the case when looking at the two articles by Gleason and Rutherford.  North American society has always been convinced that their ways are superior to those of the indigenous people. While these articles highlight positive change for indigenous people, the way in which it was approached was incorrect. Instead of trying to convert their ideologies into our own, perhaps it would have been more beneficial to start with an understanding of their culture and show the positive outcomes that modern birthing can have. Similarly, it would be intelligent to show the positive effects a bath has on personal hygiene and health. These articles reflect the values and interactions between two different cultures. It is also a valuable insight into the complex history of health in the early twentieth century.

[1] Mona Gleason, “School Medical Inspection and ‘Healthy’ Children in British Columbia,” Children’s Health Issues in Historical Perspective (2005): 287.

[2] Marlatt and Itter, eds., Opening Doors, 94.

[3] Myra Rutherdale “Children, Health and Hygiene in Northern Canadian Communities,” Children’s Health Issues in Historical Perspective (2005): 307.

[4] Myra Rutherdale “Children, Health and Hygiene in Northern Canadian Communities,” Children’s Health Issues in Historical Perspective (2005): 311.

Bibliography

Gleason, Mona. “School Medical Inspection and ‘Healthy’ Children in British Columbia,” Children’s Health Issues in Historical Perspective (2005): 287-304.

Marlatt and Itter, eds., Opening Doors, 94.

Rutherdale, Maya. “Children, Health and Hygiene in Northern Canadian Communities,” Children’s Health Issues in Historical Perspective (2005): 305-332.