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.