Messed up world

Fortunately or unfortunately women create life and push it out of their bodies. So some people may say that birth is women’s problem and overlook men’s part in conception of a fetus. However, even if birth is a women’s problem, women constitute half of the world’s population. Therefore, overlooking half of the world’s population is unfair. Moreover, since we all come into this world through birth, may suffer from complications during our birth, or decide to have children, problems, questions, and care associated with birth cannot be overlook by neither gender. Women have to be concerned about birth because there is always a chance she will need to go through it. Men have to be concerned because they are usually constituting majority in government and make laws that concern birth, maternal and infant care, because they participate in conception.

Usually when you read history book, you read about midwives helping women to give birth. However, during last couple of centuries doctors took control over women’s reproduction. And since men were and still are majority in the government and medicine, they are the one who establish norms of birth, maternal and infant care. Nurse-midwives are rare in the American society, and doctors deliver almost all babies. Such situation looks barbaric to me since I grew up in a different culture. I was born and raised in Russia (I do not argue that Russia is better I just making a point that I had a different experience). So my grandparents, parents, my brother, me, and literally all my relatives were delivered in hospitals by nurse midwives with doctors standing by in case of emergency. However, in the United States, according to Wendy Kline practice of midwives got back starting only in seventies as a counter push to prevailing delivery of babies by C-section. It seems also crazy to me that women are sent home the next day she delivers a baby. Like wow. What does a woman suppose to do with a baby that just fell out of her? In Russia a woman and a baby spends a week in a hospital after a birth so doctors can do follow up checks on both of them. So you give birth and stay in hospital for free. Therefore, the fact that in the United States some women choose to give birth at home with non professionally trained midwives rather than go to hospital and go through C-section looks insane to me. I see the argument about not wanting to go through C-section, but at the same time not to have comfort of having a doctor in case of emergency looks scary. I really do not want to die during childbirth. However, in the United States even with prevailing C-section, according to article by Sarah Frostenson “More and more women are dying in childbirth, but only in America” in the last thirty years mortality has increased in the United States because of worsening health of American women.

I think the world and not only the United States is messed up. Like pay taxes but we will not guarantee you health insurance, maternal or infancy care, or maternity leave, but we will regulate your reproductive rights, let big corporations use you as lab rats and make money on you. Or that getting pregnant and giving birth is a natural process, but laws make it a privilege to have means to raise a child. Women can give birth naturally but lets make money of women and give everyone a C-section. Men cannot give birth but let them make all laws concerning women. However, if you try to raise such questions you perceived as alarmist that sees problems where they do not exist.