HW 44 - Comments on Other People's Projects

My comments on other people's blogs:

Beatrice:

You gave some background information about the history of planned parenthood and attempts made by house Republicans to cut funding for it. I particularly liked your video, because it was fun and very creative, but still related to your project. It also showed that high school kids care about issues such as this one. Your project matters to me as I have been doing research for a paper about the spending cuts Republicans have proposed, and how these cuts will affect various programs (They also planned to cut money from schools and programs like head start, which would lead to many teacher layoffs, and fewer resources for students). The only advice I would give is to give an explanation of what the video is about at the beginning or end of it.

Chris:

You explained how what you learned in class led you to want to interview a nurse or doctor, and then you told the story of you quest to find someone to interview. You also documented this journey, along with the responses from the doctor you interviewed. I particularly valued the fact that you interviewed various people after you couldn't find a doctor, and that you were willing to get kicked out of Babies R Us for the sake of this project. Your project matters to me because you wanted to hear other people's opinions about pregnancy and birth, and why they had these opinions. One thing I thought you could have done would be to analyze one of the interviews, or how what the doctor told you did or didn't match up with what you knew previously.

Amhara:

You interviewed your mother about your birth, and then gave her information about birth that we learned in class. I liked that you acknowledged that you had a biased opinion going into the project - people don't always realize or admit to this. You project matters because you brought up the idea of birthing centers, which hasn't really been discussed. The only advice I would give is to make it more clear what the intention of the project is.

Elizabeth:

You started with a personal story and then interviewed people on their thoughts regarding same-sex adoption. I liked how you explained your earlier confusion about the subject - this made it clear why you chose to investigate this particular topic. Your research and interviews matter to me because they highlight differing opinions - someone said that the child might be affected if they didn't have a role model of gender, but your research implies that this wouldn't matter, the child would be fine. One thing you could have done was interview a same sex couple, or the adopted child of a same sex couple, to get their perspective.

Comments on my blog:


Lily (Protege):

Hey- wonderful work (as usual)!!!! You write with journalistic professional-ish-ness but you maintain a still warm presence. Also, this issue is very interesting to be because I am one of those people who says she doesn't want kids- because the whole giving birth process really grosses me out. Everyone is always telling me how I'll get over it when I'm older and I always question that so the "baby fever" paragraph was fascinating to me. I guess the phenomenon makes sense because everyone is always talking about how you'll get it when you're older. I couldn't find anything to correct in your work, excellent job!!!!

Elizabeth:

Your work focused on the question "Why do people choose to have children or not?". This was a unique subject that we did not examine in class and I thought that it was nice to hear about a new perspective of birth. Your project mattered to me because I think about the future a lot and whether or not I'll have children. I think to further your project you could have gotten a little more "personal" and maybe interviewed your parents or something on the subject. Great job!

Jasper:

Sophia you're project went into reasons why people in the U.S. decide to have and not have children. I like how you explore so many reasons to have or not have children and you use statistics and surveys for evidence. This is important to me because I was also very curious about the reasons for having children because it seems like something almost everyone wants at some point in their life.

HW 42 - Pregnancy & birth culminating project

Why do people decide to have children?

The answer to this question may seem simple, especially when thought about in evolutionary terms: People have children in order to pass on their genes. This is the case for most species, and for these species, it is not something they have to make a decision about. However, thanks to birth control, humans have a choice in the matter, and are in fact the only creatures on earth that have this choice.

While most people still choose to have children, there is a growing group of adults who are to put off having kids, or forgoing the idea all together. It seems as though they have decided that there are more reasons not to have kids then to have them. This change seems to have to do with shifts in social norms; it is more acceptable to not have a child now then it was fifty or sixty years ago.

A New York Times article suggests that the growing number of people who choose to have children later in their lives is indicative of a larger cultural shift wherein young adults take longer to grow up, putting off having children, and viewing marriage and parenthood “as lifestyle choices” as opposed to “pre-requisites for adulthood”. The article points to a 2003 U.S. Census study, which found that 19% of U.S. women age 40–44 did not have children (compared with 10% in 1976).

Choosing to have a child later in life is mostly viewed as respectable, since many women choose this in order to get an education, or advance in a job. However, people choosing not to have children at all suggest that there are actually many reasons to make this choice. Many women think having children is a waste of the planet's resources (contributes to overpopulation), or a waste of their time (they think they could do more for humanity on their own then they could by having a child).

Or they’re a waste of money. While most western countries offer new parents paid maternity/paternity leave (up to 50 weeks in Canada) and health care coverage, the United States only offers twelve weeks of unpaid maternity/paternity leave (and that’s if you have worked for a covered employer for at least 1,250 hours over the previous 12 months, among other restrictions). While other countries also have “baby bonuses” – money given to new parents to help them raise a child – the US offers little support to new parents. 

Research suggests that being a parent may not even make someone happy, as people are led to believe. A Newsweek article from 2008 (“Does Having Children Make You Happy?”) suggests that non-parents are actually happier than parents:

          The most recent comprehensive study on the emotional state of those with kids shows us that the term "bundle of joy" may not be the most accurate way to describe our offspring. "Parents experience lower levels of emotional well-being, less frequent positive emotions and more frequent negative emotions than their childless peers," says Florida State University's Robin Simon, a sociology professor who's conducted several recent parenting studies, the most thorough of which came out in 2005 and looked at data gathered from 13,000 Americans by the National Survey of Families and Households. "In fact, no group of parents—married, single, step or even empty nest—reported significantly greater emotional well-being than people who never had children. It's such a counterintuitive finding because we have these cultural beliefs that children are the key to happiness and a healthy life, and they're not."

For various reasons, more and more people are choosing not to have kids. Terms often used to describe these individuals are childfree, or childless by choice. There is actually an international social club called No Kidding!, which was created for people who have never had children, no matter what the reason (this means it would include people who weren’t physically able to have children). The intent of No Kidding! is to give adults a place to talk to other adults about things other than raising children, and to take part in activities or events held by the club (concerts, hiking trips, etc).

Even though more and more people are choosing to put off or forgo having kids, many people still do. Why?

Obviously, many people choose to have kids because it is simply what is done when one reaches a certain point in their life. Many people think it will bring them happiness and joy that they might not otherwise have.

However, there might be deeper biological reasons women want to have kids. An article by Corrie Pikul published in Elle about why and when women choose to have children suggests that when women reach a certain age (around their 30s), they have a greater motivation to have kids. The article quotes Warren Miller, a psychiatrist at the Transnational Family Research Institute who has spent 40 years researching why women get pregnant, as having said: “The childbearing urge is an element of the “nurturant bonding system”. It’s an adaptive urge to raise love, and care for a needier being then ourselves – nature’s plan for ensuring that we take care of the children we produce.” This implies that there is another aspect to wanting to have kids – wanting to take care of someone.

Anna Rotkirch, the director of the Population Research Institute at the Family Federation in Finland, has conducted extensive research on these urges. She analyzed the stories of 106 women who wrote to her about their experience with “baby fever” – the compelling urge to have a child, to constantly be thinking about it. One woman described the “painful need to be pregnant” and added “if someone had earlier tried to describe such a feeling to me, I would have rolled my eyes and encouraged her to get a life”, implying that “baby fever” a feeling that is impossible to imagine unless you have it. The source of these urges has not yet been established.

It is also important to remember that many people don’t have extreme urges to have kids, but want them all the same. It might not even be because “it’s the normal thing to do” – they might just want to have a child because they like children.

WORKS CITED:

"Does Having Children Make You Happy?." Newsweek 28 JUN 2008. Web. 31 Mar 2011. <http://www.newsweek.com/2008/06/28/having-kids-makes-you-happy.html>.

Pikul, Corrie. "The Clock-Watcher: How do you know when - or if - you should have a baby?." Elle Magazine. Feb. 2011: 164-166. Print.

Courtenay-Smith, Natasha, and Morag Turner. "Meet the Women Who Won't Have Babies - Because they're not eco friendly." dailymail.co.uk 21 NOV 2007. Web. 31 Mar 2011. <http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-495495/Meet-women-wont-babies--theyre-eco-friendly.html>.

http://www.nokidding.net/about.html

United States. Family and Medical Leave Act. , 1993. Web. 4 Apr 2011. <http://www.dol.gov/whd/fmla/index.htm>.

Cohen, Patricia. "Long Road to Adulthood Is Growing Even Longer." New York Times, 12 JUN 2010. Web. 3 Apr 2011. <http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/13/us/13generations.html?_r=3>.

Canada. Employment Insurance (EI) and maternity, parental and sickness benefits. , Web. 3 Apr 2011. <http://142.236.154.112/eng/ei/types/special.shtml#How>.

HW 41 - Independent Research

A

Belkin, Lisa. "Why Does Anyone Have Children?." Motherlode: Adventures In Parenting. New York Times, 07 JAN 2010. Web. 31 Mar 2011. <http://parenting.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/01/07/why-does-anyone-have-children-2/>.

Someone wrote in to the author of the blog, asking why people decide to have children. The author of the blog then tells her story of why, and invites others to do the same in the comments section. This source is more of a personal story type of writing, but it is still valid, and provides some valuable data. This source would be helpful if I wanted to quote someone saying why they had kids. 

Pikul, Corrie. "The Clock-Watcher: How do you know when - or if - you should have a baby?." Elle Magazine. Feb. 2011: 164-166. Print. 

Author discusses her own ambivalence about whether or not to have a child, and wonders if she will stay indecisive, or if her body will give her some signal. Cites evidence from various studies that try to find physical/psychological "signs" that women are ready to have a baby. Touches on emotional aspects surrounding peoples decisions ("For any given woman, the desire to have a child can be a heartfelt longing, a fantasy, an excuse, or something to be denied - or all of the above, at different times"). Seems like a very good source of information, although it is sort of vague (she basically says that there are a lot of different factors that make people decide, and that it's different for everyone - well, obviously).

Bailey, Ronald. "Why Are People Having Fewer Kids?." Reason.com, 26 FEB 2008. Web. 31 Mar 2011. <http://reason.com/archives/2008/02/26/why-are-people-having-fewer-ki>.

Discusses a film about the worldwide decline in births, and the various factors contributing to this decline. Lots of statistical data about birthrates in different countries, which would be useful for a discussion of why women in different countries decide to have children. However, this may be a biased source, seeing as the author mentions that him and his wife do not have children.

"Evolutionary Biology Explains Why Poor People Have Lots of Kids at a Young Age." Neatoblogs. Neatorama, 24 JUL 2010. Web. 31 Mar 2011. <http://www.neatorama.com/2010/07/24/evolutionary-biology-explains-why-poor-people-have-lots-of-kids-at-a-young-age/>.

States that people who have had tough experiences growing up have children as a sort of defense mechanism, since these people have a greater risk of something happening to them, and therefore feel the need to have children. Article is too short to be very useful, but further research could be done as to whether this statement carries any weight.

Jayson, Sharon. "Most parents have kids for 'joy'; to many it 'just happened'." USA Today, 06 MAY 2010. Web. 31 Mar 2011. <http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2010-05-06-whykids06_ST_N.htm>.

Discusses a poll taken by the Pew research center, and the various responses to the questions people were asked. Statistical data seems valid, and could be very useful. 

"Does Having Children Make You Happy?." Newsweek 28 JUN 2008. Web. 31 Mar 2011. <http://www.newsweek.com/2008/06/28/having-kids-makes-you-happy.html>.

Discusses how in America, parenthood is portrayed as making people nothing but happy, when the fact is that this isn't always true. Author asserts that people are disillusioned, and like to believe that they are happy, even when they aren't. May be a slightly biased source, seeing as the author has a child, but it adds to the conversation, since it brings up how parenthood is portrayed, as opposed to how it actually is.

Senior, Jennifer. "All Joy and no Fun: Why Parents Hate Parenting." New York Magazine 04 JUL 2010. Web. 31 Mar 2011. <http://nymag.com/news/features/67024/>.

In-depth discussion about why people decide to have children, and whether this make them happy. Longer and more detailed then any other article about the subject. A good source, since it discusses different points of view, backed up by actual data (not just personal experience). 

Courtenay-Smith, Natasha, and Morag Turner. "Meet the Women Who Won't Have Babies - Because they're not eco friendly." dailymail.co.uk 21 NOV 2007. Web. 31 Mar 2011. <http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-495495/Meet-women-wont-babies--theyre-eco-friendly.html>.

A woman talks about not wanting to have a child, and how it was hard for her to find a doctor that would let her get sterilized when she was younger, as they thought she would regret the decision. This also ties into the aspect of doctors having control over patients. While this is an interesting viewpoint, it might not be the best source of information, as most of the article is the woman discussing her reasons for not having kids, as opposed to universal ones.

Belkin, Lisa. "Does Having Children Make You Unhappy?." Motherlode: Adventures In Parenting. New York Times, 01 APR 2009. Web. 1 Apr 2011. <http://parenting.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/01/why-does-anyone-have-children/>.

Author discusses a study that found that people who have children report being significantly less happy than people who don't, even after their children aren't living with them anymore. Author quotes a psychologist talking about the reasons people have children. This is a valid source, but the sample size of the study, among other things, would have to be investigated.

B

I would like to use this research to write an essay discussing the different reasons people decide to have children. This topic is interesting to me, because it is interesting to question why people do things that seem commonplace - is it because they want to, or because they know it is expected of them? This would enable me to learn more about different people's perspectives, as well as the biological/ psychological reasons behind them.

My essay will focus on the following questions - Why do people decide to have kids - Is it simply because having children is what is considered normal, or is there a broader biological reason? What factors do people take into account when making this decision? (For instance, in countries where parents receive money from the government to support their child, are people more likely to have children because they feel they can afford it?)

HW 40 - Insights from Book - Part 3

This past weekend, I found myself at a cocktail party with Marsden Wagner, the author of the book I just finished reading. To demonstrate that I really read it, I said, "Hey - thanks for writing Born in the USA. Your idea that obstetricians in the US tend to be uninformed about how to treat regular, low-risk births, and instead treat pregnancy and birth as illnesses that need to be cured made me rethink the way I view medical care in the US.

But Dr. Wagner, surprised to be talking to someone who instead of sharing their own birth story actually rephrased the main idea of the text he spent months giving birth to, asked me, "Really, which parts were most effective or important for you?" So I told him: "Well, in the last third of the book you focused on what should change about how birth is treated, and how those changes could be implemented, which restated and added onto the ideas presented to the first 2/3rds of the book. But let me be more specific." And then I listed the top 3 ideas from that final third of the book (I somehow even managed to list page number references, probably because I have a photographic memory when it comes to reading and remembering details from books about how pregnancy and birth are viewed in the US).

1. Humanizing birth (treating it as a natural process) by educating the public, doctors, and other maternity care providers (midwives and obstetricians) (220).

2. Preserving the patient's right to sue a doctor, in order to make doctors more accountable for their actions (224).

3. Using science to improve maternity care - but using scientific data that is accurate in order to help women give birth, as opposed to using it to defend harmful choices made by doctors (246).

At this point, realizing that he was having a unique conversation with a serious reader of his book, Mr. Wagner asked - "But what could I have done to make this a better book - that would more effectively fulfill its mission?" I answered, "Well, let's be clear - your book sought to provide narratives, historical analysis, and policy analysis from the perspective of a practitioner and public health specialist (you), in order for the book-reading-public to better understand pregnancy & birth in our culture. Given that aim, and your book, the best advice I would give for a 2nd edition of the text would be to be a bit more concise - things don't need to be restated that much -  and explore more different aspects of birth, with the same detail that you used in Born in the USA.

But I don't want you to feel like I'm criticizing- I mean, I haven't even written a book (yet). I appreciate the immense amount of labor you dedicated to this important issue and particularly for making me think about how doctors become isolated from society after all those years in medical school, and how this changes the way they view their work and their patients - the hospital becomes a small world, centered around making people feel better, even when they aren't sick in the first place. In fact, I'm likely to view medical care and doctors in general differently as a result of your book - I'll probably be more skeptical about things I am told about medical care, and less likely to do what a doctor suggests without questioning it first."

Dr. Wagner replied, "Thank you! Talking to you has made me realize that teenagers today aren't as apathetic as the media makes them out to be, which gives me hope about our future as a society!"

HW 39 - Insights From Book - Part 2

Wagner , Marsden. Born in the USA: How a Broken Maternity System Must Be Fixed to Put Women and Children First. University of California Press, 2006. Print.

A topic discussed in this book that "The Business of Being Born" did not touch upon is the interference of ACOG (The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists) in the world of obstetrics. ACOG tends to publish recommendations for how obstetricians should treat birth without providing any significant scientific data to back up these recommendations. This is one reason why so many obstetricians started using Cytotec in the 1990s - ACOG pretty much said it was okay to use it to induce labor (even though it sometimes caused uterine rupture). The book also has a whole chapter about how midwives are treated as inferior to doctors (even though becoming a midwife requires someone to attend many births before they are able to practice, unlike doctors, who might only see one or two births throughout their time in medical school) - this was something the movie mentioned, but did not go into detail about. 

The major insight the books seems to be communicating is on page 126: "Women in the United States have the right to choose who they want to attend the birth of their child, and they also have a choice regarding where the birth will take place - in a hospital, in an alternative birth center, or at home. These are two different choices; though if an American woman chooses a doctor as her birth attendant, she cannot choose a home birth, since doctors in the United States no longer attend home births. Home births are attended only by midwives, and since that represents a loss of business for doctors, doctors attack home births with zeal." My initial response to this was curiosity over whether women really do have these choices. He said that women have the right to choose who they want to attend their birth; however, the book also points out that there are times where a woman has a doula with her at the birth, but the doula gets kicked out by the doctors for "interfering". He also said women have the right to choose where they want the birth to take place. However, when there seems to be so much stigma associated with home birth, is choosing where to have a child really a choice? It can't be, if women aren't always given all the information they need to make the right decision for their own birth. 

Five interesting aspects of pregnancy and birth that deserve wider attention:

- "To give birth, a woman must open up her body, wide. This profound social and biological act requires everything a woman has and is. All maternity services should reflect this fundamental fact and should be designed to assist and support this woman. Most of the present care system for birthing women is designed not to assist the mother, but rather to control her." (190)

- Using an Electronic Fetal Monitor does not increase the chance of a healthy baby, and can increase the chance that invasive interventions (such as c-sections) will be done unnecessarily. (154)

- Every year, the National Center for Health Statistics reports an increase in home births attended by midwives. (151)

- "Fear of litigation has become an excuse that allows doctors to continue to use interventions such as induction of labor and C-section that they prefer to use for other reasons." (159)

- "Hospitals are highly symbolic of the medical model of birth - twenty-first century cathedrals with priests in white robes. A hospital is usually one of the biggest buildings in town, the halls are quiet, and outsiders are awed when they enter and feel reverence for those walking by dressed in white." (187)

A claim made in the second hundred pages of the book is: "Direct-entry midwives aren't even eligible to take the standardized national midwifery examination until they have attended at least fifty births, but there is no requirement for a labor and delivery nurse to have experience as a birth attendant before a hospital assigns her to monitor women in labor, and doctors who do not become obstetricians often finish medical school having attended, if they are lucky, maybe one or two births, but any M.D. is licensed to attend births" (117). I was surprised by the fact that there is a number of births that midwives have to be there for, so I researched whether that was true in all cases. I found a passage in the book Midwifery and Childbirth in America by Judith Rooks that states that midwives (as of 1981) must assist at fifty births and act as the primary attendant at another fifty throughout their three years of training. So the evidence the author gave was valid (although he actually understated it), and helped prove his point: that midwives go through a lot of training, and should not be considered inferior to doctors.

HW 38 - Insights From Pregnancy & Birth Book - Part 1

Born in the USA: How a broken maternity system must be fixed to put women and children first, by Marsden Wagner.

1) The book seems to be organized the way a lot of non-fiction books (that focus on an issue/problem) are: What is wrong, how it went wrong, and what can be done to change it. This is done with the book overall, and it is also done within each chapter; a chapter will have an anecdote that serves as an example of a particular aspect of what is wrong with birth, and then the author will go on to explain how it got this way and what can be changed.

2) While the title of the book would indicate that the question it tries to answer would be somewhere along the lines of "How can a broken maternity system be fixed?" it seems like the real question the book is answering is more like "How is the current maternity system in the US molded to be convenient for doctors, as opposed to being better for women?" I guess my answer to this would be that doctors see pregnancy as an illness, and they want to make women "better" - as long as this can happen in a time period that is convenient for them. This makes it impossible for pregnancy to be suited to an individual woman's needs, and therefore impossible for it to be a better experience for her.

3) The insight the author seems to be trying to communicate (so far) is that a lot of the time, many interventions doctors do aren't necessary - the birth would have happened fine if the woman was left alone. While I agreed with this, I do think that there are times where it is better for people to be in a hospital for birth. The author keeps saying that most births are low-risk, and don't need to happen in a hospital, but how does one know whether a birth is low-risk before it even happens?

4) Aspects of birth that deserve public attention:

- When doctors are in medical school, they only see births where something went wrong; they go through school without ever seeing a normal birth.
- There is an increased chance of a baby dying if the baby is born at night, when there are fewer doctors around.
- It is hard for a woman to sue a doctor (to find a lawyer that will take her case) for giving her an episiotomy without her permission, because the doctor can always argue that it was necessary (even if it wasn't).
- Doctors spend so much of their training in hospitals that they forget about the real world; they are removed from any outside life, which makes their job their life.
- Many women choose to have c-sections because they want a scheduled birth, or because they don't want to face the "risks" of having a vaginal birth.

5) The author uses pretty sound evidence throughout the book; however, it seems like he is repeating the same thing over and over, just citing different sources. There are lots of statistics; at times it seems like the author is simply listing them, without analyzing them. It does seem like the evidence is reliable though, and the author has an annotated bibliography in the back of the book detailing the sources he used and the ideas each source discusses. The author also anecdotal evidence to bring up new issues; for example, he will tell a story of a woman who had trouble giving birth due to the fact that the nurses were told to wait until the doctor arrived, and then he will explain the reasons that this happens a lot, and how it is harmful to women.
Also, because the author used to be a doctor, he has insight into the culture of a hospital and the stresses that doctors and nurses have to deal with; this is an aspect of hospitals and birth that someone who wasn't a doctor wouldn't have insight into.

HW 37 - Comments on Birth & Pregnancy Stories

Comments on my blog:

Chris: "Wow, this is a really good and complete post, honestly I was thinking for a while how i could try to help you make this better and there are not many ways that I think you can make it better. You did a great job recording your interviews and analyzing what you learned and what you put in bold was a good idea that I had also thought about in many of my class. Its something that i wrote about in my blog post and you'll see this when you read it but here is your best line ""When someone said "it's a girl," I realized my eyes were squeezed shut and there was already a bundled up baby in my arms. Instead of being overcome by instant love like everyone told me I would be, I just felt kind of awkward. I wasn't sure what I was supposed to do or how I felt." I like this a lot even though its a quote because it sounds like something that most moms would say but I think its like this because mothers do love their babies and i talk a lot about why I think this is in my blog so you blog and mine have a lot of the same ideas. Good post."

Lily (Protege): The part I liked best was this~
"And I was actually glad to know that it's okay to feel uncertain, or to not know what to feel. Her story showed me that even with something as natural as birth, people still feel awkward sometimes."
I thought this was really relatable. The above quote was the best for another reason, too. You seem very earnest and you're interperting the interview with a lot of emotion while maintaining admirable professionality. I can't think of anything to change, your work is really remarkable for this.

Marilena (Mentor): I thought your best line was:
"I was struck by how different her story was from the way birth is usually described. While I knew labor and birth were painful, I always thought that it would all be okay in the end - this is what people have always told me. I always figured that while going into labor would be scary, it would also be somewhat exiting - I mean, you're about to have a child."
This was good analysis, as it shows how what you learned is different then you have previously heard. It also reveals what you think the experience of birth would be like (which has been affected by what you have previously been told).
The only suggestion I have is that you could have gone more in depth with the analysis of the third interview."

Amhara: I thought it was smart of you to explain the physical and mental effects DURING a pregnancy, which is something I didn't really have in mind going into this assignment. Its important to explain those specific things because in our culture there are many assumptions and stereotypes of women while pregnant. It was also interesting for you to talk about how other people treated her during the pregnancy because that is also definitely a factor.
I believe that your best thought was:
"I thought it was interesting how her friend's death made her want to have another child. "
because you were touching on the big idea of what motivates people to have children! and this is a very unique and beautiful example of that.

My comments on others blogs:

Chris: I thought this line was really interesting:
"If a child is a child when its first in the womb at about a month old because it has to be taken care of then how come the men don’t help. If they are only going to help after the baby is born then maybe women are more suitable to take care of the children."
It is interesting how no one ever points out the fact that the baby needs to be taken care of before it's even born. I liked your idea that the father should be willing to help throughout the pregnancy as well as after the birth.
Your interviews seemed to contrast each other - while the mother in the first interview described the father as being extremely involved (which was, as you said, not the expected answer), the mothers in the second interview described the fathers as being less willing to help.
I thought you did a good job of displaying this contrast between the two interviews, and questioning why mothers don't get the support they need during pregnancy. All in all, nice post.

Amhara: First off, this was my favorite line from the interviews:
A- "Did you receive any pain relievers?"
F- "No, this wasn't America" {Laughs}
I really liked the whole first interview, because it was interesting, as you said, to hear about how birth happens in other countries (like how there are maternity homes instead of hospitals).
You also built off your previous ideas after each interview, and you brought up many different topics: natural vs. induced labor, whether the father should be there for the birth, and why birth makes people uncomfortable.
I also didn't know until recently how common it is now for labor to be induced by a doctor; I've heard this isn't very good for the mother or the baby.
All in all, I thought your post was well done and organized. I also liked this line of yours: "It was also interesting to see how these two different parts of the birth process were connected to one another. It makes me imagine the process as a game board where your path is altered depending on where you move."