HW 44 - Comments on Other People's Projects

Comments I made:
Sophia: 
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! 

Lucas:
Your project involved you visiting 2 hospitals as well as interviewing Hunter students.

I had the privilege of seeing your video with audio, and there is most definitely a difference in the two experiences. I thought that your project was unique, which I enjoyed. The interviews you did were my favorite part because they are what I can relate to the most. When we started this unit I didn't have a complete grasp on pregnancy and birth, just like the people you interviewed.

I think that to improve this project, you could write a bit about your video.

Nice work!  
****Note that there was no text when I wrote the comment

Naima:
The courses you described sounded amazing. I liked that your focus was on becoming a doula/being a part of birth because it relates to things we talked about in class, but hearing what your aunt had to say was a new point of view. I actually considered going through doula training for my project as well, but I didn't know how well it would turn out without the actual training (since the next available session was in May).
Your project though, came out really well and I think that the interview/your personal connection (step-mother) really added extra emotion into the project which I feel is a hard thing to do when such a stiff word (in my opinion) like "project" is being used.

I hope to hear more about your training and your perspective on your step-mother's birth experience  

Comments on my Blog:  

Andy:
After a sweet personal opening story you focused on some peer reactions to the practice of adoption by same-sex couples.
This topic matters to me because it feels like it touches the heart of whether GLB folks will be allowed to be full members of the community (abstract) and also because I've met some wonderful GLB parents (relational). From a different than usual angle your topic addresses one of the essential issues in our sexual politics - should gay love be treated as poisonous or as beautiful - should GLB people be considered valuable and good and healthy or sick and toxic and evil?

I would have appreciated more from you on this topic. More interviews - GLB parents work in our building and send their children to our building. GLB students attend our school and some plan to parent.

More follow-up - did Casey feel mixed or not? Did Abdul have more reasons for his stance and did those reasons seem coherent to him and to you? (BTW - be careful about labelling people on the blog - "homophobic" sounds very pejorative - although it might (or might not) be accurate it doesn't make sense to focus negative attention from the WWW on a classmate. Please edit this.)

More research - what governmental and adoption agency policies currently impede or support adoption by GLB people? What organizations and efforts currently focus on this topic and how can we help them?

Thank you for your work.

Sophia:
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.

Lucas:
I think your project has a very good base question, and I don't really think GLB couples should be treated differently from heterosexual couples when it comes to parenting and birth, besides the changes that I think should apply to everyone, such as a reduction in doctor-managed hospital births in favor of more home births.

I think a possible improvement could have been to interview more people, but other than that I think it was very good.

Do GLB even have to mention their sexual orientation when adopting? If so, do you think it should be allowed? It almost seems like a predisposition towards discrimination.

Beatrice:
Hi Elizabeth. I liked how you started off with anecdote about your childhood friends with same sex parents, good transition in to your topic.

I find this this topic interesting because I too believe gay couples should be allowed to adopt (and get married).

One thing you could've done to improve your project would be to have done more research and used more statistics and maybe quotes from psychologists or more relevant matter than just your points of view.

All in all good work!  
 

Dad:
This is the kind of topic that can stimulate endless conversation, both pro and con. While it’s been awhile since they were your schoolmates, it might have been interesting, time permitting, to contact Hanna and Ella and get some feedback about their lives today. It’s interesting how your current classmates could have such differing points of view, one so positive and one so negative. One of my best friends growing up has no tolerance for anything other than “conventional, normal” lifestyles and yet we continue to be good friends. As you might imagine, when we get together it makes for interesting conversation.

Sara B (10th Grader @ different school):
I liked how you opened your post with your first impression of same-sex households. This was especially relatable for me because I remember Ella and her 2 dads! Then you went on to discuss what peers think now, providing an interesting contrast to when you're younger and simply confused.

M brings up an interesting point about kids being raised by same-sex couples not having a role model from the other gender, but I guess instead comes more openess to what may be considered nontraditional. I also read once that same-sex couples tend to have a more equal distribution of doing work around the house (cooking, dishes, laundry, etc) which may or may not have an effect on the child.

Either way, I agree with your conclusion that adopted kids of same-sex couples can certainly turn out alright, if not better :)

Sarah M:

Your topic on same-sex adoption was one that I hadn't seen in anyone else's projects. Your interviews with two different points of view allowed some light to be shed on how people think. While it was a pretty small amount of interviewees, I think people can still get a sense of why because of your clarifications or inner monologue throughout the essay. I alos enjoyed the way you started off the piece. It sounded really cool and grabbed my attention quickly.

John:
Your project description immediately engaged the reader giving me a very vivid image of your own childhood and how the project relates to your own experiences and interests. your body paragraphs review your field research with some statistical background and your own analysis of why its important. what i liked was how you were immediately able to grab my attention on a topic that normally id be a bit uneasy to talk about. i think your conclusion was done well to give the reader i way to interpret the data how she wishes and indicating a conclusion but keeping it safe because of the lack of field research. which brings me to what i think you should improve on, your summary of data was great and i think if you were to have a deeper analysis by getting more field research that would be optimal. i am ofcoarse aware that the time was too limited to have many interviews done that are meaningful. thanks for the post i enjoyed reading it.

HW 42 - Pregnancy & birth culminating project

When I was in elementary school, I had a friend named Hannah. She had the coolest house to play hide-and-seek in and one of those ceiling fans with giant fake crayons for propellers. But something was different about Hannah. She had two mothers, and was darker skinned than both of them. This confused me. I always pictured families as mommy, daddy, and baby. Never mommy, mommy, and baby. I also had a friend named Ella. Unlike Hannah, she had two dads. I was quite confused so I asked my mom why Hannah and Ella didn't have a mommy and a daddy, and why neither of them looked like their mommies or daddies. She told me that Hannah's moms loved each other and Hannah, and Ella's dads loved each other and Ella, and that love was what mattered in a family. 

I interviewed a few people on the topic of same-sex adoption to see what people understood about it and what they believed about it. One person, who will be called K, began by saying, "you can interview me, but I don't know much about the topic. I don't know that it's very common". I found that interesting because, in fact, there are at least 10 million children being raised in gay or lesbian households (6). K went on to tell me that she believes that gay people should have the right to adopt because, "disallowing people to adopt can only make a situation worse" because then there would be more children without loving households. She also said that just because a child is raised in a homosexual household, the parents aren't going to teach the child to be gay if that's something people are worried about. But getting into more depth, our conversation moved into the idea of a normal family. "Sometimes I guess people see marriage as the bond between a man and  woman, and in order to have children, they should be married; so that could be another issue". But overall, K was very supportive of homosexual adoption.


On the other hand, I interviewed another classmate, A. Our interview started bluntly, "Do you believe that gay couples should be allowed to adopt children?" 
"No."
"Okay, but why?"
"Because they're gay,"
"And why is it bad for a child to be raised in a homosexual household?"
Hearing our conversation, another classmate, M, joined in, "Maybe because the child wouldn't have a role model for each gender. They might not have a father or mother figure to look up to, and maybe that's an important component of childhood". A immediately agreed and said, "yeah, that's it. Are we done?"

I approached a few other people in hopes to interview them, but no such luck. They either said that they didn't know anything about adoption or they were too busy. I'd like to further this project by delving more into the legalities of same-sex adoption. I can't really come to a powerful conclusion based off of the two interviews I've done, but from my own personal experiences as well as minor research on the subject, I am confident that a child growing up in a same-sex household will be just as, if not more, successful than a child raised in a mother-father environment.

Bibliography

1. "Placing Children." Adoption Statistics. Adoption Statistics, 2011. Web. 3 Apr 2011. . 

2. "Ethics of Adoption Financing ." Child Welfare Information Gateway. U.S. Dept. Health Services, n.d. Web. 3 Apr 2011 . 

3. "PEAR Statement on Families for Orphans Act." (2010): 1-8. Web. 

4. "Pros and Cons of Adoption." Child Adoption Matters. Child Adoption Matters, 2010. Web. 1 Apr 2011.

5. "Same Sex Adoption." Child Adoption Matters. Child Adoption Matters, 2010. Web. 1 Apr 2011. 

6. "Gay & Lesbian Adoption Rights." Love and Pride (2008). http://www.loveandpride.com/informationcenter/tips.aspx?categoryid=7 

HW 41 - Independent Research

Adoption Research

Annotated Bibliography

"PEAR Statement on Families for Orphans Act." (2010): 1-8. Web. 

Parents for Ethical Adolescents (PEAR)'s opposed the Families for Orphans Act (FFOA). The organization opposes it because it incorporates more money and government into the adoption system. The main idea is that it is wrong to add incentives to adoption because it will encourage families to adopt not out of love, but for profit. The main concern from PEAR is that rather than improving the current adoption system, the FFOA would simply make it even harder for children to find safe and loving homes. 

"Pros and Cons of Adoption." Child Adoption Matters. Child Adoption Matters, 2010. Web. 1 Apr 2011.

Read: 
PEAR Statement on Families for Orphans Act
Families for Orphans Act (FFOA)

********Incomplete*************

HW 40 - Insights from Book - Part 3

I seem to have found myself at a cocktail party, when in walks Marsden Wagner, the author of the book, Born In the USA, which coincidentally, I have just finished reading.

Elizabeth:

Hey there Dr. Wagner!

Marsden Wagner: 

Pardon me, but, do I know you?

Elizabeth:

No, but I just finished reading your book, Born in the USA, which I really enjoyed. Your main idea that the current system we use in America is more harmful than healthy made me think differently about the current status of our maternity system.

Wagner, surprised to be talking to someone who actually rephrased the main idea of the text instead of sharing their own birth story, replies curiously. 

 Wagner:

Really? Which parts were most effective or important for you?

Elizabeth:

Well, in the last third of the book you focused on methods to change the flaws in the maternity system, which further developed your thesis. You suggested many different solutions, but the three most realistic ones, in my opinion, were from pages 220, 240, and 242  where you mention educating the public, improving public health, and following the money.

At this point, Marsden has realized that he's having a unique conversation with a serious reader of his book.

Marsden:

But what could I have done to make this book so that it would more effectively fulfill its mission and to be all around better?

Elizabeth:

Well, your text sought to provide a system analysis from the perspective of what one would consider an expert in the subject, so the book-reading-public could better understand the maternity system 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 rethink the solutions you provide in the book. While I do believe that you have created valid arguments as to why policies and standards need to change, I do think that some of your solutions contradict one another. 

Marsden:

How so?

Elizabeth:

Well, one of the solutions you mention is to create coalitions, but at the same time you mention that governmental standards need to be reformed. But they don't completely conflict one another.  I don't want you to feel like I'm criticizing, I genuinely appreciate the immense amount of labor you dedicated to this important issue. But most particularly for making me think more about the immense influence that money and politics have on the United States maternity system and the general safety- both physically and mentally- of mothers, children, midwives, and families has been heavily disregarded. In fact, as a result of reading your book, I'm likely to have a home birth of my own in the future, unless the system changes in favor of a more natural birth. 

Marsden:

Thanks! Talking to you 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. Univ of California Pr, 2008. Print. 

While comparing The Business of Being Born and Born in the USA, I've found that the main difference between the two is the audience for which each medium is aimed. The Business of Being Born focuses heavily on the emotional aspect of pregnancy/birth whereas Born in the USA incorporates the emotional and business sides of the maternity system. The chapters I've most recently read were about midwives and legalities. This part of the book relates heavily to The Business of Being Born (TBBB) because they both fixate on midwives. The difference is that Born in the USA (BUSA) examines and gives examples of legal cases in which "the good guys" have been direct targets of the maternity care system. I personally enjoy watching TBBB more than reading BUSA because it's much more engaging. BUSA does have some really good information and touching stories to share, but I feel that the setup which they are given creates a strong unintrest for the reader. Example, on page 143 of the book, the reader is given a boatload of percentages and numbers and basically have to create an image in their head of how the data would be set up. I personally had to read over it 5 times to get the general idea of how the numbers would look next to one another, but I can hardly imagine that every single reader re-reads things they understand. In fact, normally I'd probably skim it and tell myself that the context would help me understand it. But the context didn't. And anything that came afterwords didn't really help to explain what the data meant. (Would put in quote but it takes up a full 1/2 page).

The second part of BUSA forces the idea that midwives are generally (not always, there was some counter-evidence) better birth-helpers due to emotional as well as health factors. I feel as though giving birth with a midwife would in fact be the best experience for giving birth. It seems much more emotional and not as sterile as hospital birth. Through my reading I've created a sort of mindset that doctors don't care about the patient, they simply care about the money, and how to make it fast.

HW 38 - Insights from book - part 1

Born In The USA

Marsden Wagner, M.D., M.S.

In Born In The USA, there are 9 chapters, each providing a new argument/reasoning behind the thesis. The first four chapters focus on the nightmarish aspects of maternity. I haven't read past chapter four, but from looking at the table of contents, it will most likely be another nightmarish chapter, but will also provide alternatives to the current system.

The major question the book is trying to answer is somewhere along the lines of "what is bad in the current US maternity system, and what can be done to change these things". So far, from what I've learned, I think a lot of what is wrong with the system are the doctors. They are so scared of a malpractice lawsuit that cesarean section is becoming the "easy way out". 

Chapter one is on the current state of maternity care, the second provides insight into the close-knit world of doctors, and the third is about surgery being incorporated into birth. The general thesis is most likely that the current maternity system is so heavily based around the hospital experience that people are losing sight into the process of giving birth.

One aspect of birth that deserves public recognition is that obstetrician aren't present during labor, but they rush in at the last moment, to help bring the baby out. They'll make money no matter what, but it shows that there is an impersonal connection between a pregnant woman and her doctor. 

Something else that disgusted me was that when a doctor is faced with a malpractice lawsuit, most doctors will not testify against them because it could mean losing referrals from other doctors, therefore losing money. 

Another thing that really riles up the author of this book, Marsden Wagner, is Cytotec. Cytotec is a drug that can be used to induce labor, but it's use has resulted in death. 

One idea that is heavily pounded into the readers' heads is that surgeons are not scientists. Surgeons are trained to cut, remove, replace, etc. and can be more useful in situations not involving birth, which generally hasn't involved scalpels, scissors, and forceps.

The evidence in this book pulls from many sources; the writer's personal experience with medical training and practice, charts, statistics and real-life stories/examples. The entire book is basically composed using mainly evidence, mainly through stories and a a few tables thrown in here and there. I think that while some of the points that are being made in this book are interesting, a lot of it is repeated in different forms of evidence... not that it's bad to back up arguments with evidence, but sometimes the reader can get sick of hearing the same idea said over and over again but in different ways. 
A lot of the numerical evidence seems reliable because it is cited either in text or in the index. I've flipped through the index, which is actually a little helpful in telling the reader what is generally found in each source. 

HW 37 Comments on Birth & Pregnancy Stories

Comments I made:
Lucas:

I really enjoyed reading this post. Overall you did a great job. But I think you did best at keeping the stories informative yet short (a problem I faced in writing my assignment).

One of the only things I could think of changing would be the placement of this section, "Women who have miscarriages sometimes blame themselves for the event, wondering if every little event was the one that caused it. It can be psychologically devastating, and is hard to deal with without therapy. This link was somewhat informative on the topic". The reason for this is because that paragraph was a narrative, not research or response. I would have started off the next paragraph with a bit of rephrasing like, "Through research on (link here), I discovered that women who have miscarriages sometimes blame themselves for the event, wondering if every little event was the one that caused it. It can be psychologically devastating, and is hard to deal with without therapy".

Otherwise, good job!

P.S. I appreciate your sophisticated yet easy to read writing style.  

John:
Hey John,

I think that the first topic you'd like to explore further is a really interesting one (what are the reasons for marriage and birth to be so interconnected in our society?). Another thing that I liked was that in your response paragraph, you talked about society and then compared society's standards back to Tom and Jackie.

One thing I'd suggest is proofreading your work. There were a few minor grammar mistakes that you would have noticed i you'd combed through your work. Another benefit from proofreading is that you could probably see room for expansion and, by doing so, add some more "beauty" to your work.

Good Job! 

Comments on my Blog:
John:
Elizabeth!
Your interviews were interesting and you presented each one with something of a narrative arc, different from mine which is something i think i could work on. the details were the most nice spice, like how the doctor made threats and the nurse was incompetant. the one that struck me the most was the first interviewee only got offered a seat twice on the train in those 9 months, maybe my social obligations are more different than i thought than of others. im curious to know what neighborhood she would get off and on. another thing i also liked was how i could also very easily follow your thought process which almost made me feel im not alone at night looking at a computer reading someones blog. thanks for the stories,

John 

Lucas: 
Elizabeth,
Your interviews and their resulting analysis were very interesting to read; I found the part in which the doctor threatened your mother with a C-section particularly so, I wonder if doctors can legally perform such an operation under the given conditions (i.e. lack of consent). What do you think caused the 'superstitions' your grandmother had in relation to not buying baby items out of fear of essentially 'jinxing it'? Could it be a personal belief, or perhaps a cultural one?

I also kind of want to know the answer to the beer = milk question, it sounds worthy of investigation...

Nice post!

-Lucas  

Sara B (10th Grader @ different school):
Elizabeth -
I enjoyed very much reading what you wrote! It was interesting to read about different perspectives on pregnancy and birth stories, especially because the topic is so intimate and personal. I particularly was struck by when the first interviewee said she was only offered a seat on the subway twice throughout her whole pregnancy, despite riding it twice a day. You phrased it as this happened for 9 months, but women don't even start showing until later on in the pregnancy. Also, people can't always tell when someone's pregnant especially with coats on. Still, you'd think someone would notice, but maybe I just don't like the idea that our society is that inconsiderate. In terms of my own life, this post made me think about how I should find out about my own mother and grandmother's birth experience. You seem to have uncovered some funny details too, (like the myth beer = milk) and gained a better understanding of what it means to be pregnant. And of course it's interesting to think about what it means about society from way we treat pregnant people. Overall, I'm glad I read this post and heard all these interesting stories!

Sara B. :) 

 
Dad:
My reaction to your interviews, one of which was with me, is that I also found your grandmother’s comments most interesting. The most fascinating line was her comment about how drinking beer produces more breast milk. I had to laugh. I had never ever heard that before.

Given that your grandmother came from a different generation, it was interesting to see her perspective on pregnancy versus my point of view. I understood the superstitious aspect. I was surprised to learn that none of the pregnancies were planned. One thing that holds true even today is that people always want to touch the belly. To me it’s an invasion of one’s personal space. But people just seem to think it’s an accepted norm, as if they don’t even have to ask.

You indicate that it surprised you that I took such an interest in children, a notion I would guess that is normally associated with women. I think that comes from my father, who participated quite a lot in raising me, probably more than other fathers in the neighborhood. It was something I realized after I was well out of my teens; how lucky I had both a mother as well as a father who took an interest in my well being. I came to appreciate the experience I had with them. Some of my friends growing up were not as fortunate, coming from single parent homes and/or abusive environments. My parents set an example for me to follow. How well I carry on in the same tradition remains to be seen. As the saying goes, only time will tell.