Blog Assignment Week 1 EDUC-6160

Write about a personal birthing experience. It can be your own birth, your child's birth, or one you took part in. What do you remember about the event? Why did you choose this example? What are your thoughts regarding birth and its impact on child development?

The birthing experience I chose is when I had my daughter. I remember most of this because I was having my second C-Section and was able to be awake for everything. When I had my son I was put under because it turned out he was too big for a natural birth and I was a small framed person and this is why I chose his sister’s birth. I was able to pick the date I wanted to have her (so I could spend Christmas with my son) and then move on to recuperating. I went in the night before to get ready and then in the morning everything just went fairly quick. They gave me the epidural and then after about 10-15 minutes they checked to see if I could feel anything and when I couldn’t they started the C-section. What I remember from the prep before having her is the doctors and nurses talking to me as they did each step so I knew what was happening the whole time. I do remember the pressure from when they were taking my daughter from my body and the joy and excitement when I was able to see and hold her for the first time. I chose this one because it is the one that I was awake for and really remember. My thoughts on birth and the impact on child development are that we really do need to have some idea about child development when thinking about having children.

Choose a region of the world or a country, other than the U.S., and find out how births happen there. Write about what you learned, and the differences and similarities with your experience (in the personal example you provided). What additional insights, if any, about the impact of the birthing experience on development, did you gain from this comparison?

I chose Turkey for this half of my blog assignment, in Turkey most births where supervised by midwives as recently as 20 years ago because there was a shortage of doctors. However, now most do use doctors and many Turkish women elect to have c-sections done (a rate of 75%) according to Kybele, a U.S. nonprofit group that is for safe childbirth practices in developing countries. A main reason for this is not enough people trained in obstetric anesthesia. By using general anesthesia Turkey has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in Europe. Local customs for Turkey are that all celebrations are done after the baby is born, plus, mother and baby stay home for the first twenty day after birth. Friends come by and drink a special beverage called lohusa serbeti. After the twenty days the mother and baby can make return visits to friends. The baby also gets flour rubbed on their eyebrows and hairline which is supposed to grant a long life.

References:

Berger, K. S. (2009). The developing person through childhood (5th ed.). New York, NY: Worth Publishers.

Birth Customs Around the World: http://www.parents.com/pregnancy/giving-birth/vaginal/birth-customs-around-the-world/