Classic Sesame Street - Come Into the Garden

An unassisted childbirth

There are three choices I wanted to research in this paper - unassisted birth, home birth and hospital birth. The first interview I hope to conduct is with Gloria Lemay, a famous advocate for unassisted child birth on the West Coast of Canada. There are strong opinions about Gloria Lemay and her practise. I find her community fascinating. I can hardly wait to talk to her and I hope she's willing to talk to me.

This youtube clip is of an unassisted birth by Laura Shanley, another unassisted birth advocate in the United States.

I have written and rewritten my thoughts on this clip. I keep erasing them because I don't want to colour anyone else's opinion. However, I can't forget that even my choosing of this clip compared to the other unassisted child birth clips on youtube is even a comment on my thoughts.

This woman delivers her own baby.
We only see the very end of her labour.
She is calm and her surroundings are just as serene.
After her labour a young child comes running to greet her and the baby.
Is this the ideal birth?

What are your thoughts?

The Beginning

This is the start of a research project for a course at the University of Victoria, Geography 445: Social Planning and Community Development. My name is Ada Saab and I thought I would start my first post with a description of what I hope to accomplish here and what I had submitted as my research outline:

Pregnancy and childbirth, one of the most natural events in our evolution, has become a highly political and isolating experience for many women. What was once a communal and mainly female event has become a highly regulated and increasingly allopathic performance. This website aims to explore the community development and social planning that is provided to prepare parents before and during the birth of their child. The issues will concentrate within in the city of Victoria, BC, Canada while making comparisons both nationally and internationally. Specific topics such as the resurgence of unassisted child birth, home birth versus hospital birth, community based education and preparation and the availability of choice will be explored.

Throughout all of the topics that arise, one common theme is the potential for unlimited emotional support and the opportunity for first hand knowledge exchange. However, what is also common in such a shared experience is the ability to alienate and separate certain communities from others causing isolation and a break-down of society in a world where support is most needed.

What I hope is that by doing this through a website I will be able to instigate discussion about a subject not normally discussed academically. I want to show what is presented in academic circles regarding child birth in society and include talk among parents who have chosen a variety of birth methods. By presenting this information in a blog format, with each post concentrating on a certain aspects of childbirth and/or preparation, the comment discussion can be included in my research.

Here we go!