The Global Epidemic of Cesarean Surgery and the Feminist Movement :: Essays Papers

The Global Epidemic of Cesarean Surgery and the Feminist Movement Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland writes in a 2002 paper she presented to the XVIII European Congress of Perinatal Medicine, There is an ongoing epidemic of cesarean sections in Asia and Latin America. This worldwide fad of obstetrical interventions may have a skillful negative health impact on women. In contrast, the low rates observed in Africa reflect a lack of resources more than a consensus of providers. The moneymaking(prenominal) and litigation pressures that drive this epidemic need to be countered. Her medical metaphor notwithstanding, this is a serious wake-up call for women to be asking the question, What is going on that this phenomenon of major surgery on women is happening on such a wide scale? We are here faced with the polar opposite extremes in nascence. Seemingly, if a woman has too little prenatal care and education regarding birthing (as in Africa) she may not have the access to a Cesarean when she sincerely needs it and at the other reverse of the spectrum if a woman has enveloped herself in a system that relies too heavily on birthing technologies she may end up with an unnecessary Cesarean surgery. Other paradigms exist for birthing such as in Holland where every woman is provided with a midwife for her birth, and Brazil where the caesarean section rate tops 80 percent. Yet another microcosmic pocket of birth in the U.S. shows us that C-section rates can be achieved at below 2%. Such are the ranges of Cesarean birthing experiences and corresponding womens movements that will be explored alongside the politics of birth in this Birthquake query project.Literary Review In doing this project the literature drawn from is largely non-scholarly for the reason that I am prevailing upon the reader to think outside the box seat about birth. Most of the scholarly research that is available was written by doctors or nurses/nurse midwives wh o were trained in the medical model of birth. Since element of my put in is that the high rate of Cesarean sections is caused in part by viewing birth as a medical and therefore pathological event, and in part for its emergence as a capitalistic industry, it was then necessary to find literature written by people who have expertise in birthing though not from the traditional obstetrical/medical school approach.