Sunday, September 14, 2008

Born in Brazil

Tonight I saw "Born in Brazil," a documentary about the soaring c-section rate in that country. It became very clear to me how much class has affected the rates there in a couple ways. First, poor women give birth in nasty public hospitals where they labor alone. Of course, they all aspire to the private hospitals, where doctors like to perform c-sections because they can charge for them. Another wrinkle: Abortion is illegal there, and poor women have the worst access to birth control, but a woman can get a tubal ligation when she is having a section. Sigh.

The screening was part of a panel I was on at Wheaton College. I was joined by Megan McCullough, an anthropology professor there, who had studied aboriginal women in Queensland, Australia, who at 39 weeks, would get flown far away to give birth, again removed from family. They, too, have very high c-section rates.

8 comments:

Emma Someone said...

I'd be interested to hear more about the Qld statistics and stories.

Unknown said...

Shutup. You went to Wheaton College? So did I, and I like your blog. Crazy.

pinky said...

It will be interesting to see their Maternal Mortality and morbidity stats in the future from Brazil.

I had a lady deliver in my hosital from Brazil. All natural. She seemed to enjoy the experience. Funny that.

One of my Nicu Doctors said something that hit me the other day. "labor is good for babies"......Maybe I will make up T-shirts......

Tina Cassidy said...

Pinky, it is true, labor is good for babies, and for mom too, I think. And their bond.

Holly, I went to Wheaton for a talk...for a couple hours. Not four years!;)

Tina Cassidy said...

Pinky, it is true, labor is good for babies, and for mom too, I think. And their bond.

Holly, I went to Wheaton for a talk...for a couple hours. Not four years!;)

Anonymous said...

I was looking for information regarding Wow Gold and searched in Google.Some how I landed in your Blog. And found interesting. Yours is a nice Blog with very good content!

sasha said...

here i want to share about tubal reversalis a surgical procedure that restores fertility to women after a tubal ligation

Buy WoW Account said...

Nice post