The Change in Obstetric Care in the United States :: Evolution Childbirth America

Imagine for a moment a small room with pale green walls, and smelling of latex and disinfectant. The sharp light of fluorescent bulbs gives the space a harsh unnatural glow. A woman is lying on a metal bed: covered by a flimsy sheet, legs uncomfortably splayed open, feet in stirrups. A doctor and an entourage of residents enter the room in white coats. The doctor snaps on a pair of latex gloves, looks and feels between the woman’s legs, announces everything is moving "right on schedule," and hurries out the door, on to another patient. The woman is left wondering, among other things, what "on schedule" means. It doesn’t sound very pleasant, but for years this was what it was like to give birth in an American hospital. And, for many women, it is still true today. Just add to the situation a fetal monitor to measure the baby’s heart rate, an intravenous drip into the mother’s arm, an ultrasound machine, a catheter to collect the mother’s urine, surgical instruments for performing an episiotomy before delivery (an incision made to widen the vaginal opening), and various other technological devices, "just in case." While they can be helpful in certain situations, such as high-risk births, these things can impede the natural process of labor. In this paper, I will examine three distinct stages of obstetric care in the United States. By looking at the stages, you can see the evolution of childbirth in our country as it developed from a female- to a male-dominated field, and how it is now beginning to break away from some of the traditional medical methods that have been used for over 50 years. However, this break is not complete. Even with today’s woman having more power than ever in her decision making, we as Americans still can’t seem to get away from the technology used in childbirth, even though much of it is unnecessary and can sometimes even be detrimental. For the past 100 years, our view of pregnancy and childbirth has evolved into seeing it as a condition or sickness that needs to be controlled and treated by modern medicine. The first stage of OB care took place before and during the 19th century. In that time, obstetrics was a field dominated by women, almost entirely midwives. Almost all physicians were male, but for the most part, obstetrics was not studied in medical school.